Scholarship
The intellectual traditions of Graeco-Roman antiquity continued throughout the Byzantine era and into the Early Modern world. Many examples of science, philosophy, historiography and literary scholarship are on display in the Greek manuscripts held at the British Library.
Scribes and scholars in Byzantium
- Article by:
- Georgi Parpulov
Byzantine manuscripts were created by and for educated men both in Constantinople and further afield. Georgi Parpulov explores the lives and works of some of these figures.
Read moreAncient libraries
- Article by:
- Matthew Nicholls
How were books stored and accessed in the ancient world? Matthew Nicholls explores what the surviving evidence of ancient books can tell us about libraries in antiquity.
Read moreGreek in Elizabethan England
- Article by:
- Matthew Adams
The teaching of Greek in English schools developed slowly and not without setbacks. Matthew Adams tells the story of how Greek spread in 16th-century England.
Read moreByzantine libraries
- Article by:
- Georgi Parpulov
Byzantine scribes and authors refer repeatedly to book collections and libraries. Georgi Parpulov outlines what private, monastic and imperial libraries were like in medieval Byzantium.
Read moreThe transmission of Greek philosophy and medicine
- Article by:
- Aileen Das
Ancient Greek philosophy and medical writing were extremely influential on later thought, both in the West and in the East. Aileen Das traces some of the strands of this remarkable journey, from Greek to Syriac, Arabic, and Latin.
Read moreKnowledge of Greek in the medieval Latin West
- Article by:
- Cillian O’Hogan
After late antiquity, knowledge of Greek declined in Latin-speaking Western Europe. Although Greek would not be taught widely in the West again until the Renaissance, a number of manuscripts indicate that there was interest in learning about Greek letters during the Middle Ages, as Cillian O’Hogan explains.
Read moreGreek manuscripts from the dawn of print
The development of printing in the 15th century signalled huge changes for the spread of Greek knowledge in Western Europe. Here, Eugenia Russell describes the key events in the early years of Greek printed books.
Read moreBritish collectors of Greek manuscripts
- Article by:
- Cillian O’Hogan
Cillian O’Hogan surveys how a number of manuscripts came to be in the British Library through the actions of successive British collectors over the centuries.
Read moreBook epigrams in Byzantine manuscripts
- Article by:
- Julie Boeten, Sien De Groot
Byzantines were famous for inscribing verses in and on important objects including books. In this article, Julie Boeten and Sien de Groot explore the content, function and value of these so-called book epigrams.
Read moreFurther themes
Art
Learn more about Byzantine art from the illuminations and decorations found on Greek manuscripts.
Religion
Discover more about what our rich collection of surviving religious manuscripts tells us about Byzantine life.
Scholarship
Explore the intellectual traditions of the Graeco-Roman world that continued throughout the Byzantine era and into the Early Modern world.
The Greek World
Explore the influence of the Greek world on Western Europe and the Middle East.
The makers of Greek manuscripts
Learn more about book production in antiquity. What was more popular: parchment or paper?
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