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Leo Allatius (also known as Leone Allacci) seventeenth-century Greek vampirologist, was possibly the first modern author to write a book on vampires. Allatius was born in 1586 on the Greek island of Chios. In 1600 he moved to Rome to attend the Greek College there. After completing his studies, he returned to Chios as the assistant to the Roman Catholic Bishop Marco Giustiniani. He later moved back to Italy to study medicine and rhetoric, and worked for many years at the Vatican library. Among his passions was the reunion of the Greek and Roman churches.

In 1645 he completed De Graecorum hodie quirundam opinationibus, in which he discussed many of the beliefs common to the people of Greece . Allatius covered the Greek vampire traditions in great detail. He described the vrykolakas , the undecomposed corpse that has been taken over by a demon, and noted the regulations of the Greek Church for the discernment and disposal of a vrykolakas. He then noted his own belief in the existence of vampires, which had occasionally been reported on Chios.

While Allatius personally accepted the reality of vampires, and his book helped to popularize the connection between Greece and vampires, he did not dwell upon the subject throughout his life. He continued to work at the Vatican library, and in 1661, was honored by being appointed its custodian. Allatius died in Rome on January 19, 1669.