Imperial Library of Constantinople

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 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 6^th 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.

The Fourth Crusade on 1204CE saw the destruction of the library and most of its contents.  In 1453CE Constantinople finally fell into the hands of the Turks by then most of the Greek manuscripts treasures had already migrated westward. 

The challenge faced is that information on the subject of the Byzantine libraries is not very easy to locate. I have seen three reference librarians and trawled through catalogues, I wanted to write a simple blog that anyone could follow without having to research the subject themselves. There are a number of blogs including wikipedia that have articles written on the subject but I feel these are not reliable sources and I need to construct my own research.

Wedgeworth, R (ed.) 1993, World Encyclopedia of library and information service,3^rd 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.

Below 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.