Hydra (1824 – 1827)

Hydra was the seat of the Koundouriotis family-owners, and thus became the center of the Revolution’s insular political and military forces. The initial idea and funds to establish the Hydra printing house came from Iakovos Tombazis and his family. An unidentified Swiss expatriate watchmaker, oversaw the technical aspects of the venture that was ran by the Italian expatriate Giuseppe Chiappe until 1827. The first issues of the newspaper The Friend of the Law (Ο Φίλος του Νόμου), edited by Chiappe, were printed at the Hydra house in 1824. First published on 10 March 1824, the newspaper soon became the official gazette of the Greek Administration. The French Ambroise Firmin Didot donated a printing press to Hydra in 1824. The printers associated with this printing house were Konstantinos Tombras (1824-1825), Nikolaos Varotsis (1826), Κonstantinos Demidis (1826-1827), Angelis Alchybaris (1827), and Pantelis K. Pantelis (1827). The house published thirteen books and pamphlets with legal, political, educational, and literary texts, as well as forty-three broadsides with proclamations, laws, and decrees.