Notes on Tenth-Century Greek Book Decoration

Georgi R. Parpulov, University of Birmingham

#Retour à la publication Imprimer la page
Essais

Introduction
Marielle Martiniani-Reber, Musée d'art et d'histoire de Genève
André-Louis Rey, Université de Genève

Crédits
Actes du colloque international "Autour des métiers du luxe à Byzance"
Œuvres

In one of the earliest known Byzantine book epigrams1, a book converses with its owner2:

Προσφώνησις τῆς βίβλου· Κορωνίς. Εἰμὶ δογμάτων θείων διδάσκαλος. Ἂν τινί με χρήσῃς, ἀντίβιβλον λάμβανε· οἱ γὰρ ἀποδόται κακοί.
Ἀντιφώνησις· Θησαυρὸν ἔχων σε πνευματικόν, ἀγαθὸν καὶ πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις ποθητόν, ἁρμονίαις τὲ καὶ ποικίλαις γραμμαῖς κεκοσμημένον, νὴ τὴν ἀλήθειαν, οὐ δώσω προχείρως τινί, οὐδ’ αὖ φθονήσω τῆς ὠφελείας· χρήσω δὲ τοῖς φίλοις ἀξιόπιστον ἀντίβιβλον λαμβάνων3.

Address (from the book): I am a teacher of divine doctrines4. If you lend me to someone, take a receipt, because borrowers are bad people.
Reply: Since I consider you a good, spiritual treasure5 such as all people desire, decorated with concordances and multicoloured lines, indeed I shall not lightly give you to others. But neither shall I begrudge a service: to friends I shall lend you, taking a trustworthy receipt6.

About 400 years separate the oldest two manuscript witnesses to this short text: an early, probably sixth-century majuscule copy of the Acts and Epistles7, and a mid-tenth-century Gospel with marginal commentary8. Books being materially expensive, spiritually valuable, beautifully illuminated – none of this is peculiar to the Byzantine tenth century. It was then, however, that improved economic conditions first allowed for the renewed production of Prachthandschriften on par with those of Late Antiquity.

In the present collection of articles dedicated to Les métiers du luxe à Byzance, one should note that the term luxury – implying, as it often does, something superfluous – was probably not the right word to apply to the sumptuous manuscripts of the time. The visible splendour of a volume offered a reflection of the invisible splendour of its contents: when extolling a handsome copy of Gregory Nazianzenus’s homilies, its dedicatory epigram expressly parallels “the divinity of the words” (τῶν λόγων ἡ θειότης) with the “the delightfulness of the writing” (τῆς γραφῆς [...] ἡ τερπνότης)9. By contrast, a poem in a tenth-century manuscript of the Acts and Epistles, itself illuminated, deplores “knowledge’s labour lost” (ἡ ματαιοπονία τῶν λόγων):

“Why do you, man, vainly assemble numerous notions, rhetorical ideas, astronomic methods, internal contradictions, pretexts, vaunts, inventions of [various] Euclids, Thaleses, fine Attic writers? Time comes, and just one illness pulls all of these apart: you senselessly go down to join the ignorant ones. Having perceived this, let us leave all earthly things on earth and let us rather engage in heavenly labours before the end.”10

This is not to say that manuscripts with secular works were never decorated. In some cases – Euclid among them11 – illustrations were necessary for understanding the text12; in others, the ornament was gratuitous13. A surgical handbook compiled by the (otherwise unattested) physician Nicetas combines both aspects: most of the explanatory medical images in it are placed under a purely decorative arched frame14, similar to those surmounting the canon tables in some contemporary Gospel books15. The pictures are expressly mentioned in one of the volume’s dedicatory epigrams:

“A bee works hard to fill the honeycomb and kindly treats its fellow-labourer, but stings a stranger taking from the comb and causes him to suffer lots of pain. See how the wise Nicetas ungrudgingly with hands and mind welcomes all those who choose to benefit from [these] collected excerpts, where he depicts in many a colour some old remedies for grievous illnesses – since Christ our Lord desires the good of all. And through the painter’s fingers Nicetas’s mind, keeping the will of the incarnate God (?), has represented humans in [God’s] likeness. The hands of him who carries Nike’s name, have penned descriptions of these images, displaying beauty of the letter-forms. [...]”16


While painted illustrations in the manuscript were produced by the nameless artist to whom the poem refers, the ornamented headpieces and initials before each chapter17 are all in the same ink as the text and must have been drawn by the scribe: different media required different skills. Thus, one can distinguish aspects of book “luxury” according to the material used: ink, paint, gold, purple.

Ink

Despite the claims made in the dedicatory poem, I am unsure if Nicetas actually copied the text in his surgical handbook18. The manuscript has surprisingly many spelling mistakes, so it might not be the work of a professional scribe19. It clearly is, in any case, the work of a calligrapher, “displaying beauty of the letter-forms (ὡραιότητα γραμμάτων)”: observe the ubiquitous ornamental dots, or boules, that have given to this type of handwriting its conventional scholarly name minuscule bouletée. The very word καλλιγράφος / καλλογράφος was not coined in the tenth century20 but gained renewed prominence then: the scribes John (895)21, Anthimus (950)22, monk23 Basil (961)24, priest Basil (1003)25 all apply it to themselves, whilst a silver inkwell is inscribed as belonging to “Leo, the sweet marvel of calligraphers.”26 A piece of correspondence by an anonymous scholar shows how handwriting was judged at the time:

“Qualified to write handsomely (γράφειν εἰς κάλλος) are those who have practiced and acquired this [skill] for life, to whom an entire page seems to have come out crooked if one of the characters has not been placed exactly in the line or [straight beneath] the ruling27, who because of [such] blemishes discard [a leaf] as spoiled and do not shrink from copying the same [words] over and over again in order to keep impeccable the handwriting that is their source of livelihood. As for me, I do not worry about these things; I am concerned with doing the work and copying a manuscript to be used, not admired (οὐκ εἰς κάλλος δέ) – for [my] hand is uneven, sloping, not prettily arranged; [my] characters are smallish, dull, and unattractive. [...]”28

Fig. 1. Athens, National and Capodistrian University, Seminar for Byzantine and Modern Greek Philology, MS 1, fo 75r (photo: author)

Fig. 2. Athens, National and Capodistrian University, Seminar for Byzantine and Modern Greek Philology, MS 1, fo 140r (photo: author)

Fig. 3. Cracow, Biblioteka Jagiellońska, MS ex Berol. gr. oct. 8, fos 31v–32r. The canopy οn the lower right contains a gloss to Psalm 47:13a: ταῦτα τὸ πν(εῦμ)α τὸ ἅγιο(ν) τοῖς ἀποστόλοις παρακαλεύεται (photo: library)

Considering the date of this correspondence29, the passage must refer to minuscule hands. It was in the tenth century that properly calligraphic styles of Greek minuscule appeared: the above-mentioned minuscule bouletée and the Perlschrift (figs. 1 and 2) are first attested, respectively, at the very beginning30 and towards the end31 of the long reign of Constantine VII (913–959). The artistic aspirations of scribes could go further than just script, and they might arrange their text in the form of various figures32 or frame it with (sometimes profuse) drawn ornament: headpieces, tailpieces, initial letters. The latter kind of decoration is drawn either in the brown ink used for the main text33 or in the red ink in which titles and rubrics are written34. Tenth-century evangelist portraits often include double inkwells filled with both colours35, which may well resemble the actual inkwells used at the time. Sometimes a single scribe wrote in several different inks, and also drew ornament with them (fig. 3)36. Nonetheless, use of red ink exclusively for the decoration may on occassion reflect division of labour, as at least one colophon expressly states that the respective book was copied (ἐγράφη) by one person and rubricated (ἐκεφαλαιώθη) by another37.

