Introduction
I set out to research the Byzantine Empire and its libraries, giving an insight to what types of libraries they retained and any major changes, I endeavoured to keep the blog in chronological order. The deadline of one post per week over the past six weeks has been fulfilled using authoritative content. The main focus of this blog is concerning Constantinople, regarding its manuscripts and libraries, rather than the history of the Byzantine Empire. Through this report I shall give an understanding to the following points with an analysis on each post;
-
Why there was no Great Library of Constantinople
- The Imperial Library of Constantinople
- Change of writing style, uppercase to lowercase
- The destruction of books in the Fourth Crusade 1204 CE
- What happened to the manuscripts at The fall of Constantinople 1453 CE
Why there was no Great Public Library of
Constantinople
Above is a mosaic in Aghia Sophia (meaning Divine wisdom) which was a church in Constantinople, being the largest church in the world when it was built. Emperor Justinian (left) is holding Aghia Sophia which he built during his reign and is offering it to the Madonna and Christ. Emperor Constantine (right) is offering the city he built (Constantinople) to them.
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| Mosaic in Aghia Sophia |
Above is a mosaic in Aghia Sophia (meaning Divine wisdom) which was a church in Constantinople, being the largest church in the world when it was built. Emperor Justinian (left) is holding Aghia Sophia which he built during his reign and is offering it to the Madonna and Christ. Emperor Constantine (right) is offering the city he built (Constantinople) to them.
Constantine the Great moved the capital Rome to the New Rome, where Europe and Asia meet Constantinople (330 CE). In Constantinople one would assume that there would be a need for a great public library, similar to the twenty eight public libraries of Rome between 1 CE and 300 CE.
The Eastern
Empire had adopted Christianity as its official religion and with all the
classical literature and pagan writings before that time the assumption is that
there would have existed a great public library but there seems to be no trace
of one at all.
Staikos
(2000) indicates there were four main reasons for this;
Murray (2009) agrees with these statements.
Murray (2009) agrees with these statements.
- There was a slump in business of the Roman bookselling and publishing houses that marketed books throughout the Roman Empire. The production and distribution of Christian books was never taken over by the pagan copying and publishing firms. Authors would instead copy their books and issue them to friends and associates. Thus denying the old system of publishers and distributors as more educated classes turned to Christianity it lead to the end of the book trade to the public. The majority of books produced were from the Imperial or the monastic writing rooms (libraries) and none of them had dealings with the general public.
- The church’s attempts to impose its Christian belief system to the population and control the distribution of pagan writings including classical learning and any challenge to Christian theological works would be banned. The Eastern empire adopts Christianity in 334 CE, one would have thought that with writings both Christian and pagan this would have a roaring book trade. This was not the case as with fanatical Christians would not stand for pagans and from the year 340 CE saw the start of the persecution of the pagans and finally the closing of the Athenian philosophy schools in 529 CE. During Emperor Justinian’s reign in 390 CE he would punish any church that did not adhere with the strict belief system.
- The rise in the cost of books caused by the higher cost of parchment and the extraordinary costs associated with paying copyists. The books that were produced in Byzantium were in the form of codices and up until the Seventh Century were usually written on Egyptian papyrus after the loss of Egypt to the Arabs the importing of papyrus came to an end. Parchment was introduced as a writing medium in the Fourth Century as it lasted longer, papyrus would deteriorate over a period of time but the expense of such material was very high.
- The negative stance of many monks regarding the possession of books; it was felt by many monks and hermits that ownership of books was conflicting to their belief of their vow with poverty. and The Canons of the Apostles (4th CE) was ‘Shun all pagan books’.
During the
Byzantine Empire hundreds of thousands of codices were produced for monastic
libraries. The large libraries were, the imperial and church related libraries.
Private libraries were very small containing only up to thirty books and no
great public libraries such as the ones during antiquity existed.
Lerner (1999) indicates that there was a school founded by Constantine and a public library was attached, it contained 120,000 volumes and received imperial support.
Lerner (1999) indicates that there was a school founded by Constantine and a public library was attached, it contained 120,000 volumes and received imperial support.
