Greek Liturgical Illuminated Manuscripts in Southeastern Europe (17th–18th Centuries)

In the second half of the 17th century and the early 18th century, the tradition of producing Greek deluxe liturgical manuscripts – revitalized a century earlier by Metropolitan Loukas of Wallachia and his circle – entered a more sophisticated phase of development. New generations of scribes and illuminators, active in monastic, ecclesiastical, and urban contexts, continued to produce richly ornamented codices that circulated widely across the Orthodox world. These manuscripts, primarily containing the Divine Liturgy according to the Constantinopolitan rite, reveal a complex dialogue between sacred text and image, in which calligraphy, illumination, and theology converge in a shared visual language. While palaeographers and art historians have examined the stylistic evolution of the “Wallachian school,” its dissemination, theological, and social dimensions in this later period remain underexplored. This paper investigates the interplay between word and image as a vehicle for theological meaning and liturgical experience. At the same time, it traces the gradual “democratization” of these manuscripts: smaller, less lavish yet carefully executed codices increasingly reached parish clergy and modest lay patrons, reflecting new devotional sensibilities and economic realities. I argue that the Wallachian manuscripts of the late 17th and early 18th centuries articulated a distinctive theological aesthetics that was both traditional and innovative. In doing so, they fostered broader participation in the liturgical tradition and expressed a renewed Orthodox identity within the evolving cultural landscape of the Ottoman world.