Paint

Various pigments have been added to the decoration in the aforementioned manuscript38. Applied upon drawn ornaments or drawn figures, such colouring does not alter their structure (based on the ink outlines)39– simple work of this sort must have been done by the scribes themselves40. Professional painters, by contrast, used a different technique: any preparatory sketches they made were subsequently hidden from view by the dense pigment applied on top of them. In those cases when such drawings have become re-exposed by flaking, it is striking how cursory they are41: most facial features, garment folds, highlights, and other details were only filled in with brushstrokes42. Since painters had their own particular working method, many full-page miniatures were made separately from the rest of the codex and occupy individual unruled leaves, the back (recto) sides of which are blank43. Even when placed within the text block, illustrations are sometimes poorly fitted into the space that scribes had left for them44. On occasion, efforts were made to match paintings with text pages: for example, if an image faced a piece of ornament such as a headpiece, initial, or the like, one strove to co-ordinate the two forms of polychrome decoration by using pigment of the same hue for both45. The contrast between brushwork and mere colouring could not be avoided in this way, however. Some possible (but uncommon) solutions to the problem were to flatten human figures so that they resembled the surrounding frame46, to make them appear lighter by rendering them in wash47, or to invent headpieces that contained an element of spatial illusionism, just as figural images did 48. Yet another approach was to introduce motifs that remained carpet-like but were actually painted with individual brushstrokes (figs. 1 and 2) and thus matched the texture of figural miniatures49: first tried in the mid-tenth century, this solution – Weitzmann’s “flower-petal” – proved a lasting success50. In the Gospel with marginal commentary mentioned earlier, the first, and thus most important, headpiece is decorated in this manner, novel at the time; the headpiece mirrors the colours and brushwork of the facing evangelist portrait51. The manuscript’s remaining ornament is not similarly painted but merely filled with blue and gold.

Gold

In the latter case, it is the gold background of the figural miniatures that makes for some visual harmony between image and ornament by diminishing, on the one hand, the image’s spatial illusionism and echoing, on the other, the ornament’s glitter52. Thin patches of gold leaf, roughly cut to shape, were glued to the parchment before figures were painted on it53. In the ninth century, the same procedure was employed for gilding headpieces and initial letters54, and the ornament could then be painted straight upon the gold leaf55. Under Leo VI (886–912)56, a more flexible working method was adopted: previously outlined shapes would be filled with shell gold57 (fig. 4, upper right). Circa 950, painters began to actually pen titles and other rubrics in gold58. This was often done freehand rather than over letters previously written in red ink59 (fig. 4, lower left; cf. figs. 1 and 2). An explanatory note in one manuscript terms the technique χρυσογραφία (gold painting)60. There are instances where chrysography appears to have been added by the artist who painted the headpieces61, yet it was frequently the work of those who wrote the main text (fig. 4): when different manuscripts can be attributed to a single scribe, the golden characters in them are similar, too62; conversely, a single book may be copied by two different hands, only one of which rubricated in gold its portion of the text63. (By contrast, records from later centuries show that separate artisans were specially employed to gild the titles and rubrics64.) Entire codices could be penned in gold65.

Fig. 4. Athens, Library of Parliament, MS 4, fos 213v–214r (photo: author)

Purple

Chrysography produced a particularly splendid effect when set against a purple-coloured background66. In 899 – the date of Philotheus’s Kleitorologion – proconsuls (ἀνθύπατοι) would receive from the emperor’s hand purple diplomas (κωδίκελλοι ἁλουργοειδεῖς γεγραμμένοι)67. At some point before 938 – it is impossible to establish a more precise date – the emperors of Constantinople began writing their missives to foreign rulers in gold and on purple-dyed parchment68. In the tenth century, the late antique tradition of copying books in this lavish manner was also revived69 – after a break of more than two hundred years70. A Latin recipe recorded ca. 1000 explains that the parchment, stretched on a wooden board, would be coated with a purple-coloured dye derived from lichens (auricella)71. Scientific analyses confirm that pigment of this sort was used in the manufacture of fifth- to seventh-century purple codices72; as yet, their middle-Byzantine counterparts have not been similarly examined.


It is likewise unknown what dyes coloured in purple (ὀξύς, πορφυράερος, ἀληθινάερος) those textiles whose sale the Book of the Eparch subjects to strict control73. Said Book does, however, list certain pigments, evidently imported, which were the monopoly of perfumers (μυρεψοί)74: brasilwood (βαρζή), indigo (λουλάκη), kermes (λαχάς), ultramarine (λαζούρη)75, and some sort of yellowish colourant (χρυσόξυλον). Laboratory studies of a tenth-century manuscript show that the wine-red (“magenta” or “carmine”) ink there was derived from kermes76 (ink of this particular hue, common in later times, makes it first dated appearance in 904-90577). The blue often found in combination with gold in “fretsaw” ornament may be ultramarine78, which in at least one case has been chemically detected79. “[T]he meaning of colours was not confined to their optical properties, but may be a function of their significance or even their ‘chemistry’ or composition80”: thus, ultramarine could on occasion be prescribed as medicine81.

Pigment analyses – much more of which need to be done – may shed light on the supply side of luxury book production; to understand demand, one should turn to palaeography and to written records. Books are never specifically mentioned in the Book of the Eparch, and the kind of guild organisation that it prescribes for certain professions – including notaries (ταβουλλάριοι) – evidently did not extend to scribes. Copying manuscripts was sometimes deemed a vocation82but was often just a side-pursuit. It could be solitary work: in 966, the patrician Nicetas (if a note added to his volume by a later hand is to be trusted) copied a homiliary as a prisoner of war in Africa83. In the 970s, the monk Symeon, who “spent the whole day enclosed in his cell and never came out […] would engage in manual labour, copying manuscripts of the divinely inspired scriptures”84; “for he used to write so elegantly that anyone who saw his handwriting was filled with pleasure”, adds his biographer85. Symeon had learned calligraphy (ὡραῖα γράφειν λίαν) in his teens, before taking the monastic habit86. Early training of this kind would explain why scribes collaborating on a single volume retain their distinct, accustomed manners of penmanship87. At the same time, different calligraphers were capable of turning out fairly similar Gospel manuscripts88 – probably because there were always buyers for this kind of book, and hence it could be produced to a template rather than on spec. A scribe might record his own name at the end of a Gospel he copied while referring to its owner only in vague, general terms89; or the owner’s name might be added to a formulaic colophon as an afterthought90. Against this background of relative uniformity, the work of painters made a manuscript special91: images were yet another element of “luxury” by virtue not of the materials but of the skill invested in them.

Bibliography

Sources

de Montfaucon 1715
Bernard de Montfaucon, Bibliotheca Coisliniana, olim Segueriana, sive manuscriptorum omnium Graecorum, quae in ea continentur, accurata descriptio, Paris 1715.

Greenfield 2013
Richard Greenfield, trans., The Life of Saint Symeon the New Theologian, Washington DC 2013, pp. 58–61.

Konstantinou 2002
Miltiades Konstantinou et al., eds., Το βιβλίο του Ιώβ, [Sinai, St Catherine's Monastery, Codex Graecus 3, Sinaitikos kōdikas 3], Athens 2002 (facsimile).

Leo VI
Das Eparchenbuch Leons des Weisen, ed. and Germ. trans. Johannes Koder, [Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae, 33], Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1991.