Analysis / Key Issues
Here we identify
that there is no great public library as we have known about in antiquity and can
clearly understand that the manuscripts of the Byzantium were theological any
challenge to Christian texts would not be tolerated. The book trade had dropped
and due to the Arabs annexing Egypt in the Seventh Century papyrus would not be
used, instead parchment took its place. We see the state changing into a
fanatical Christian empire, and the manuscripts of the period are reflective to
this.
The Imperial
Library of Constantinople
Above is a clip that shows how the British library is digitizing Hellenic manuscripts so we can view them around the world, what a terrific initiative.
The Imperial Library of Constantinople, (Wedgeworth 1993) indicates that information regarding the library is uncertain for the reason of fires, political change and earthquakes. There is hardly any archaeological evidence of the library. The only evidence we have is from a few writers in the past, (Staikos 2000) agrees with this view. What the library collection held is debatable and who was allowed access to the manuscripts is unclear.
The
Imperial library was founded in 353CE and may have held 100,000 volumes the
largest collection of that period, most of which was destroyed by a fire in
472CE. There are references to higher studies in the 6th and 7th
centuries but it is unclear what the collection was.
The
Patriarch of Constantinople in the years 607-610CE built a library in his palace
which subsequently burnt down in 870CE.
Benedictine-
like copying began in 789 in the Constantinople abbey, meaning there were
scribes who would copy theological texts and starting sending them westward
into Europe.
The library
of Patriarch Photius (b810-d893) leads us to believe that men and women of privilege had the opportunity to read from
the library what is unclear is if they were allowed to borrow or how they
obtained the books. One of the items held at the library was Stobaeus’ Encyclopaedia
that was divided into four books consisting of 208 chapters. It listed
philosophers such as Aristotle and Euclid poets such as Homer and Sappho.
Physicians Hippocrates, and historian Thucydides.
Analysis /
Key Issues
There is hardly and proof regarding the Imperial Library, only that it existed what is held there is debatable and who could use the library is unclear. There is a report that there were over 100,000 manuscripts and in later years there were only 40,000 this may appear as they were keeping less records, this is not the case the 120,000 were papyrus scrolls, the 40,000 being codices.
Change of
writing style , from Capitals to lowercase
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| St Johns Gospel written in lowercase |
A major change occurred around the end of the eighth century in Hellenic script as (Staikos 2000) informs us. Manuscripts previous to the end of the eighth century were written in capitals. From this point of time we see the use of lower script, the change allowed the writers to be more efficient as they were able to write more on each page with the reduced size of the text. Punctuation marks and the dividing of words which was rare up to this point, made it easier to read and understand what was written. During the ninth century this process becomes standard practice and most manuscripts are recopied in the lower case format, (Encyclopaedia Britannica 1980) agrees.
 |
| St Cyril |
I found it a challenge to find information regarding the change in style from uppercase to lower case, in authoritative resources. After a great deal of time reading through websites that I have not listed for they cannot be regarded as more than some persons opinion on a subject . I anticipated that with such a great revolution in writing at the time, a more in depth study of why and when the change happened would have surfaced in the materials I was reading.
My idea was to locate information regarding why at the end of the
eighth century did they alter their script to lowercase. Why not before?
Who authorized it? Did Arabic writing have an influence? Was there a connection
with St Cyril (pictured above) a Byzantine who at the same period in time the creator of the Slavic alphabet which is based on the Hellenic alphabet. I could
not trace any resource that would create a link.
The destruction of books in the Fourth Crusade 1204 CE
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| Four Horses of St Marks Venice |
The Fourth Crusade in 1204 CE is marked as a point in time when we have historical evidence that supports the destruction of books by the crusaders. Their intentions were to recapture Jerusalem from Muslim control, but after amassing a great debt in Venice, plans changed and they decided to capture Constantinople.
As (Murray 2009) indicates, the city of Constantinople was captured and ransacked by the crusaders in 1204 CE during this period of time the crusaders considered Orthodox religious books heretical, monasteries and libraries were looted, they would strip the rich covers and bindings and would destroy the books.
