In 1862 the Brotherhood of the Muses founded the General Provincial Library, which according to the book of introduction,which is preserved to our days, numbers about 1.000 items. The General Provincial Library acted as a lending library and served the province of Mithymna, the geographical boundaries of which covered about half of the island of Lesvos.
The Historical Public Library of Mithymna Argyris Eftaliotis is the continuation of the General Provincial Library of the Brotherhood of the Muses, the items of which constitute the Old Collection of today’s Library.
The Old Collection includes Books and Magazines which are important old editions such as ancient Greek authors by Leipzig publications. The content of the Books varies including books of history, religion, geography, medicine, mathematics, physics, chemistry, etc as well as complete series of older periodicals mainly from Lesvos and Asia Minor. The books date at least from 1670 and have been printed in famous printing houses such as : the Patriarchate of Constantinople, of Bucharest, Nikolaou Glyki of Venice, Ioanni Sneirerou of Vienna, Ioannas Schraible of Vienna, I.M.(Holy Monaster) Evertatou in Paris, of Odessa, of the Holy Synod Printing House of Moscow, Printing House of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem, The Press of Avgi in Athens, the Press of S.K. Vlastos in Athens, etc. All items of the Collection bear the seal of the Brotherhood of the Muses as defined in Article 4 of its Rules of Procedure .
The items of the Old Collection are kept in a special area of the Library and we hope for their full digitization. They are only available for study in the Library’s reading room.