Schwartz 1994
Elena M. Schwarz, ed., Lektionar von St. Petersburg: vollständige Faksimile-Ausgabe des Codex GR.21, GR. 21a aus dem Besitz der Russischen Nationalbibliothek in St. Petersburg, Graz: Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, 1994.

Talbot / Sullivan 2005
Alice-Mary Talbot, Dennis Sullivan, trans., The History of Leo the Deacon, Washington DC 2005.

Theophanes Nonnus (Theophanes Chrysobalantes)
Theophanes Nonnus, Theophanis Nonni Epitome de curatione morborum, ed. Johann Stephan Bernard, vol. 1, Gotha 1794.

Exhibition catalogues

Paris 2009
Le Mont Athos et l’Empire byzantin: trésors de la Sainte Montagne, exh. cat., Paris, Petit Palais – Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris, April-July 2009, Paris: Paris-Musées, 2009.

Washington DC 2013
Anastasia Drandaki et al., eds., Heaven & Earth: Art of Byzantium from Greek Collections, exh. cat., Washigton DC, National Gallery of Art, October 2013-March 2014, Athens 2013.

Monographs and articles

Aceto et al. 2012a
Maurizio Aceto et al., “On the Colouring of Purple Codices”, in VIII Congresso Nazionale di Archeometria, Bologna 2012, pp. 54‑56.

Aceto et al. 2012b
Maurizio Aceto et al., “First Analytical Evidences of Precious Colourants on Mediterranean Illuminated Manuscripts”, Spectrochimica Acta Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy, 95, 2012, pp. 235‑245.

Aceto et al. 2020
Maurizio Aceto et al., “Identification of the Purple Die on the Vienna Genesis”, in Christa Hofmann, ed., The Vienna Genesis: Material Analysis and Conservation of a Late Antique Illuminated Manuscripts on Purple Parchment, Vienna 2020, pp. 103‑118.

Agati 1992
Maria Luisa Agati, La minuscola «bouletée», Vatican City 1992

Aletta 2010
Alessia Aletta, “Il Taurin. B.VII.33, ‘wunderschön hergestellt’”, Νέα Ῥώμη, 7, 2010, pp. 97‑116.

Atsalos 1971
Basile Atsalos, La terminologie du livre-manuscrit à l’époque byzantine, Thessaloniki 1971, pp. 248‑249.

Atsalos 2000
Basile Atsalos, “Termes byzantins relatifs à la décoration des manuscrits grecs”, in Giancarlo Prato, ed., I manoscritti greci tra riflessione e dibattito, Atti del V Colloquio Internazionale di Paleografia Greca Cremona, 4-10 ottobre 1998, vol. 2, Florence 2000, pp. 445‑511.

Bicchieri 2014
Marina Bicchieri, “The purple Codex Rossanensis: spectroscopic characterisation and first evidence of the use of the elderberry lake in a sixth century manuscript”, Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 21 (24), 2014, pp. 14146‑14157.

Birdsall 2006
Neville Birdsall, Collected Papers in Greek and Georgian Textual Criticism, Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2006, pp. 220‑223.

Cortassa 2003
Guido Cortassa, “Scrivere a Bisanzio”, Humanitas, 58, 2003, pp. 8‑22.

Crisci / Eggenberger / Fuchs / Oltrogge 2007
Eduardo Crisci, Christoph Eggenberger, Robert Fuchs, Doris Oltrogge, “Il Salterio purpureo Zentralbibliothek Zürich, RP 1”, Segno e testo, 5, 2007, pp. 31‑98.

D’Agostino / Degni 2014
Marco D’Agostino, Paola Degni, “La Perlschrift dopo Hunger: prime considerazioni per una indagine”, Scripta, 7, 2014, pp. 77‑93.

Dufrenne 1981
Suzy Dufrenne, “Problèmes des ateliers de miniaturistes byzantins”, Jahrbuch der österreichischen Byzantinistik, 31, 1981, pp. 445‑470.

Dufrenne 1991
Suzy Dufrenne, “Rubricateurs et ornemanistes dans les manuscrits écrits en minuscules bouletées”, in Dieter Harlfinger, Giancarlo Prato, eds., Paleografia e codicologia greca. Atti del II Colloquio internazionale (Berlino - Wolfenbüttel 17-21 ott. 1983), Alessandria 1991, pp. 305‑319.

Džurova 2011
Axinia Džurova, Manuscrits grecs enluminés des Archives Nationales de Tirana, VIe-XIVe siècles, vol. 2, Sofia 2011.

Flusin 2012
Bernard Flusin, “Le livre et l’empereur sous les premiers macédoniens”, Bulgaria mediaevalis, 2, 2012, pp. 71‑84.

Frison / Brun 2016
Guido Frison, Giulia Brun, “Lapis Lazuli, Lazurite, Ultramarine ‘Blue’, and the Colour Term ‘Azure’ up to the 13th Century”, Journal of the International Colour Association, 16, 2016, pp. 41‑55.

Gage 1998
John Gage, “Colour Words in the High Middle Ages”, in Erma Hermens, Looking through Paintings: The Study of Painting Techniques and Materials in Support of Art Historical Research, London: Archetype, 1998, pp. 35‑48.

Galavaris 1995
George Galavaris, Ζωγραφική βυζαντινών χειρογράφων, Athens 1995.

Galavaris 2002
George Galavaris, Holy Monastery of Iveron: The Illuminated Manuscripts, Mount Athos 2002.

Hutter 2010
Irmgard Hutter, “Marginalia decorata”, in Antonio Bravo García, Inmaculada Pérez Martín, eds.,The Legacy of Bernard de Montfaucon: Three Hundred Years of Studies on Greek Handwriting, Turnhout : Brepols, 2010, pp. 97‑106.

Hutter 2011
Irmgard Hutter, “The Decoration”, in Paul Canart, ed., La Bible du Patrice Léon, Codex Reginensis Graecus 1: commentaire codicologique, paléographique, philologique et artistique, Vatican City 2011, pp. 195‑272.

Iacobini 2008
Antonio Iacobini, “De Basilio I a Basilio II: marcas e imágenes de comitentes en la producción libraría constantinopolitana de época Macedonia”, in Francesco D’Aiuto, ed., El Menologio de Basilio II: libro de estudios con ocasión de la edición facsímil, Madrid 2008, pp. 197‑229.

Iacobini / Perria 1998
Antonio Iacobini, Lidia Perria, Il Vangelo di Dionisio: Un manoscritto bizantino da Costantinopoli a Messina, Rome: Argos, 1998, pp. 167‑170.

Justin (Sinaites) 2007
Justin (Sinaites), “The Sinai Codex Theodosianus: Manuscript as Icon”, in Robert Nelson, Kristen Collins, eds., Holy Image, Hallowed Ground: Icons from Sinai, Los Angeles 2007, pp. 56‑77.

Kavrus-Hoffmann 2005
Nadezhda Kavrus-Hoffmann, “Lost and Found Folios of Codex Athens, National Library of Greece 2641”, Rivista di studi bizantini e neoellenici, 42, 2005, pp. 93‑104.

Kavrus-Hoffmann 2016
Nadezhda Kavrus-Hoffmann, “Producing New Testament Manuscripts in Byzantium. Scribes, Scriptoria, and Patrons”, in Derek Krueger, Robert S. Nelson, eds., The New Testament in Byzantium, Washington DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2016, pp. 117‑145.

Kotzabassi / Ševčenko / Skemer 2010
Sofia Kotzabassi, Nancy Ševčenko, Don Skemer, Greek Manuscripts at Princeton, Sixth to Nineteenth Century: A Descriptive Catalogue, Princeton 2010.

