This week marks the publication of vol. 40 (2020) of Cretica Chronica, the annual academic journal of the Society of Cretan Historical Studies (SCHS). This is the tenth volume in the second period of publication of the journal – launched in 2011 – and the fortieth since its first publication.

Cretica Chronica was first issued in 1947. Every volume contains original academic studies on the subject of Crete, in the four main European languages, addressed to the international academic community. The act of publishing Cretica Chronica marked the emergence into the limelight of a group of intellectuals who were soon to form the core of the Society of Cretan Historical Studies, found the Historical Museum of Crete and establish the International Cretological Congresses.

Cretica Chronica was published by Andreas G. Kalokerinos uninterruptedly from 1947 until 1973, totalling 25 volumes in all. Two volumes of the periodical were issued by Crete University Press (1986-7), and a further two (1988-90), as well as a volume of indices (1994), by the Vikelaia Municipal Library of Heraklion. In 2009, the SCHS digitized the entire contents of the journal’s rare first fourteen volumes, which are now available to researchers through the HMC website, under Cretan Studies Online.

In 2001, judging that the field of Cretan Studies was still in need of an international journal, the SCHS undertook to resume publication of Cretica Chronica. Papers are published following anonymous academic review.

Vol. 40 (2020) of Cretica Chronica contains nine studies by Peter Warren, Evanthia Tegou - Martha Baldwin Bowsky, Maria Kyrimi, Katerina Mylopotamitaki, Stylianos Stefanakis,  Katerina Kontopanagou - Manolis Drakakis - Diamantina Vassilaki, Athanassios Yfantis, Alexandra Sfoini and Sofia Beloka, covering aspects of Cretan history from antiquity to the modern era.

Volumes are available from the Historical Museum of Crete e-shop, together with all the SCHS publications and selected objects by local artists based on the Museum collections. The sales revenue goes towards the SCHS publications and museums, and the organisation each year of temporary exhibitions and events, as well as free educational programmes for school groups.