The Chart of Greece by Rigas is undoubtedly the most well-known and almost the only commented Greek map of Greece. Its sudden appearance after centuries of Greek cartographic silence, its monumental dimensions and its pictorial richness, the fact that it is associated with Rigas's patriotic and revolutionary actions, the martyr's death of the cartographer a few months after the publication was completed, as well as the dense references to the work in the context of the politics of the Great Idea, all contributed to the Chart being enveloped in emblematic national glory and dense ideological haze.

Nevertheless, until the mid-20th century, Rigas's cartographic work had not been the subject of systematic study, despite various references to it by researchers of Rigas's life, work, and actions, such as Emile Legrand, Apostolos Daskalakis, Leandros Vranousis, and many others.

The foundations of an interpretive approach to Rigas's cartographic work, documented in archival research, as well as in the broader cartographic and educational environment in which Rigas operated and from which he drew methodology, models, and sources, were established only in 1960 by Georgios Lios. This was followed by other publications, mostly circumstantial, which intensified with the celebrations of the two-hundredth anniversary of Rigas's death (1998), with interventions at numerous local, national, and international conferences that took place on this occasion.

In this commemorative context, the publication of the copy of the Chart from the Gennaio Library was carried out by Dimitris Karabropoulos, a publication that is accompanied by uneven historical documentation, as well as an analytical indexing of the toponyms and a critical edition of the illustrated coins included in the Chart. The same researcher proceeded to publish the maps of Wallachia and Moldavia with an analytical indexing of the toponyms of the two maps.

These editions lack the necessary scientific and critical adequacy and, for this reason, do not fill the gap of the critical edition of Rigas's Collected Works, published by the Hellenic Parliament, which does not include Rigas's maps.

The new edition allows us to approach with the necessary sobriety the issue of the sources and content of Rigas's cartographic work. Several of the newer studies around Rigas's cartographic work insist on the sterile and meticulous search for its models. The search for authorship, K. Th. Dimaras used to say, is a crooked and dangerous road.

Especially in the case of map publishing, which has been a profitable and intense commercial publishing activity since the 16th century, proposing printed maps based on common cartographic models, which each era considers the most valid and accurate. Cartographic models are renewed at a much slower pace than that of publishing production, and the continuous, systematic use of them, even without mentioning their original creators, was a widespread and recognized practice in map production.

Following this established publishing practice, Rigas referred to those cartographic models that best covered his needs, proposing a cartographic work that is original in several respects (by the standards of the time), as he did not limit himself to a simple copy or translation of the selected models, but proceeded to a new synthesis, processing the raw material they provided him, both the geographical data and the wealth of toponyms. Indeed, Rigas made significant additions of geographical areas not included in his models, as well as identifications of ancient toponyms with their modern equivalents.