Krause 2004
Karin Krause, Die illustrierten Homilien des Johannes Chrysostomos in Byzanz, Wiesbaden: Reichert, 2004.

Kresten 1998
Otto Kresten, “Zur Chrysographie in den Auslandsschreiben der byzantinischen Kaiser”, Römische historische Mitteilungen, 40, 1998, pp. 139‑186.

Lamberz 1998
Erich Lamberz, “The Library of Vatopaidi and Its Manuscripts”, in The Holy and Great Monastery of Vatopaidi. Tradition, History, Art, Mount Athos 1998, pp. 562‑574.

Lauxtermann 2003
Marc Lauxtermann, Byzantine Poetry from Pisides to Geometres: Texts and Contexts, vol. 1, Vienna 2003.

Maddalo et al. 2014
Silvia Maddalo et al., Catalogo dei codici miniati della BAV: I manoscritti Rossiani, vol. 1, Vatican City 2014.

Marava-Chatzinicolaou / Toufexi-Paschou 1978
Anna Marava-Chatzinicolaou, Christina Toufexi-Paschou, eds., Catalogue of the Illuminated Byzantine Manuscripts of the National Library of Greece, vol. 1, Athens 1978.

Markopoulos 2000
Athanasios Markopoulos, ed., Anonymi professoris epistulae, [Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae, 37], Berlin: De Gruyter, 2000.

Mokretsova 2003
Inna Mokretsova et al., Materials and Techniques of Byzantine Manuscripts, Moscow 2003.

Nelson 1991
Robert Nelson, Theodore Hagiopetrites: A Late Byzantine Scribe and Illuminator, Vienna: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1991.

Oikonomides 1972
Nicolas Oikonomides, Les listes de préséance byzantines des IXe et Xe siècles, Paris 1972.

Oltrogge 2013
Doris Oltrogge, “Purpura und coccus: Materialität und Symbolik in Textilien und Buchmalerei des frühen Mittelalters”, in Thomas Schilp, Annemarie Stauffer, eds., Seide im früh- und hochmittelalterlichen Frauenstift, Essen 2013, pp. 137‑156.

Orna et al. 1989
Mary Virginia Orna et al., “Applications of Infrared Microspectroscopy to Art Historical Questions about Medieval Manuscripts”, in Ralph O. Allen, ed., Archaeological Chemistry IV, Washington DC 1989, pp. 265‑288.

Orsini 2005a
Pasquale Orsini, “Pratiche collettive di scrittura a Bisanzio nei secoli IX e X”, Segno e testo, 3, 2005, pp. 265‑342.

Orsini 2005b
Pasquale Orsini, “Quale coscienza ebbero i Bizantini della loro cultura grafica?”, Medioevo Greco, 5, 2005, pp. 215‑248.

Papadaki-Oekland 2009
Stella Papadaki-Oekland, Byzantine Illuminated Manuscripts of the Book of Job, Turnhout: Brepols, 2009.

Parpulov 2003
Georgi Parpulov, “Manuscript illumination, Byzantine”, in William Chester Jordan, ed., Dictionary of the Middle Ages: Supplement 1, New York 2003, pp. 357-363.

Parpulov 2013
Georgi Parpulov, “The Beginnings of Flower-Petal Ornament”, in Alexander Saminsky, ed., Путем орнамента: Исследования по искусству Византийского мира (The Routes of Ornament: Studies in the Art of the Byzantine World), Moscow 2013, pp. 93‑95.

Parpulov 2017
Georgi Parpulov, “Two More Manuscripts for Basil the Bastard”, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 41, 2017, pp. 300‑306.

Paschou 1999
Christina Paschou, “Le Codex Atheniensis 2641 et le patrice Samonas”, Byzantion, 69, 1999, pp. 366‑395.

Pelekanides 1974
Stylianos Pelekanides et al., The Treasures of Mount Athos: Illuminated Manuscripts, vol. 1, Athens 1974.

Pinto Madigan 1987
Susan Pinto Madigan, “Three Manuscripts by the ‘Chrysostom Initialer’: The Scribe as Artist in Tenth-Century Constantinople”, Scriptorium, 41, 1987, pp. 205‑220.

Rhoby 2010
Andreas Rhoby, Byzantinische Epigramme in Inschriftlicher Überlieferung Band 2, Byzantinische Epigramme auf Ikonen und Objekten der Kleinkunst, [Byzanzforschung 23], Vienna: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2010.

Rhoby / Stefec 2018
Andreas Rhoby, Rudolf Stefec, Ausgewählte byzantinische Epigramme in illuminierten Handschriften, [Byzanzforschung 42], Vienna: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2018.

Romano 1993
Fiorella Romano, ed., Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele III Napoli, Florence: Nardini Editore, 1993.

Schreiner 2009
Peter Schreiner, “Kosten der Handschriftenherstellung in Byzanz”, in Peter Schreiner, ed., Byzantinische Kultur: eine Aufsatzsammlung, vol. 2, Rome 2009, pp. 331‑344.

Schreiner / Oltrogge 2011
Peter Schreiner, Doris Oltrogge, Byzantinische Tinten-, Tuschen und Farbrezepte, Vienne : Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2011, pp. 104‑107.

Sonderkamp 1984
Joseph Sonderkamp, “Theophanes Nonnus: Medicine in the Circle of Constantine Porphyrogenitus”, Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 38, 1984, pp. 29‑42.

Speranzi 2010
David Speranzi, “La collezione di testi chirurgici di Niceta”, in Massimo Bernabò, ed., La collezione di testi chirurgici di Niceta: Firenze, Biblioteca medicea laurenziana, Plut. 74.7: tradizione medica classica a Bisanzio, Rome 2010, pp. 34‑35.

Travaglio 2012
Paola Travaglio, “Ut auro scribatur”, in Sandro Baroni, ed., Oro, argento e porpora: Prescrizioni e procedimenti nella letteratura tecnica medievale, Trento 2012, pp. 69‑85.

Weitzmann 1935
Kurt Weitzmann, Die byzantinische Buchmalerei des 9. und 10. Jahrhunderts, Berlin 1935.

Weitzmann 1959
Kurt Weitzmann, “Ein kaiserliches Lektionar einer byzantinischen Hofschule”, in Otto Benesch et al., eds., Festschrift Karl M. Swoboda, Vienna 1959, pp. 309‑320.

Weitzmann / Galavaris 1991
Kurt Weitzmann, George Galavaris, The Monastery of Saint Catherine at Mount Sinai: The Illuminated Greek Manuscripts, vol. 1, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991.

Wendel 1950
Carl Wendel, “Die ταπεινότης des griechischen Schreibermönches”, Byzantinische Zeitschrift, 43, 1950, pp. 259‑266.

Wright / Argyrou / Dendrinos 2016
Christopher Wright, Maria Argyrou, Charalambos Dendrinos, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Greek Manuscript Collection of Lambeth Palace Library, London 2016.

