The written word was of great importance in Byzantium, for the transmission of the Bible (the biblos par excellence) and patristic literature, and for the preservation of classical antiquity. The number of preserved Greek MSS today is about 55,000 of which perhaps 40,000 are Byzantine. They are mainly in the form of a codex, but the roll survived in the transmission of liturgical texts and in the imperial chancery. Few pre-10th century MSS survive. The numbers of MSS produced increased dramatically with the introduction of miniscule script. Most MSS were liturgical or theological; these books predominate both in modern collections and in medieval inventories of monastic libraries. Literary, scientific and historical books were generally found in the private collections of the literati. Books were a rare and expensive commodity in Byzantium, because of the shortage of writing materials and the length of time it took a scribe to copy a MS. N. Wilson has shown that in the 9th century a MS of about 400 folios cost 15-20 nomismata, a sum reckoned by C. Mango as equivalent to the annual salary of a civil servant (Books and Bookman (Dumbarton oaks, 1975), 3f, 38f).
Private libraries rarely exceeded 25 volumes. Booksellers are scarcely ever mentioned; books were obtained by borrowing from friends, commissioning the copying of a MS at a scriptorium, or using a library. Hence books were highly valued by clergy and intellectuals; MSS from libraries frequently contain an imprecation against anyone who would dare steal a book. The designation of a book for a certain use might change in the course of the centuries; thus the Vienna Dioskorides was originally dedicated to the princess Anicia Juliana in the 6th century but served as a herbal for a hospital in Constantinople in the 14th and 15th centuries. Many monasteries such as Stoudios, Hodegin and Galesios housed important scriptoria.
The Book trade, in the strict sense hardly ever existed in Byzantium, in contrast to the flourishing book production and distribution of late antiquity. There was a certain market for old and rare books, while new books were always produced on commission for the private library of the commissioner or for the library of a public or ecclesiastical institution. Some MSS contain indications about the price, the charges for the copying and those for the material being calculated separately. Arethas of Caesarea paid around 15-20 nomismata on the average for a MS, about a third of this amount being for the parchment. In other cases the data concerning book prices are much less clear. Because the size and format of the books in question are often unknown, the average prince of a Byzantine book cannot be determined, much less related to the purchasing power of the currency during the period in question. Writing material remained expensive even after the introduction of paper and only in the last centuries of the empire were costs reduced by the importation of western paper. Under these circumstances acquiring and collecting books was a privilege of institutions and of a very few wealthy individuals. Owing to the high prices, intellectuals rarely could satisfy their need for books through purchase; as a result, scholars often borrowed books from one another and copied them personally.
Libraries underwent a substantial change during late antiquity: municipal libraries disappeared and the public libraries organized by Constatius II and Theodosius II were state institutions. Byzantine libraries could be imperial, patriarchial, monastic or private. As Wilson stresses, "the university of Constantinople has left no trace of a central library," though Constantine IX's foundation charter for the School of Law makes provision for one. Some libraries had inventories, several of which (e.g., the catalog of the library of the monastery of Patmos) have survived. The books had shelfmarks and were placed on shelves accordingly. Some libraries had their own scriptoria and professionals to repair and bind books. In the early 13th century the Patmos library had approximately 330 books, the library of Lavra possessed 960 MSS. Most libraries, especially private ones, were much smaller; the library of Eustathios Boilas in the late 11th century, for example, contained 81 books.
The contents of libraries differed significantly: the inventories of monastic libraries usually contained chronicles and biblical, patristic and hagiographical text. Th library of the patriarchate of Constantinople reportedly possessed a special chest of heretical books. The private library varied accordingly to the individual: many had wide collections dedicated to rhetoricians and the classical poets; the bibliophile Arethas of Caesarea acquired primarily secular classics. John Komnenos Synadenos, late 13th century, collected religious books.
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Last modified: Thurs Dec 10, 1998