SINGOPOULO, ALEKOS / SINGOPOULO, RICA FONDS

6 files (284 items)

The Alekos and Rica Singopoulo fonds as well as the Alexandrini Techni archive were acquired as a single entity by the Onassis Foundation in 2012 along with the C. P. Cavafy fonds.

During the arrangement of the Cavafy fonds, the files of the Alekos and Rica Singopoulo fonds, part of which forms the Alexandrini Techni archive, were separated, hence forming a discrete archival unit.

The Alekos and Rica Singopoulo fonds was acquired by the Onassis Foundation in 2012.

The fonds includes the archival remnants of Alekos Singopoulo, heir of C. P. Cavafy, and of his wife, Rica Singopoulo, first editor of the Cavafy archive (from 1926 to 1939).
More specifically, the files of the fonds include texts by Alekos and Rica Singopoulo that shed light on Cavafy’s personality and poetic work, the correspondence between the Singopoulos and the poet as well as with others, and Singopoulo’s correspondence with a British publisher (The Hogarth Press) relating to the first collective publication of Cavafy’s work in English. It also includes items related to other activities of the Singopoulos as well as personal documents. The fonds is complemented by a collection of photographs in the possession of Alekos and Rica Singopoulo as well as by a file of sketches (or reproductions of sketches) depicting Cavafy, originally in the possession of Alekos Singopoulo.

Lastly, the Alexandrini Techni archive consists almost exclusively of manuscripts (prose works and poems) that had been sent to the journal for publication, of letters of authors and scholars addressed to the editors of the journal and of handwritten lists with the names of authors and publishers in Athens.

The entire fonds has been retained.

Future acquisitions may occur.

Α. Archival documentation

A detailed index on item level has been compiled. Items have been arranged in thematic files and sub-files, the contents of which have been placed in chronological order. The files have been numbered uniformly in an ascending order and have been included in series on the basis of thematic criteria.

Taking into account that the fonds has been extensively used as a source of publications and in order to facilitate researchers, the “Former Reference Code” field provides a link between the new documentation and the indications of the G. P. Savvidis historical catalogue.

More specifically, the classification scheme of the fonds is structured as follows:

SINGOPOULO ALEKOS/ SINGOPOULO RICA FONDS
Series Ι: PERSONAL PAPERS
file: Texts and other documents by Alekos and Rica Singopoulo regarding C. P. Cavafy
file: Correspondence of Alekos and Rica Singopoulo
sub-file: Incoming correspondence by C. P. Cavafy
sub-file: General correspondence of Alekos and Rica Singopoulo
sub-file: Correspondence of Alekos Singopoulo with The Hogarth Press publishing house
file: Miscellanea
sub-file: Other activities
sub-file: Personal documents of Alekos and Rica Singopoulo
file: Photographic archive
file: Sketches

Series II: ALEXANDRINI TECHNI ARCHIVE
file: Alexandrini Techni journal
sub-file: Prose works and poems
sub-file: Letters
sub-file: Lists

B. Literary documentation

The literary scholars complemented the description of the Alekos and Rica Singopoulo fonds on item level by adding entries in three fields [Related works by C. P. Cavafy, Additional comments, Access points (complementing the archival annotation)].

The work carried out by the literary scholars covered the most significant part of the archival material, with the exception of photographs and sketches or reproductions of sketches depicting Cavafy. In relation to the remaining material (texts by Alekos and Rica Singopoulo, correspondence of the couple with C. P. Cavafy and other persons, personal documents and items relating to other activities, the Alexandrini Techni archive), the literary documentation group worked in a systematic manner, much in the same manner it worked in the case of the Cavafy fonds.

The field entitled “Related works by C. P. Cavafy” was used to correlate individual items with related works of C. P. Cavafy and to note, in each case, the title of the related work and the number of the corresponding entry in D. Daskalopoulos’s Vivliografia C. P. Cavafy (1886-2000) (Centre for the Greek Language, Thessaloniki, 2003). The “>” symbol is placed between the title and the entry number, always followed by the entry number of the Vivliographia.

The “Additional comments” field includes supplementary literary information related to the text of the item. The literary scholars used secondary sources, with the express purpose of matching individual items or for cross-checking the archival information. The Alexandrini Techni archive is an example of extensive use of secondary sources. The texts in the archive have been located in the digitised volumes of the Alexandrini Techni journal (“Kosmopolis” digital collection) and have been recorded together with their exact publication data.
Finally, the “Access points” field includes key terms which enable item searches by users.

The digital reproduction of the fonds (including description metadata) has been posted in its entirety on the website of the Onassis Foundation and is made available on the basis of the reproduction terms. Access to the original documents is permitted only in special cases, following submission of a request for this purpose, so as to ensure the protection and preservation of the physical integrity of the original archival material.

The Onassis Foundation Cavafy Archive, in its entirety, is made available subject to the Creative Commons Attribution – Share alike license (CC BY-SA 4.0), international, v. 4.0 or later. References to the Cavafy Archive should be made as follows: © 2016-2018 Cavafy Archive, Onassis Foundation. In case that a work included in the Cavafy Archive is the property of a third person, the beneficiary of the intellectual property rights shall be specified, together with the license subject to which that work is made available. Requests for additional rights or licenses, other than the ones permitted by the CC license, should be emailed to the Cavafy Archive (cavafyarchive@onassis.org).

Greek; some documents in French and English.

The fonds comprises manuscripts (prose works and poems), letters, handwritten lists, prints, typewritten texts, photographs and sketches. The writing medium is plain paper (ruled or not) and paperboard. Ink or pencil has been used. Some of the watermarks identified include: Abondance, Navarre and Typewriting Parchment, Aero Bank J.R.F, Spartan Bond, Conqueror London and Aero Bank J.R.F., Oceana Ledger., Imperial Air Mail., Extra Strong.

The fonds is preserved in fairly good state. There are traces of oxidation from the use of paperclips, limited tear and wear (tears, holes). Some documents bear traces of discolouration. During the classification process, the fonds was subjected to preventive preservation: metal paperclips were removed and replaced by special ones that have no impact on the archival material. Previously folded items are now kept open when possible; protective paper has been also used.

The physical condition of all items has been recorded in the relevant description field.

A detailed index of the fonds has been compiled on item level.

The Alekos and Rica Singopoulo fonds and the items relating to the Alexandrini Techni archive, as recorded in the G. P. Saviddis Historical Catalogue, had not been microphotographed in 1963. On the contrary, this material was digitised in its entirety by the Onassis Foundation in 2017.

Archival sources related to the Archive of Alekos and Rica Singopoulo are kept at:

Α. ONASSIS FOUNDATION, CAVAFY ARCHIVE

Cavafy, C. P. (fonds)

Β. THE HELLENIC LITERARY AND HISTORICAL ARCHIVE OF THE CULTURAL FOUNDATION OF THE NATIONAL BANK OF GREECE (ELIA/MIET)

Singopoulo, Alekos and Rica (fonds)

The description and classification of the fonds was implemented by Nikos Koutsoumpos and Alexia Papakosta.

The literary documentation of the fonds was implemented by Alexandros Katsigiannis and Sofia Zisimopoulou.

The description was implemented according to the International Standard Archival Description (General) – second edition, International Council on Archives, Ottawa, 2000. For Greece: Hellenic Society of Greek Archivists (EAE/SGA), April 2002. Translation: Christina Varda, Amalia Pappa, Zisimos Ch. Sinodinos. Editors: Christina Varda, Zisimos Ch. Sinodinos, Athens, 2002.

November 2017 – September 2018