In the prologue of the first edition the editor said that it was brought to Zakynthos by
Cretan refugees a er the fall of their island to the Turks; and these same Cretans made it known
to the islanders, since it was written in their own Cretan dialect. In that edition the name of the
poet was clearly stated as Vitsentzos Kornaros from Sitia Crete. is declaration bears witness
to the authenticity of the poem, its origin and its idiomatic Cretan dialect. All other following
editions have this same declaration or a similar annotation. erefore, everyone today believes
that Erotokritos is a Cretan poem wri en by Vitsentzos Kornaros from the eastern Cretan city
of Sitia. His father was Iakovos and his brother, the Venetian-Cretan author Andrew Kornaros.
Vitsentzos, was born in 1553 and died in 1613 or 1614. Based on this we believe Erotokritos
was wri en between 1590 and 1610, although there are other suggestions depending on the
reviewer and his sources.
The first person who seriously referred to Erotokritos was the English author Leake who
makes sure to inform us, with no substantial proof of any kind that the book was written two
hundred years before 1810; and further on in his comments he states it was written around
1600.
Manolis Aligizakis 