BiblioVault - Books about Manuscripts, Greek (Medieval and modern)

A Byzantine Monastic Office, A.D. 1105

Jeffrey C. Anderson

Catholic University of America Press, 2016

This book centers on a Greek text that was likely compiled in Constantinople, in 1105, for use in one of the monasteries located there. The book is a liturgical psalter, containing the fixed structure (the ordinary) in both the Greek original and in English translation, as well as a description of the hours themselves. The extensive commentary explains the development of the monastic office, and the particular history of the translated manuscript, while brief notes clarify and explain, in a way suitable for non-liturgists, the more-technical aspects of the offices.

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A Catalogue of Greek Manuscripts at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Nadezhda Kavrus-Hoffmann with the collaboration of Pablo Alvarez

University of Michigan Press, 2021

A Catalogue of Greek Manuscripts at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor is a comprehensive, fully illustrated catalogue of the largest collection of Greek manuscripts in America, including 110 codices and fragments ranging from the fourth to the nineteenth century. The collection, held in the Special Collections Research Center of the University of Michigan Library, contains many manuscripts from Epirus and the Meteora monasteries built on high pinnacles of rocks in Thessaly. Nadezhda Kavrus-Hoffmann has based the manuscript descriptions on the latest developments in the fields of paleography and codicology, including the newest recommendations of the Institute for Research and History of Texts in Paris. The catalogue includes high-resolution plates of all the manuscripts, allowing researchers to compare the entries with other Greek manuscripts around the world. This catalogue contains a trove of fascinating information related to Byzantine culture that will be available for the first time to scholars working on various disciplines of the humanities such as Classical and Byzantine Studies, Art History, Medieval Studies, Theology, and History.

This is the first volume of a projected two-volume set. Volume 2, also by Nadezhda Kavrus-Hoffmann, will contain descriptions of remaining Greek manuscripts in the Library’s collection, starting with Mich. Ms. 59 and ending with Mich. Ms. 238, for a total of 53 manuscripts and 8 fragments. Both volumes will have the same format – catalogue entries for each manuscript together with extensive illustrations. The publication date for Volume 2 has not been established.

The publication of this book has been made possible through the generous support of Carl D. Winberg, MD.

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Codex Parisinus Graecus 1115 and Its Archetype

Alexander Alexakis

Harvard University Press, 1996

For almost three centuries, scholars have debated the credibility of the information provided in the colophon of Codex Parisinus graecus 1115. According to this inscription, the manuscript was copied in the year 1276 from another manuscript dating back to the year 774/5; the archetype originated in the papal library at Rome and contains a partial record of the Greek holdings of the library.

The majority of the texts included in the manuscript come from florilegia related to the ecumenical councils. This volume examines the use of florilegia—anthologies of earlier writings—by these councils. Analysis of the contents of the manuscript provides new information concerning, among other things, the beginning of the Filioque controversy and the use of Iconophile florilegia by the seventh ecumenical council in 787. Also revealed is the archetype's role in the negotiations between Rome and Constantinople that led to the Union of the Churches, proclaimed at the Council of Lyons II in 1274, and the indirect involvement of Thomas Aquinas through his Contra Errores Graecorurn.

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Dated Greek Manuscripts of the Thirteen and Fourteenth Centuries in the Libraries of Great Britain

Alexander Turyn

Harvard University Press, 1980

Professor Turyn has published books on Greek manuscripts in the Vatican Library, and here he examines book scripts and subscriptions from the dated Greek manuscripts in the libraries of Great Britain.

These to-scale facsimile reproductions, one hundred ninety-eight in total, provide ample paleographical material that will help in dating other manuscripts. The author presents the chronological evidence and extensively interprets the prosopographical and linguistic elements of the manuscripts. At the same time he elucidates the origins of a manuscript, its character as a document of Byzantine culture, and its role in the transmission of ancient and medieval Greek literature.

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