Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο
- Thread starter larshgf
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Ioannis Kapodistrias (1776-1831) was the first governor of Greece and a visionary diplomat who (also) actively supported the Greek War of Independence (I'll stop here -even though these words don't do him justice- so as not to digress from the topic). He suggested that a university be founded in Athens. Unfortunately, he was assassinated and didn't live to see it. It was founded in 1837.
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Given the Italian origin of the name, I'd spell it Capodistrias.
That renders the original geographic meaning ('Cape of Istria', where Istria is a region) exactly, but is now an obsolete spelling.
It's interesting to compare the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens with:
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλονίκης)
I don't know why the university authorities in Athens decided to make Capodistrias' name unrecognisable in English or why they used the adjectival form, which seems very odd in English. We have The Courtauld Institute, and Birkbeck College, University of London, both named after their founders.
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλονίκης)
I don't know why the university authorities in Athens decided to make Capodistrias' name unrecognisable in English or why they used the adjectival form, which seems very odd in English. We have The Courtauld Institute, and Birkbeck College, University of London, both named after their founders.
Ioannis Antonios Komis Kapodistrias seems to be simply the romanized version of the Greek name.
But, Velisarius, what seems very odd in English may seem perfectly normal in Greek or in other languages and vice versa. I guess you agree.
As can be read both in the Greek Βικιπαίδεια and Wikipedia, the University of Athens was founded [2nd decree] and started its operation in 1837, under the name Ὀθώνειον Πανεπιστήμιον (Othonian University): in this case the adjectival form of the King’s name (Ὀθώνειον<Ὄθων<Otto) was used for the University’s name. Later on, it was renamed to Ἐθνικόν (< Έθνος= Nation) Πανεπιστήμιον (National University) in 1862, following events that forced King Otto to leave the country. In 1911, the University, for reasons relating to a strict condition of a very generous bequest, was formally separated into two independent entities, the one taking the name “Καποδιστριακόν Πανεπιστήμιον” (the humanities departments) and the other retaining the name “Ἐθνικόν Πανεπιστήμιον” (the science departments). In 1932, the two separate legal entities were merged into the "National and Kapodistrian University of Athens." As we can see, throughout its history the university has been named with adjectives (Ὀθώνειον[1837], Ἐθνικόν [1862], Καποδιστριακόν [1911] / Ἐθνικόν [1911], Ἐθνικόν και Καποδιστριακόν [1932]) before the noun Πανεπιστήμιον, a structure perfectly normal. And it wasn’t at all a preoccupation of the university authorities to make Kapodistrias’s name recognisable in English, especially at that time when the Greek State (and even the upper class society) was under a rather strong French cultural influence.
Please note that in Greek it reads: Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλονίκης (where Αριστοτέλειο is an adjective coming from the name Αριστοτέλης) and not Πανεπιστήμιο Αριστοτέλους, while in English it is often rendered as Aristotelian (adj.) University of Thessaloniki.
This is correct, if you write in a language using C with the sound of "K". We shouldn’t forget that in Greek, as long as there is no C letter, it couldn’t be rendered with another consonant but K(apodistrias). Besides, K is clearly seen in Kapodistrias's own signature.
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Note also Εθνικό Μετσόβιο Πολυτεχνείο, named after its founders' place of origin, the town of Metsovo.
It is standard practice in Greek to derive adjectives from proper nouns and use them in naming institutions, just as in English one speaks of the Lucasian professorship or of the Bodleian Library.
It is standard practice in Greek to derive adjectives from proper nouns and use them in naming institutions, just as in English one speaks of the Lucasian professorship or of the Bodleian Library.