Notes

  • 1.
    A Database of Byzantine Book Epigrams was launched online by Ghent University in 2015. Texts contained in this database (which also cites relevant bibliography) are marked below with “DBBE”. See also Andreas Rhoby with Rudolf Stefec, Ausgewählte byzantinische Epigramme in illuminierten Handschriften, Vienna 2018. Unless specified otherwise, all manuscripts cited in the footnotes date, in my opinion, from the tenth century. (Note in particular the tenth-century dating of Sinai Monastery, MS gr. 3 and of Weimar, HAAB, MS Q.743.) Those marked with an *asterisk are available in digitised form on the Internet; the respective URL links are listed on the website Pinakes: Textes et manuscrits grecs (Institut de recherche et d’histoire des textes, Paris).
  • 2.
    The editio princeps is by Bernard de Montfaucon, Bibliotheca Coisliniana, olim Segueriana, sive manuscriptorum omnium Graecorum, quae in ea continentur, accurata descriptio, Paris 1715, pt. ii, p. 261. See also Basile Atsalos, “Termes byzantins relatifs à la décoration des manuscrits grecs”, in Giancarlo Prato , ed., I manoscritti greci tra riflessione e dibattito, Atti del V colloquio internazionale di paleografia greca, Cremona, 4-10 ottobre 1998, vol. 2, Florence 2000, pp. 445–511, esp. 449–450; Neville Birdsall, Collected Papers in Greek and Georgian Textual Criticism, Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2006, pp. 220–223.
  • 3.
    I follow the text in *Athens, ΕΒΕ, MS 56, fo 1r. The punctuation is mine.
  • 4.
    I assume that the text was originally composed as a colophon and that the word κορωνὶς is simply the equivalent of τέλος, marking the volume’s end.
  • 5.
    Other manuscripts read “a treasure of spiritual goods”.
  • 6.
    Cf. the translation by Harry Hionides, Arthur Megaw, and Brian De Jongh, in Anna Marava-Chatzinicolaou,Christina Toufexi-Paschou, Catalogue of the Illuminated Byzantine Manuscripts of the National Library of Greece, vol. 1, Athens 1978, p. 17.
  • 7.
    *Paris, BNF, MS Coislin 202, fo 14v.
  • 8.
    *Athens, ΕΒΕ, MS 56, fo 1r.
  • 9.
    Mt Athos, Iveron, MS 27, fo 87v, inc. Γρηγόριος γεννᾷ με νῷ θεηγόρῳ (DBBE); see also: Le Mont Athos et l’Empire byzantin: trésors de la Sainte Montagne, exh. cat., Paris, Petit Palais – Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris, April-July 2009, Paris: Paris-Musées, 2009, p. 134 (cat. 38). Cf. my attempt at a versified translation in Dictionary of the Middle Ages: Supplement 1, William Chester Jordan, ed., New York 2003, p. 360 (the somewhat misleading title was supplied by the editors).
  • 10.
    Tirana, Arkivat e Shtetit, MS Berat 7, fo 13v, inc. Τίπτε μάτην ἄνθρωπε νοήματα πολλὰ συνάπτεις (DBBE); photograph in Axinia Džurova, Manuscrits grecs enluminés des Archives Nationales de Tirana, VIe-XIVe siècles, vol. 2, Sofia 2011, p. 198.
  • 11.
    *Vatican, BAV, MS Vat. gr. 204; *Florence, BML, MS Plut. 28.03.
  • 12.
    E.g. *Venice, BNM, MS gr. 299 (coll. 584); *New York, Morgan Library, MS M.652.
  • 13.
    E.g. *Berlin, SBPKB, MS Phillipps 1538, passim; *Venice, BΝΜ, MS gr. 454 (coll. 822), fos 12r-v, 24r, 100v, 154v, etc.; *Florence, BML, MS Plut. 81.11, fos 1r, 128r; *ibid., MS Plut. 59.32, fos 12r, 13r, 27r, 54v, etc.
  • 14.
    *Florence, BML, MS Plut. 74.07, fos 182r, 183v, 184v, 185v, etc.
  • 15.
    E.g., *Vatican, BAV, MS Pal. gr. 220, fos 1r, 2r-v, 3v, 4r-5v, etc.
  • 16.
    *Florence, BML, MS Plut.74.07, fo 9r, inc. Πονεῖ μὲν ἡ μέλισσα κηρίον μέλι (DBBE). Cf. the Italian translation by David Speranzi, in Massimo Bernabò, ed., La collezione di testi chirurgici di Niceta, Rome 2010, pp. 34–35.
  • 17.
    *Florence, BML, MS Plut.74.07, fos 10r, 34v, 75r, 228r, 240v, etc.
  • 18.
    On this point cf. Marc Lauxtermann, Byzantine Poetry from Pisides to Geometres: Texts and Contexts, vol. 1, Vienna 2003, p. 159.
  • 19.
    Maria Luisa Agati, La minuscola «bouletée», Vatican City 1992, p. 99, does not find the same hand in any other MS.
  • 20.
    Basile Atsalos, La terminologie du livre-manuscrit à l’époque byzantine, Thessaloniki 1971, pp. 248–249.
  • 21.
    *Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS E. D. Clarke 39, fo 418v.
  • 22.
    Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Auct. D.4.1, fo 35r, inc. Τὸν εὔλαλον τέττιγα τῆς ἐκκλησίας (DBBE).
  • 23.
    Cf. Carl Wendel, “Die ταπεινότης des griechischen Schreibermönches”, Byzantinische Zeitschrift, 43, 1950, pp. 259–266.
  • 24.
    *Vatican, BAV, MS Ross. 169, fo 381v: Silvia Maddalo et al., Catalogo dei codici miniati della BAV: I manoscritti Rossiani, vol. 1, Vatican City 2014, pp. 283, 286.
  • 25.
    *Paris, BNF, MS grec 784, fo 269v.
  • 26.
    Andreas Rhoby, Byzantinische Epigramme auf Ikonen und Objekte der Kleinkunst, Vienna 2010, p. 241 (no. Me72).
  • 27.
    The word ξυσμὴ refers to drypoint ruling. The writing in tenth-century manuscripts is normally “pendant” from the ruling line.
  • 28.
    *London, BL, Add. MS 36749, fo 182r-v, ed. Athanasios Markopoulos, Anonymi professoris epistulae, Berlin, 2000, p. 49 (no. 53). Cf. the Italian translations by Guido Cortassa, “Scrivere a Bisanzio”, Humanitas, 58, 2003, pp. 8–22, esp. 19, and Pasquale Orsini, “Quale coscienza ebbero i Bizantini della loro cultura grafica?”, Medioevo Greco, 5, 2005, pp. 215–248, esp. 243.
  • 29.
    Markopoulos, op. cit., pp. 1*–4*, argues for a date in the second quarter of the tenth century.
  • 30.
    Christina Paschou, “Le Codex Atheniensis 2641 et le patrice Samonas”, Byzantion, 69, 1999, pp. 366–395.
  • 31.
    Marco D’Agostino, Paola Degni, “La Perlschrift dopo Hunger: prime considerazioni per una indagine”, Scripta, 7, 2014, pp. 77–93, esp. 83–93.
  • 32.
    E.g. *Vatican, BAV, MS Pal. gr. 220, fos 16v, 28r-v, 140r-141r, etc.; *Paris, BNF, MS gr. 139 (the «Paris Psalter»), fo 19r, 37v, 178v, 421r-v, etc.; *ibid., MS gr. 438, fos 186v-187v, 206r, 217v, etc.; *London, BL, Add. MS 17417, fos 11v, 16r, 43v, 66r-v, 80r; *Munich, BSB, MS gr. 594, fo 154v. See also Irmgard Hutter, “Marginalia decorata”, in Antonio Bravo García, Inmaculada Pérez Martín, eds., The Legacy of Bernard de Montfaucon: Three Hundred Years of Studies on Greek Handwriting, Proceedings of the Seventh International Colloquium of Greek Palaeography, Madrid – Salamanca, 15-20 September 2008, Turnhout: Brepols, 2010, pp. 97‑106.
