Seven autograph letters of Stylianos Theocharides to Simos Menardos.

Stylianos Theocharides was a minor Cypriot poet. His father published his poems posthumously in 1925. Theocharides is particularly known as having been the first Cypriot to correspond with Cavafy. His letters to Simos Menardos (1876-1933) discuss for the most part Cypriot place names and archaeological sites, both ancient and Byzantine, in his district. He also passes strictures on Palma di Cesnola and Ohnefalsch-Richter concerning the devastation caused by their excavations.

Menardos, whose mother was a Cypriot, maintained close relations with Cyprus. Although born in Mitylene, where his Greek father was consul, he was brought up in Limassol. He was an important figure in the history of Greek and Cypriot culture and education. He was headmaster of the Greek School of Larnaca, 1896-1898, after which he left to practise law. In 1907 he was appointed inspector of education in Cyprus. From 1908 Menardos gave occasional lectures at Oxford, and in 1911 he became a professor at the University of Athens, a position he retained until his death in 1933. In 1926 he was elected to membership of the Academy of Athens. In 1919 he gave occasional lectures in Modern Greek Poetry at Cambridge and at King’s College, London. He was particularly interested in, and produced studies on the Cypriot dialect and on Cypriot place names.