Manuscripts

bout one hundred illuminated manuscripts from the Palaiologan period have survived. They are mostly religious works (gospels, psalters, homilies) and are usually decorated with miniatures. There are other works as well, for instance scientific treatises, such as the writings of Hippocrates, dated to after 1331, which were copied and decorated for Alexios Apokaukos, a friend of Andronikos III and a high state official, who is portrayed, richly robed, at the beginning of the manuscript.

Unique, however, are two illustrated manuscripts of historical texts. These are the manuscript of the Chronicle of Skylitzes, now in Madrid, and the Bulgarian translation of the Chronicle of Manasses. The 574 miniatures decorating the first manuscript are believed to have been executed in southern Italy at the end of the 13th century, on the basis of an earlier Byzantine manuscript of the Chronicle. They illustrate the events narrated, which took place between 811 and 1157. The miniatures of the Bulgarian manuscript, on the other hand, which was commissioned by the Tsar Ivan-Alexander (1331-1371), are representative, from the point of view of their style, of the art of their time, but follow, as far as the iconography is concerned, an earlier Byzantine model. These manuscripts constitute an important source of historical information, as they are full of vivid and fascinating details of the life and customs of Byzantine society. Important information may also be gathered from the portraits of the patrons, which often accompany the Palaiologan manuscripts. Contrary to earlier practice, the manuscripts contain portraits not only of the Emperors to whom the work belonged, but also those of members of the upper class, who commissioned books either for their own personal use or to offer them to churches. Family portraits also appear in manuscripts and reflect the particularly important place assigned to the institution of the family by the Byzantine aristocracy. The founder representations in the typikon (rule book) of the Bebaias Elpidos ("of sure hope") nunnery in Constantinople are characteristic examples of this. The monastery was established by Theodora Palaiologina, niece of Michael VIII Palaiologos, and the manuscript in question contains the portrait of ten married couples, well-known members of the aristocracy belonging to her family.