  • 33.
    E.g. *Vatican, BAV, MS Urb. gr. 35, fo 3r; *London, BL, Add. MS 17417, fos 62r-63v, 134v-135r, 251r, etc.; Princeton, University Library, Garrett MS 14, fos 134v, 151v, 155v, etc.: Sofia Kotzabassi, Nancy Ševčenko, Don Skemer, Greek Manuscripts at Princeton, Sixth to Nineteenth Century: A Descriptive Catalogue, Princeton 2010, figs. 116–124.
  • 34.
    E.g. *Paris, BNF, MS grec 216, fos 4r, 21r, 31r, 46r, 76v, 171v-194v, etc.; *Munich, BSB, MS gr. 594, fos 22r-v, 23v, etc; London, Lambeth Palace, MS 1192, fos 1r, 213r: Christopher Wright, Maria Argyrou, Charalambos Dendrinos, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Greek Manuscript Collection of Lambeth Palace Library, London 2016, p. 235.
  • 35.
    E.g. London, Lambeth Palace, MS 1176, pp. 124, 206: Wright / Argyrou / Dendrinos, op. cit., pp. 77–78.
  • 36.
    E.g. *London, BL, Add. MS 11300, fos 8r, 268r (red and brown), 2r-7v, 82v-84v, 132r-135r (blue and two different reds), 211r–212r (brown, blue, two reds). See also *London, BL, Add. MS 17417, fos 2r, 6v, 8r, 16v, 24v, 106v, 115r-v, 272r, etc., where the ornament, clearly the work of a single hand, is in both brown and red ink.
  • 37.
    *Paris, BNF, MS gr. 63 ("Codex Cyprius"), fo 267v; see Atsalos 2000, op. cit., 472‑473. The red ink in which the manuscript’s ornament is outlined is not used anywhere in the text, except for the Gospel titles.
  • 38.
    *Paris, BNF, MS gr. 63, fos 10r-13r, 14r, 82r, 133r.
  • 39.
    E.g. London, Lambeth Palace, MS 1176, p. 126 and MS 1192, fo 74r: Wright / Argyrou / Dendrinos, op. cit., pp. 83, 239; *Munich, BSB, MS gr. 594, fos 3r-6r; *Utrecht, UB, MS 1.A.7 (“Codex Boreelianus”), fos 71r, 128r, cf. the painted image on fo 179r. When such colouring has been scientifically analysed, the pigments have been found to be egg tempera: e.g., Antonio Iacobini, Lidia Perria, Il Vangelo di Dionisio: Un manoscritto bizantino da Costantinopoli a Messina, Rome 1998, pp. 167–170.
  • 40.
    E.g. *Vatican, BAV, MS Ott. gr. 14, fos 126v, 130v, 157v, etc.; *University of Chicago, MS 1054, fos 76r, 208v; see Susan Pinto Madigan, “Three Manuscripts by the ‘Chrysostom Initialer’: The Scribe as Artist in Tenth-Century Constantinople”, Scriptorium, 41, 1987, pp. 205–220. See also Irmgard Hutter, “The Decoration”, in Paul Canart, ed., La Bible du Patrice Léon, Codex Reginensis Graecus 1: commentaire codicologique, paléographique, philologique et artistique, Vatican City 2011, pp. 195–272, esp. 200–201.
  • 41.
    E.g., *Baltimore, WAM, W.524, fos 89r, 146r, 231r; *Vatican, BAV, MS Vat. gr. 1522, fos 1v, 108v; *Munich, BSB, MS gr. 594, fo 24v, 105v; St Petersburg, РНБ, MS gr. 21, fos 8v, 11v, 14v: Elena Schwartz, ed., Das Lektionar von St. Petersburg, Graz, 1994 [facsimile]. Galina Bykova notes that in the last MS, painted brushstrokes do not always follow the underdrawing: Inna Mokretsova et al., Materials and Techniques of Byzantine Manuscripts, Moscow 2003, p. 106.
  • 42.
    E.g. *Vatican, BAV, MS Pal. gr. 220, fos 129v, 184r.
  • 43.
    E.g., *London, BL, Add. MS 28815, fos 76, 126, 162. Note the scribal quire signatures in the lower inner corners of fos 77r, 117r, and 127r. – See also Suzy Dufrenne, “Problèmes des ateliers de miniaturistes byzantins”, Jahrbuch der österreichischen Byzantinistik, 31, 1981, pp. 445–470, esp. 460–461.
  • 44.
    E.g., Venice, BNM, MS gr. 538 (coll. 540), fos 5v, 6r-v, 7r, 8r, 15r, 17r: Stella Papadaki-Oekland, Byzantine Illuminated Manuscripts of the Book of Job, Turnhout: Brepols, 2009, figs 27, 37, 77, 379–382; *Sinai Monastery, MS gr. 3, fos 13r, 21r: Miltiades Konstantinou et al., eds., Το βιβλίο του Ιώβ, Athens 2002 (facsimile).
  • 45.
    E.g., *Paris, BNF, MS gr. 139 (the “Paris Psalter”), fos 7v-8r (blue, pink), 419v–420r and 422v–423r (blue, green [in the miniatures’ frames]), 435v–436r (blue, green); *London, BL, Add. MS 28815, fos 76v–77r and 162v–163r (blue, green), 126v–127r (blue, pink).
  • 46.
    E.g., *Sinai Monastery, MS gr. 417, fo 13r: George Galavaris, Ζωγραφική βυζαντινών χειρογράφων, Athens 1995, fig. 46; *London, BL, Add. MS 22732, fo 4r. Note the unusually firm under-drawing for the figure in the latter MS.
  • 47.
    E.g., Mt Athos, Lavra, MS Δ 73, fo 0v (sic): Kurt Weitzmann, Die byzantinische Buchmalerei des 9. und 10. Jahrhunderts, Berlin 1935, fig. 372; *Baltimore, WAM, W.527, fo 1v.
  • 48.
    E.g. *Washington, Dumbarton Oaks, MS 6, fo 7r; Mt Athos, Iveron, MS 27, fos 152r, 205r, 212r: George Galavaris, Holy Monastery of Iveron: The Illuminated Manuscripts, Mount Athos 2002, figs. 10–12.
  • 49.
    E.g., Venice, BNM, MS gr. 97 (coll. 569), fo IIIv: Karin Krause, Die illustrierten Homilien des Johannes Chrysostomos in Byzanz, Wiesbaden 2004, fig. 232; *Paris, BNF, MS suppl. gr. 610, fos 252r-253r, 249r-250r, 241r, 15r.
  • 50.
    Weitzmann 1935, op. cit., pp. 22–32. See also Georgi Parpulov, “The Beginnings of Flower-Petal Ornament”, in Alexander Saminsky, ed.,Путем орнамента: Исследования по искусству Византийского мира [The Routes of Ornament: Studies in the Art of the Byzantine World], Moscow 2013, pp. 93–95.
  • 51.
    *Athens, ΕΒΕ, MS 56, fos 4v–5r.
  • 52.
    E.g., *Athens, ΕΒΕ, MS 56, fos 217v–218r: Anastasia Drandaki et al., eds., Heaven & Earth: Art of Byzantium from Greek Collections, exh. cat., Washigton DC, National Gallery of Art, October 2013-March 2014, Athens 2013, p. 185.
  • 53.
    E.g., *Baltimore, WAM, W.524, fos 6v, 89r; *Vatican, BAV, MS Vat. gr. 1522, fos 1v, 4v. Cf. Peter Schreiner,Doris Oltrogge, Byzantinische Tinten-, Tuschen und Farbrezepte, Vienna 2011, pp. 104–107.
  • 54.
    E.g., *Paris, BNF, MS gr. 510, fos 1r, 3r–29v, etc.
  • 55.
    E.g., *London, BL, Arundel MS 542, fos 1r, 29r, 37v, 55v, etc.
  • 56.
