3.10 FC – Manuscripts Lost and Found

The purpose of this paper is to provide researchers with insights into the fate and current state of preservation of the collection of Byzantine manuscripts, which constitutes a deposit of the Polish state, stored since 1945 in the manuscript department of the Jagiellonian Library. The Prussian Library authorities decided to relocate the collections after the…

Palimpsest manuscripts, found on the shelves of ancient and modern libraries, are made of reused materials: they are usually parchment leaves from which the writing was removed and later substituted by a new text. Scholars have been aware of their existence and have attempted to study them—particularly since the early 18th century—often using methods now…

During our visit to the Karakallou Monastery in Mount Athos in September 2024, we found five parchment fragments from a mid-14th century Byzantine manuscript, containing ancient Greek text of an unknown author. The fragments are written with a beautiful late Byzantine script which could be dated to the period from 1330 to 1370. Our conjecture…