Elisavet Moutzan-Martinengou is widely considered to be the first woman prose-writer in Modern Greek, despite the fact that none of her writings were published during her lifetime; indeed, most of these works were lost or destroyed in the fire that followed the earthquakes of 1953 in her native Zakynthos. Only some letters, a few fragments and excerpts, some poems, and her autobiography survived this fate.
Elisavet Moutzan (also known as Moutza or Moutsan) was born in October 1801 into a well-to-do family in Zakynthos Town and died in the same town thirty-one years later, in November 1832, two weeks after giving birth to her son. She was the daughter of Francisco Moutzan and Angeliki Sigourou, both members of established families on the island. The Moutzan household included her paternal
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Citation: Kolias, Helen. "Elisavet Moutzan-Martinengou". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 25 February 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12306, accessed 23 April 2024.]
