The school evolved into the most significant intellectual center of the city through the work of Athanasios Psalidas,[1] a major representative of the modern Greek Enlightenment movement.

[4] The same year the Kaplaneios had its own library, while it came under the protection of the Phanar Greek Orthodox College of Istanbul (Constantinople) and acquired the alternative title Patriarchal Academy.

He included in the curriculum lessons of experimental physics[2] and was an ardent supporter of contemporary European ideologies and the vernacular (Demotic) Greek language.

The students were also taught Ancient Greek literature and contemporary science, including Lavoisier's chemistry and Isaac Newton's Principia.

In his efforts to achieve this, he was assisted by the intelligent and religiously tolerant ruler of the region, Ali Pasha, who encouraged the education in Ioannina.