The reason that the Christians of the west would consider the eastern Christian books heretical is that in 1054 CE Christianity was divided in two groups, the East were the Orthodox Christians and in the West there were Catholic Christians (the great schism). Each side considered themselves to be the correct path of Christianity and the other to be heretical. (Polastron 2007) specifies that the Franks who were part of the crusade had no time for scribes and scholars. At the end of their spears they had inkpots and sheets of paper that they would parade in the streets. As the Greek historian Nicetas says “ignorant folk who were so openly illiterate and barbaric." Villerhardoin states “Splendid palaces full of ancient art works and classical manuscripts were annihilated.” Even Saladin who captured Jerusalem for the Muslims seventeen years earlier acted more decently.
Analysis / Key Issues
Ever wondered where the Horses of St Marks in Venice came from? The bronze statues were part of the ransacking of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade (pictured above). From what I discovered regarding this point in time is that the Fourth Crusade appears to be the destruction of property including books and the looting of valuable items. The crusaders remained in Constantinople from 1204-1261 CE when they were finally cast out.
What
happened to the manuscripts at The fall of Constantinople 1453 CE
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| Aghia Sophia |
As (Encyclopaedia Britannica 1980) indicates The Byzantine Empire lasted from 330CE - 1453 CE, during this time we had the Christians of the west (Fourth Crusade) conquer Constantinople from 1204 CE till they were cast out in 1261 CE. The final blow came in 1453 CE when the Ottoman Turks captured Constantinople, and the Byzantine Empire came to an end.
(Polastron) points out that Constantinople fell on May 29, 1453 to the Ottoman Turks, and that more than one hundred and twenty thousand manuscripts are said to have disappeared. The city had held out the Turks for eight weeks after capturing the city, the Turks went on a rampage of killing and destroying the city for three days. The Turks differed from the Crusaders of 1204 CE who had no regard for books, they allowed carts of books to be transported throughout Asia and Europe. After the sacking of Constantinople it is said that ‘Mehmed II al-Fatih (Ottoman ruler) earned his nickname the Conqueror and lost his reputation as a poet, feebly attempted to reassemble some Greek and Latin manuscripts that escaped the disaster, which (so he said) he would have rather avoided,’ the official reporter Critobulus states.
(Staikos) state that ‘more than a thousand Byzantine codices were taken to Italy, mostly from Constantinople, between the beginning of the fifteenth century and the Turkish conquest.’
Other sources indicate that the books were being copied and translated into Arabic and other languages therefore most of the important manuscripts had already migrated throughout Europe and the Arabic world before Constantinople fell.
Analysis /
Key Issues
We are certain that Benedictine- like copying began in 789 in the Constantinople abbey, meaning there were scribes who would copy theological texts and started sending them westward into Europe. From the evidence we have all the important texts had already been translated and spread into Europe and the Arabic world pre 1453 CE.
Conclusion
There is a small amount of authoritative content written on the Byzantine Libraries in Constantinople the writing is very limited and intertwined with the history of the Byzantium Empire. I had consulted with reference librarians both in person and remote, which provided me with resources, I also consulted Library Link Victoria, numerous catalogues and utilised the Caval card at Monash University for a monograph.
This empire changes over a millennium
until its end in 1453. I was able to touch upon;
- How they had no great public library and the impact of Christianity on written material.
- The imperial library though we are unclear of its holdings and who had access to the library.
- The change of writing style from uppercase to lowercase there was no link as to why at this point in time it occurred.
- The devastation to books during the Fourth Crusade.
- The fall of Constantinople and the impact on manuscripts.
Wedgeworth, R (ed.) 1993, World Encyclopedia of library and information service,3rd
edn, USA.
Staikos, K 2000, The great libraries: from antiquity to the renaissance, Oak Knoll Press, Delaware.
Lerner, F 1999, The story of libraries; from the invention of writing to the computer age, The Continuum Publishing Company, New York.
Encyclopaedia
Britannica 1980
Omniglot the online encyclopedia of writing systems &
languages, Greek alphabet, viewed 21
October 2012, <http://omniglot.com/writing/greek.htm>
Murray, SAP 2009, The library: an illustrated history, Skyhorse Publishing, New York.
Polastron, LX 2007, Books on fire: the tumultuous story of the world’s great libraries, Thames and Hudson, London.
Polastron, LX 2007, Books on fire: the tumultuous story of the world’s great libraries, Thames and Hudson, London.