    *Florence, BML, MS Plut. 28.26, fos 34–50, 55–128 are the earliest datable example. The last emperors listed on fo 39v are Basil (reigned 19 years) and Leo (length of reign not specified).  The gold lettering in the Florence MS is very similar to that in Mt Athos, Vatopedi, MS 408: Erich Lamberz, “The Library of Vatopaidi and Its Manuscripts”, in The Holy and Great Monastery of Vatopaidi: Tradition, History, Art, Mount Athos 1998, pp. 562‑574, esp. 572 (fig. 518). I see no reason why this latter manuscript should not date from the reign of Leo VI; cf. Bernard Flusin, “Le livre et l’empereur sous les premiers macédoniens”, Bulgaria mediaevalis, 2, 2012, pp. 71‑84, esp. 80‑82, 84.
  • 57.
    E.g., *Weimar, HAAB, MS Q.743, fo 152r: Schreiner / Oltrogge, op. cit., pp. 155, 161.
  • 58.
    On this technique, cf. Schreiner / Oltrogge, op. cit., pp. 107–111. The first dated examples are, respectively, from 948, 955, and 957–958:
    – *Mt Athos, Vatopedi, MS 949, fos Av-Br: Antonio Iacobini, “De Basilio I a Basilio II: marcas e imágenes de comitentes en la producción libraría constantinopolitana de época Macedonia”, in Francesco D’Aiuto, ed., El Menologio de Basilio II: libro de estudios con ocasión de la edición facsímil, Madrid 2008, pp. 197‑229, esp. 206‑207. The monastery’s assistant librarian Father Philipp kindly informs me that all Gospel titles in this MS are written in gold.
    – Ibid., Dionysiou, MS 70, fos 8r, 12r, 18r, etc.: Stylianos Pelekanides et al., The Treasures of Mount Athos: Illuminated Manuscripts, vol. 1, Athens 1974, figs. 130–137.
    – Ibid., Iveron, MS 70, fos 6v-7r: Galavaris 2002, op. cit., fig. 8.
  • 59.
    E.g., *London, BL, Add. MS 28815, fos 1r, 47r, 77r, 211r, etc.; *Florence, BML, MS Plut. 04.30, fos 1r, 10r, 106r, 107r, 118v, etc.; *Vatican, BAV, MS Barb. gr. 310, fos 1r, 5r-7r, 11v, etc.; *Paris, BNF, MS Suppl. gr. 610, fos 15r-16v, etc. In *Florence, BML, MS Plut. 04.29, fos 1r, 82r, 90v, etc., some of the chrysography is done freehand and some over preparatory red-ink outlines.
  • 60.
    *Paris, BNF, MS Coislin 20, fo 5r; see Atsalos 2000, op. cit., p. 500. On the decoration of this MS, see Suzy Dufrenne, “Rubricateurs et ornemanistes dans les manuscrits écrits en minuscules bouletées”, in Dieter Harlfinger, Giancarlo Prato, eds., Paleografia e codicologia greca, Alessandria 1991, pp. 305–319, esp. 316–318.
  • 61.
    E.g., *London, BL, Add. MS 36634, copied by X (fos 10–157, 209v marg.) and Y (fos 158–254). (I identify X with the scribe of *London, BL, Add. MS 28815 and *Florence, BML, MS Plut. 04.30; for a different view, cf. Nadezhda Kavrus-Hoffmann, “Producing New Testament Manuscripts in Byzantium: Scribes, Scriptoria, and Patrons”, in Derek Krueger, Robert S. Nelson, eds., The New Testament in Byzantium, Washington DC 2016, pp. 117–145, esp. 139.). Y wrote most of his titles and initials in red ink (fos 224v–254v), but at the beginning of his portion of the MS, these were added in gold, evidently by a different hand (fos 160v, 176r, 180v). In one case (fo 180v), the chrysographer mistakenly added an initial H instead of an A, which may show that he did not have access to the text’s exemplar (unless the mistake was already present in that exemplar, of course).
  • 62.
    E.g., I see the same scribe at work in both *London, BL, Add. MS 28815 and *Florence, BML, MS Plut. 04.30. Compare the gold titles on fo 1r in both MSS, or on fo 106r of the Florence MS and fo 211r of the London one. The scribe of *Florence, BML, MS Plut. 04.29 also copied Mt Athos, Panteleimon, MS 99.1: Agati, op. cit., fig. 197. The latter MS has been robbed of all its decoration, though, so no comparisons between the two are possible.
  • 63.
    E.g., *Vatican, BAV, MS Barb. gr. 310, fos 111v–112r. (Some further books are attributed to scribe A of this Vatican MS by Agati, op. cit., pp. 202–214. I find his hand also on fig. 3 in Alessia Aletta, “Il Taurin. B.VII.33, ‘wunderschön hergestellt’”, Νέα Ῥώμη, 7, 2010, pp. 97–116.). For another similar example, involving three scribes, see Iacobini / Perria, op. cit., pp. 31–35.
  • 64.
    Tbilisi, Kekelidze Institute, MS A.1335, fo 272v: Robert Nelson, Theodore Hagiopetrites: A Late Byzantine Scribe and Illuminator, Vienna 1991, fig. 92; *Leipzig, UB, MS 72/D, ed. Peter Schreiner, “Kosten der Handschriftenherstellung in Byzanz”, in id., Byzantinische Kultur: eine Aufsatzsammlung, vol. 2, Rome 2009, no. xi, p. 335.
  • 65.
    E.g., *Sinai Monastery, MS gr. 204: Justin (Sinaites), “The Sinai Codex Theodosianus: Manuscript as Icon”, in Robert Nelson, Kristen Collins, eds., Holy Image, Hallowed Ground: Icons from Sinai, Los Angeles 2007, pp. 56–77.
  • 66.
    E.g. *London, BL, Add. MS 28815, fo 75*r. Other tenth-century examples of individual purple-dyed leaves: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Canon. gr. 85, fos 39, 72; ibid., MS Auct. E.5.11, pp. 3–4, 135–136, 224–224, 371–372; Messina, BRU, MS F.V.18, fos 81, 126.
  • 67.
    Nicolas Oikonomides, Les listes de préséance byzantines des IXe et Xe siècles, Paris 1972, p. 95, cit. Otto Kresten, “Zur Chrysographie in den Auslandsschreiben der byzantinischen Kaiser”, Römische historische Mitteilungen, 40, 1998, pp. 139–186, esp. 182.
  • 68.
    Kresten, op. cit., pp. 155–157, 178.
  • 69.
    St Petersburg, РНБ, MS gr. 53; Tirana, Arkivat e Shtetit, MS Beratinus II (“Codex Anthimi”): Džurova, op. cit., vol. 2, pp. 25–55. The miniature frames and the facing headpieces in the St Petersburg MS have very similar ornament, and therefore the tenth-century date of the miniatures applies to the manuscript as a whole. Naples, BN, MS ex Vindob. gr. 2: Kurt Weitzmann, “Ein kaiserliches Lektionar einer byzantinischen Hofschule”, in Otto Benesch et al., eds., Festschrift Karl M. Swoboda, Vienna 1959, pp. 309–320; Fiorella Romano, ed., Biblioteca Nazionale “Vittorio Emanuele III” Napoli, Florence 1993, pp. 46–47 [colour photographs]. On the dating of this MS, see Georgi Parpulov, “Two More Manuscripts for Basil the Bastard”, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 41, 2017, pp. 300–306, esp. 305–306; cf. Flusin, op. cit., p. 75.
