The foreigners who traveled to Greece during the medieval and modern times and left written impressions number in the thousands. Most of these texts have been highlighted and recorded by researchers. However, the material has not yet been exhausted.

Books and manuscripts are continuously being discovered in libraries and private collections or in rare foreign publications. The gathering and utilization of the travel material is a difficult task. Diaries of important travelers are not present in Greek libraries and must be sought in European capitals.

All these texts are national treasures, a sacred heritage of the Nation, illuminating both known and unknown aspects of our historical past. They reveal the continuous flow of the history of Hellenism and the deeply rooted national consciousness through the centuries of great trials of servitude.

But this treasure of written monuments remains untapped for historical research. It is linguistically inaccessible and scattered throughout Europe. It is a national obligation or quest to gather all the texts of travelers, geographers, and all kinds of voyagers that refer to the Greek territory.

All excerpts pertaining to our land - both significant and trivial - from the early Christian times to the twentieth century must be translated and published in order to be made available for scientific research and to become the property of the Greek people. (from the preface of volume A1)