ANTONIS MALMOS Collection (1901-1971)

Antonis Malmos was born in Chania in 1901 and was of Italian descent from his father and Maltese descent from his mother. His parents settled in Chania at the end of the 19th century. Malmos learned his first letters at home from private teachers. He was orphaned by his father at the age of 11, as a result of which he took on the survival of his family. In 1927 he married Angeliki Ploumidaki, niece of Styliani Ploumidaki, mother of Eleftherios Venizelos, and they had a son.

Despite all his poverty, however, he took care to procure books, which over time became numerous. He was the founder and owner of the “Malmeios Library”, which he officially established in 1927. A lover of books and art, an avid collector, he created a rich library and art gallery, lacking the necessities to live.

The library was initially housed on Theophanous Street, in the Venetian port of Chania, and from 1957 to 1971 it was installed in an old Turkish mansion at the intersection of Hatzimichali Daliani Street and the small alley that today bears the name of its founder. This building housed the library and its collections since the end of the occupation. Its only income was from renting out some rooms in the existing building.

During the occupation, he was the consul of Italy and an interpreter at the German Consulate in Chania, where he was accused of collaborating with the occupiers and was eventually acquitted. For several years, the Malmeios Library was the only library open to the public. Its heyday lasted until the death of its founder. Many were stolen after his death until it was donated by his son Vasilios Malmos to the Municipal Library of Chania in 1972.

No delivery and receipt protocol was drawn up, so we do not know the exact number of documents that reached the Municipal Library. The donation consisted of books, magazines, newspapers, manuscripts, archives, maps, fossils, amphorae. They were incorporated into the main collection of the Library and are identified by the stamp with the skull and the saying “Do not forget that you are a human being”.