This edition is part of the events organized by the Hellenic Parliament to honor the bicentennial anniversary of the martyrdom of Rigas Feraios-Velestinlis and the birth of our national poet Dionysios Solomos.

In this book, Professor Paschalis Kitromilidis of the University of Athens attempts to present to the Greek people, and especially to our youth, the actions and intellectual work of Rigas, the first martyr of the Greek uprising, as well as the pioneering sower of the ideas of radical constitutionalism, isopoliteia, democratic patriotism, social equality, and cooperation among nations. This presentation is made on a comparative basis and in relation to the dynamics developed in the rest of Europe by the intellectual movement of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. [...]

(Apostolos Chr. Kaklamanis, from the book's preface)