GOODISSON, William. A historical and topographical essay upon the islands of Corfou, Leucadia, Cephalonia, Ithaca, and Zante, London, Thomas and George Underwood, 1822.

William Goodisson (1785-1836) was an Irish surgeon, son of a pharmacist. He studied at Trinity College, Dublin and subsequently ranked the Medical Service of the British Army as assistant surgeon.

Goodisson reached Corfu in July 1814, a few weeks after the French had handed the Ionian islands over to the British. He studied the epidemics of plague and remittent fever which had broken out in the southern part of the island. He was placed in Lefkada in 1817. Goodisson toured the Ionian islands and the opposite coast of Epirus. In 1820 he left for Gibraltar, where he stayed for three years and composed the chronicle of his stay in the Ionian islands.

Aside from his practice as surgeon, Goodisson did extensive research during his stay in the Ionian islands, recorded topographical, demographic and historical information, and noted his observations on products, commerce, climate, customs and traditions, education and culture, antiquities, and even seismic activity. Goodisson published this body of detailed information in his chronicle, which he enriched with maps he had drawn himself, according to plans by Venetian and French engineers completed and updated by British engineers.

The Appendix to this unique edition includes tables with statistical data on epidemics, nine analyses of minerals coming from the islands, tables with meteorological observations and the commercial balance of Corfu, and a small score of a Greek melody.


Written by Ioli Vingopoulou