Greek Manuscript Collection of Lambeth Palace Library Cataloguing Project

The Greek Manuscript Collection consists of fifty-three Greek codices acquired by LPL since its founding as a public library in 1610, including those donated in 2006 by Sion College, an institution for clergy founded in the City of London in the late 1620’s. Dated between the tenth and seventeenth centuries, these manuscripts include the Octateuch with catena and synopses of Old Testament texts, Gospel Books and Lectionaries, Acts and Epistles, the Book of Revelation, Apocryphal texts on Jesus and the Apostles, liturgical texts, Menaia and synaxaria/menologia, theological works, treatises and excerpts (by Justin the Martyr, Irenaeus of Lyon, Athanasius of Alexandria, Clement of Alexandria, John Chrysostom, John Damascene), Gerontika, Classical authors (Aeschylus, Aristotle, Demosthenes, Libanius, Lycophron, Dionysius Periegetes), post-Byzantine texts (Chronicle in vernacular Greek by an anonymous author, and Damaskenos Studites, On Animals), and papers on, and descriptions and collations of, LPL manuscripts. Among the most important manuscripts is codex 461 containing theological treatises by George Scholarios (later Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Gennadios II), with his autograph signature, notes and corrections.

Thanks to a generous grant (£121,000 over two years) awarded by the A. G. Leventis Foundation and with the support of LPL and Royal Holloway, University of London, a full analytical catalogue of this important collection is currently in preparation by Dr Christopher Wright and Miss Maria Argyrou under the guidance of Dr Dendrinos, thus fulfilling the intention and wish on the part of the Anglican Church and at the same time providing a valuable tool for students and scholars of Greek history, literature, theology and palaeography internationally.

The Project Board are delighted to announce that the first version of this catalogue has now been released to A. G. Leventis Foundation, and a public release is confidently expected to follow in the New Year (i.e., in 2015)

Members of the Project Board:

• Clare Brown, LPL Archivist — Internal LPL Advisor
• Dr Annaclara Cataldi Palau, Visiting Professor in Greek Palaeography, RHUL Hellenic Institute, History Department — Internal RHUL Advisor
• Dr Rachel Cosgrave, LPL Archivist — Internal LPL Advisor
• Dr Charalambos Dendrinos, Senior Lecturer in Byzantine Literature and Greek Palaeography, Director, RHUL Hellenic Institute, History Department — Project Director
• Dr Pat Easterling, Emeritus Regius Professor of Greek, Cambridge University — External Advisor
• Giles Mandelbrote, LPL Librarian and Archivist — Chairman of the Project Board
• Rev'd Dr Joseph A. Munitiz, S.J., former Master of Campion Hall, Oxford University — External Advisor
• Professor Nicholas Pickwoad, Director of the Ligatus Research Centre, University of the Arts London — Internal LPL Advisor
• Philip Taylor, Honorary Research Associate, Hellenic Institute, History Department, former RHUL webmaster — Internal RHUL IT Advisor

Photograph (c) LPL: MS. 1214, fol. 90v, Octateuch with Catena, beginning of Numbers; copied by John Koulix for the Duke of Cyprus Leo Nikerites on 12 November 1103 (colophon on fol. 412v)