Biography of Benjamin Lesvios
Benjamin Lesvios (1759/1762-1824) was a Greek scientist and philosopher born in Megalochorion, on the Greek island of Lesvos. After completing his schooling in Greece, he continued his education at the University of Pisa, a common destination of many Greek students, at the University of Florence and at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. He worked next to the famous chemist and philosopher A.L. Lavoisier (1743-1794).
During his stay abroad, Lesvios visited London, approximately in 1798, and had the opportunity to conduct astronomical observations using the 40 feet telescope constructed by Sir William Herschel (1738-1822). On his return to Greece (between 1795-1800) he was appointed director of the Academy of Kydonies, nowadays known as the Turkish town Ayvalik, located at the cost of Asia Minor, just opposite to the coast of the island of Lesvos.
At the Academy of Kydonies, Lesvios was teaching Mathematics (Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry), Physics, Metaphysics and Ethics. He wrote and edited the following books: Algebra, Geometry (devoted to Friedrich W. Thiersch2) and Metaphysics. These were published in Vienna (1818-1820). However, Lesvios’ lecture notes in physics and ethics are only known from existing manuscripts by his own students. Regarding Physics, Lesvios’ Pantachikiniton (in Greek, “Πανταχηκίνητον”) is an early physics model he proposed explaining most of the known physical phenomena.
Beniamin Lesvios took part in the Greek revolution for Independence (1821); he was a member of the Revolutionary Society/Association known as Filiki Eteria (in Greek, “Φιλική Εταιρεία”) and served as Commissioner of the Aegean Islands (1821). Lesvios was a member of the Peloponnesian Senate, and the First National Assembly of Epidaurus (1821) as well as that of the Second National Assembly of Astros Kynourias (1823), and participated in the drafting of the 1st Criminal Code of Greece known as the "Compilation of Criminology", (in Greek, “Απάνθισμα των Εγκληματικών”).