Biljana M. Đurašinović
Univerzitet Edukons
Fakultet za projektni i inovacioni menadžment „Prof. dr Petar Jovanović“ – Biblioteka, Beograd
biljana.djurasinovic@gmail.com

doi: 10.19090/cit.2024.44.78-88
No. 44 (May 2024), p. 78-88

Monastic Libraries, Scriptoria and Translation Movement
as Witnesses of Byzantine Civilisation in Medieval Italy

Summary

The work represents an overview of the cultural impact of the Eastern Roman Empire on the development of monastic libraries in medieval Italy from the 6th to 13th century through the creation of manuscripts, their safekeeping in the monastic communities and their distribution among the clergy. Special attention will be given to the southern parts of Italy, the city of Rome and the Exarchate of Ravenna, during the supremacy of the royal court in Constantinople and the reign of the Normans, which was shortly stopped after the 8th-century Arab conquest of the southern parts of the Peninsula. The organisation of monastery libraries will be described referring to the monastic rules based on the ones created in eastern parts of Europe and Asia. The impact on manuscript illustration in different parts of Byzantine Italy is also described, as well as scribal and translation activity that started in the 6th and continued up to the 13th century. This activity, together with the refuge of the Romans with personal libraries to Italy, before and after the fall of Constantinople in the year 1453. helped the preservation of Greek thought of antiquity and the Byzantine era for the future.

Keywords:

Eastern Roman Empire, Italy, monasteries, rules of monastic life, libraries, manuscripts, Rome, Exarchate of Ravenna, Normans, scribal and translation activity, 6th – 13th century

Submitted: 12th February 2024
Correction to the manuscript: 8th April 2024
Accepted for publication: 12th April 2024

Monastic Libraries, Scriptoria and Translation Movement as Witnesses of Byzantine Civilisation in Medieval Italy by Biljana M. Đurašinović is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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