Kapodistrias wrote his official as well as his unofficial letters in French. When he died, his brothers, Viaros and Augustinos Kapodistrias, published the entirety of his correspondence during his term in a four-volume work in Geneva.
This work came into my hands, and it was natural, given my interest in everything Greek, that it piqued my curiosity. At first, I was taken aback to see the correspondence of the first governor of Greece written in French. Then, I accepted the fact that French was the official language at that time, and Kapodistrias, having lived so many years abroad and holding such an important position in the Tsar's court, preferred to express himself in the medium he was accustomed to, as it was not easy for him to change his mode of communication overnight.
The correspondence of the Governor was such a shocking surprise to me that it took me a considerable amount of time to realize that things were not at all as I had formed them in my mind until then. Through the letters, another Ioannis Kapodistrias emerged, in which the politician overshadowed anything else that might have existed.
