One of the most significant works ever written about Greece: "The country had remained ungoverned and had fallen into a miserable economic state. There were neither schools, nor courts, nor an army that obeyed anyone, nor a navy. The people, divided into parties, were fed solely by hatred for their neighbors, and the entire country was rapidly heading towards complete disintegration. Thus, as soon as we disembarked, we issued a proclamation in which we asked the Greek people, first and foremost, to grant us their trust."

This is what the distinguished Bavarian lawyer Georg Ludwig von Maurer wrote, among other things, in perhaps the most important work published at that time about Greece, which was released after his return to Germany in 1835, after Maurer had served for two years as a member of the three-member regency that took over the administration of the country until Otto's coming of age.

This monumental work was largely ignored in Greece and remained untranslated into our language for over a century. The first Greek translation was published in 1943, and in 1976 a new translation was published under the editorial supervision of Tasos Vournas. This 1976 edition largely serves as the basis for the present two-volume edition, published by Oxy Publications with the generous support of the Folloe Foundation.

The edition is prefaced with a note by Ms. Maria Efthymiou, historian, while the afterword belongs to historian, Dr. of Mediterranean and Eastern Studies and professor at the National School of Public Administration, Mr. Stefanos Kavallierakis. The rights to the translation belong to the Association of Editors of Daily Newspapers of Athens (ESHEA) and the photographs were used with the kind permission of the National Gallery.

About the author: Georg Ludwig von Maurer (1790-1872), a distinguished Bavarian lawyer and high advisor to the King of Bavaria Louis, came to Greece in January 1833 as a member of the three-member regency that took over the administration of the country until Otto reached maturity. The areas he personally supervised and left his mark on were justice and education, as well as the independence of the Greek Church.