  • 70.
    The last late antique specimen is the (probably) seventh-century Psalterium purpureum Turicense: Eduardo Crisci, Christoph Eggenberger, Robert Fuchs, Doris Oltrogge, “Il Salterio purpureo Zentralbibliothek Zürich, RP 1”, Segno e testo, 5, 2007, pp. 31–98.
  • 71.
    Ivrea, Biblioteca Capitolare, MS 54, fo 117v, Paola Travaglio, ed. “Ut auro scribatur”, in Oro, argento e porpora: Prescrizioni e procedimenti nella letteratura tecnica medievale, Sandro Baroni, ed., Trent 2012, pp. 69–85, esp. 82–83.
  • 72.
    Fuchs, Oltrogge, op. cit., pp. 91–94; Marina Bicchieri, “The Purple Codex Rossanensis”, Environmental Science and Pollution Research International, 21 (24), 2014, pp. 14146–14157, esp. 14154–14156; Maurizio Aceto et al., “On the Colouring of Purple Codices”, in VIII Congresso Nazionale di Archeometria, Bologna 2012, pp. 54–56; Maurizio Aceto et al., “Identification of the Purple Die on the Vienna Genesis”, in Christa Hofmann, ed., The Vienna Genesis: Material Analysis and Conservation of a Late Antique Illuminated Manuscripts on Purple Parchment, Vienna 2020, pp. 103‑118; cf. Maurizio Aceto et al., “First Analytical Evidences of Precious Colourants on Mediterranean Illuminated Manuscripts”, Spectrochimica Acta Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy, 95, 2012, pp. 235–245, esp. 241–242.
  • 73.
    Johannes Koder, ed., Das Eparchenbuch Leons des Weisen, Vienna 1991, pp. 90 (§ 4.1), 104 (§ 8.2); cf. Doris Oltrogge, “Purpura und coccus: Materialität und Symbolik in Textilien und Buchmalerei des frühen Mittelalters”, in Seide im früh- und hochmittelalterlichen Frauenstift, in Thomas Schilp, Annemarie Stauffer, eds., Essen 2013, pp. 137–156, esp. 137–142.
  • 74.
    Koder, ed., op. cit., p. 110 (§ 10.1); cf. Schreiner, Oltrogge, op. cit., pp. 91–92, 115–119; Mokretsova et al., op. cit., pp. 212–213.
  • 75.
    Cf. Guido Frison,  Giulia Brun, “Lapis Lazuli, Lazurite, Ultramarine ‘Blue’, and the Colour Term ‘Azure’ up to the 13th Century”, Journal of the International Colour Association, 16, 2016, pp. 41–55.
  • 76.
    *Weimar, HAAB, MS Q.743, fo 152r: Schreiner, Oltrogge, op. cit., pp. 155, 161.
  • 77.
    Venice, BNM, MS gr. 538 (coll. 540), fos 5v, 6v, 8r: Papadaki-Oekland, op. cit., figs. 379-381. The magenta ink in this MS is unusually pale and employed sparsely, only for the reference signs. By 913/4, proper magenta was being used for titles – witness *Philadelphia Free Library, Frgm. Lewis E 251: Nadezhda Kavrus-Hoffmann, “Lost and Found Folios of Codex Athens, National Library of Greece 2641”, Rivista di studi bizantini e neoellenici, 42, 2005, pp. 93–104, esp. 96.
  • 78.
    E.g., *Florence, BML, MS Plut. 59.32, fos 12r, 13r, 27r, 54v, etc.; *Athens, ΕΒΕ, MS 56, fos 2r-v, 96r, 155r, 218r. On this type of ornament, see Weitzmann 1935, op. cit., pp. 18–22.
  • 79.
    *University of Chicago, MS 1054: Mary Virginia Orna et al., “Applications of Infrared Microspectroscopy to Art Historical Questions about Medieval Manuscripts”, in Ralph O. Allen, ed., Archaeological Chemistry IV, Washington DC 1989, pp. 265–288, esp. 276–277. (The authors do not indicate which MS pages their samples came from.) – It is not entirely clear to me if the ultramarine reported by Schreiner, Oltrogge, op. cit., pp. 156, 162, was detected in *Weimar, HAAB, MS Q.743, fo 152r.
  • 80.
    John Gage, “Colour Words in the High Middle Ages”, in Erma Hermens, ed., Looking through Paintings: The Study of Painting Techniques and Materials in Support of Art Historical Research, London 1998, pp. 35–48, esp. 39.
  • 81.
    Johann Stephan Bernard, ed., Theophanis Nonni Epitome de curatione morborum, vol. 1, Gotha 1794, p. 448; cf. Joseph Sonderkamp, «Theophanes Nonnus: Medicine in the Circle of Constantine Porphyrogenitus», Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 38, 1984, pp. 29–42. This author is also known as Theophanes Chrysobalantes.
  • 82.
    Witness the scribal note in *Paris, BNF, MS grec 784, fo 269v: “copied by the hand of the priest Basil, calligrapher by profession (τῇ τέχνῃ)”. See also note 28 above.
  • 83.
    *Paris, BNF, MS gr. 497, fo 401v; cf. Alice-Mary Talbot, Dennis Sullivan, trans., The History of Leo the Deacon, Washington DC 2005, p. 115. One assumes that the chrysography and illumination were added to this MS after Nicetas had returned with it to Constantinople.
  • 84.
    Richard Greenfield, trans., The Life of Saint Symeon the New Theologian, Washington DC 2013, pp. 58–61 (§§ 26–27).
  • 85.
    Ibid., p. 61 (§ 27).
  • 86.
    Ibid., pp. 4-5 (§ 2).
  • 87.
    E.g. *London, BL, Add. MS 36749, fos 2r–33r, 33v-34r, 34v-41r, 41r-42r, 42v-48r, etc.; *ibid., Add. MS 22732, fos 4r-136v, 137r-193r, 193v-302r. See also notes 61 and 63 above, as well as Pasquale Orsini, “Pratiche collettive di scrittura a Bisanzio nei secoli IX e X”, Segno e testo, 3, 2005, pp. 265–342.
  • 88.
    Venice, BNM, MS gr. I,18: Iacobini, Perria, op. cit., p. 43, figs 20, 32, 36–38, 49 and Furlan, op. cit., vol. 1, Milan, 1977, pl. 3, figs 20–23; St Petersburg, РНБ, MS gr. 220: Kurt Weitzmann, George Galavaris, The Monastery of Saint Catherine at Mount Sinai: The Illuminated Greek Manuscripts, vol. 1, Princeton 1991, figs. 21–23; *London, BL, Add. MS 11300. – Kalavryta, Megaspelaion, MS 1: Agati, op. cit., pp. 202–203, pl. 140; *Washington, Dumbarton Oaks, MS 6.
  • 89.
    E.g., London, Lambeth Palace, MS 1176, p. 417: Wright / Argyrou / Dendrinos, op. cit., p. 86.
  • 90.
    E.g., *London, BL, Add. MS 17471, fo 251v: Ἰησοῦ σῶσον Γρηγορᾶ(ν); Milan, BA, MS + 24 sup., fo 7v: Ἰησοῦ σῶσον Μανουήλ. In both instances, the words Ἰησοῦ σῶσον are written in the shape of a cross. The two MSS are the work of a single anonymous scribe; cf. Agati, op. cit., pp. 35–36. They contain, respectively, John Climacus’s Ladder and a Psalter – both popular texts.
  • 91.
    Compare, e.g., the three products of the anonymous “London Scribe” (note 61 above), only the first of which has figural miniatures: *London, BL, Add. MS 28815; *Florence, BML, MS Plut. 04.30; *London, BL, Add. MS 36634, fos 10–157.