Pinakes | Πίνακες

Résumé :

Abstract: Most illustrated Byzantine religious manuscripts—books of the Old and New Testament, sermons, psalters and hours, lectionaries, saints’ lives, and hymnals—were deluxe hand-produced books made in the capital primarily as gifts or for use in the performance of the liturgy or other religious ceremony. Surviving examples reflect co-existing phenomena including an interest in texts collected in one luxuriously ornamented volume; the popularity of certain religious texts (or authors) in a given time and place; the notion that books made of expensive materials paid homage to the giver, the owner, and the author of the texts within; and prestige associated with owning or giving a volume created by artists and scribes working in the most sought-after styles of the day. Keywords: Octateuch, menologion, Gregory Nazianzus, John Chrysostom, John Climacus, Akathistos, Basil of Caesarea, Psalter