Demetrios Bernardakis (Greek: Δημήτριος Βερναρδάκης, Dimitrios Vernardakis, also transliterated Dimitrios Bernardakis), (3 December 1833[1]—25 January 1907[2]) was a polymath writer and Professor of History at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

[4] His father was Nikolaos Vernardakis, originally from Crete, while his mother was Melissini, of the Trantalis family.

[4] He studied on a scholarship given to him by Patriarch Alexandros Kallinikos from present-day Skotina, Pieria.

His works had success in his own era, but were quickly forgotten, chiefly by reason of their archaizing language.

His university career ended on 27 August 1869 when Bernardakis was compelled to resign by reason of continuing student reactions (the so-called Vernardakeia), which he attributed to collusion with his university rivals and their political power at the time.