Add. Grand Master

(Odessa 1821 – Athens 1873)

Nephew of Alex. Mavrokordatos. His family had fled because of the persecution suffered by the Greeks with the beginning of the liberation struggle in Odessa (1821). Young man left for Greece, to be educated in a Greek way ! He studied law then in Paris and got a doctorate. As a law scholar he became a Professor and taught at the University of Athens ”Encyclopedia of Law”, 1847. He taught for three years Commercial Law and French Literature at the Evangelical School of Smyrna. He served as a judge from 1850 to 1856 and was a member of the drafting committee of the Civil Code. He departed for Livorno, Italy, where he remained for many years. He became a proxy for the Greeks of Livorno at the Second National Assembly of Athens in 1863. As a politician he became Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1863 and Minister of Education in 1872. He was elected first Prefect of Corfu in 1865-66. In 1866 he was appointed by the General Assembly of the Republic of Greece. In 1866 he was elected by the General Assembly of the Cretans to take over the leadership of the struggle, but the intervention of the Great Powers thwarted his going to the island. He wrote legal, treatises and literary works. He donated his large library to the Municipality of Athens. He held the position of Proc. He gave his great library to the city of Athens.