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The Byzantine Script and the Aesthetics of Byzantine

Origin

The byzantine script is not an autonomous system of writing, but constitutes an evolved form of writing by using the common alphabet that the ancient used. Specifically, the roots of Byzantine script go far back as the Militos alphabet, which in the year 403/402 BC overtook all other local Greek alphabets and was adopted in ancient as the common way of writing. The Byzantine script is the advanced system of writing of a thousand-year , from the founding of as the capital of the Eastern by the emperor Constantine the Great in 330 AD up until the fall to the Ottoman Turks in the year 1453. In its heyday the extends across significant regions of , Asia and North Africa. Main characteristic of Byzantine culture is the commitment to Christianity and Greek culture. The need for communication between the various Christianized populations leads to the spread of the Koine Hellenistic language and the use of the in the Byzantine style of writing. From the evolution of the Byzantine script, the writing system arose, in which the upper case letters are generally modeled on the letter shapes of inscriptions, while the lower case letters are based on the tradition of Byzantine minuscule handwriting.

Forms and Kinds

The Byzantine script has two forms: 1) the majuscule (uncial) script, a continuation of the classical way of writing in ancient scribes, characterized by the harmony and

1 symmetry of the carved letters as in at individual artistic creations through the constant flow of words, that were not, at the time, separated; and 2) the minuscule script, a new form of writing that started in the 9th century AD in documents of varying content and codices from the copying centers of the Byzantine empire, mostly the large copying center of the Studium monastery in Constantinople. A. Majuscule Byzantine script: The majuscule (uncial) script is the only form of Greek writing used until the middle of the . It has the characteristic geometric form of the ancient epigraphic Greek script that survived the first centuries of Christianity through carved Byzantine scribes, but also through hand-written books (codices) and was maintained for the titles and the initial letters of the manuscripts. It is the script of the papyri of the , meaning the period after the death of , when, within the vast borders of the Hellenistic kingdoms and the conquered areas, the intellectual interest and demand for copies in order to study older texts of the classical Greek antiquity. The symmetrical majuscule script of the 2nd century AD shows a light mobility with an elongation of the letters and a tendency for connecting some points of them (bachhyleidia uncial script). At the same time, a rounded version of Roman majuscule script is presented, that will effect the form of the letters, as can be seen by the formation of the letters E and Ω. Between the 2nd and 3rd century the writing of the , the holy texts of Christianity, in Greek, and the large demand of liturgical books from Christian churches formed a new manner of majuscule script, more eccentric, painting style characters with light shading in the inscribing of the letters, the Biblical majuscule script. This script does not ignore other scripts of the time, such as the Coptic script, the script of the Copts in , and appears in manuscripts from the Patriarchy of . The Coptic script has characteristic top spikes with a large width and their influence in majuscule biblical script is evident in various books that contain excerpts from the Gospels (Evangelistaria). The most flamboyant, artistic script will appear in 2

the 6th century in luxurious Byzantine manuscripts with gold or silver letters on purple dyed parchments. From the 4th to the 9th century, the majuscule script took on a new style, due to the large demand for manuscripts of bureaucratic texts for the growing Byzantine Empire, at first in and later in Greek. The need to reduce writing time and the increase in writing speed in order to produce more letters by pressing the on the writing material forced the letters to connect and thus, create a new kinetic for of letters, the Byzantine slanted form (episesurmeni) of the majuscule script, that was beneficial for faster writing of everyday manuscripts and well known from the Alexandrian era. The majuscule form will continue to be used in, mostly liturgical, books up to the 12th century, even though Byzantine scripts underwent a great transformation in the 9th century with the appearance of the miniscule form. B. Miniscule Byzantine script: The miniscule script is the type of Byzantine script that appeared in the 9th century AD and prevailed as the common script for the next centuries in all the empire's regions; the evolution of this script also helps to form modern Greek letters. The 9th century has been called the “century of Byzantine ”, with the turn towards ancient Greek standards and the copying of manuscripts of ancient Greek writers. The large bibliographical workshop of the Studium Monastery in Constantinople established a new form of writing, the “studetic” script, that presents with rounded, cursive formation of the letters from large to small, decorated with accents, scribed with a slant to the left and with a strict line placement. The accents (tone), the breathing signs and the punctuation, which had already appeared in the Hellenistic period at the end of the 2nd century BC to facilitate the pronunciation of Greek words for the foreign users of the , and also a 3 large number of ligatures (basic ligatures hold for the script in general, while unique ligatures apply to specific letter combinations), now routinely used in the new type of Byzantine writing and gradually led to the separation of words. With the communication between monasteries, other workshops in Syria, and Mount Sinai cultivated similar forms of writing. Well known Byzantine intellectuals created copying workshops that gradually transformed the majuscule script into the miniscule. A mixed form of capital letters and small ones will prevail until the mid-11th century AD. It will become the standard for book writing, either with the form of the upright cursive writing or with cursive slanted writing. The miniscule script developed up to the 13th century in groups of new, calligraphic forms, such as the letters formed as pearls on a string, the margaritaroplexti style, the curly style (bouletee), the writing in a formation as if on a ivy leaf, the “assos – pika” style, the small, hastily-written and gathered together letters of the “kolivogrammata” style, the uneven in height and distance letters of the “anissostrogili” style (uneven and rounded form). In the last two centuries of the Byzantine Empire, the script is transformed into a wide array of styles that mirror the personal style of the transcriber, which indicates the instability and anxiousness for the upcoming decline and fall of the Byzantine state, with the exception of religious manuscripts, which retain their stable and clear script. However, the schools of the 15th century will improve their form, in order to be competitive, and will apply the “philological script of the 15th century”, especially for transcribing classical texts that were in high demand from the West; soon after, the first typographical elements will come to prominence.

Byzantine Manuscripts: Types of Books, Tools and Writing Materials, Places of Production

Byzantine manuscripts were written in two types of books, in scrolls (ilitaria) that were popular among ancient Greeks and Romans, and codices. The ilitaria were 4 cylinders, initially made of papyrus leaves, a plant that grew in the Nile valley and various parts of Syria, Mesopotamia and ; it quickly became a popular writing material in many civilized nations through the expeditions of Alexander the Great. The text in the ilitario was usually vertically aligned and rarely was horizontal. Constantly unrolling the scroll, made of the fragile material, made reading sections only impractical. The needs of the Christian world for studying parts of holy texts brought changes to the shape of the manuscripts; first, individual sheets were cut and bound together, forming the first codices in the mid-2nd century AD. The new material that was used for the pages was processed cow, goat and lamb skin, which was durable, elastic and could withstand changes in temperature and moisture. It was named “pergamini” in Greek, after Pergamon, the city where this process first started, under king Eumenes II (197 – 158 BC). Many official codices that were made for the Byzantine emperors were dyed red and the letters were either gold or silver. Many texts from ancient papyri were transcribed to parchments; many texts were erased for reasons of frugality and were covered by new texts, and as palimpsests they offer valuable information for various time periods. However, many Byzantine parchments also remain. The Byzantines used various colors of . The ink for the body of the text was usually black and was called “melan”. For the ornamental title letters and the initial letter of the manuscript, red ink was used, that was extracted from an insect called cochineal (kokkos o vafikos). To write or dye in color red they used a coloring called “porfyra”, a very expensive dye made of the shell murex, and was used mostly by imperial workshops for valuable documents. They also used a blue-green pigment made of iron oxide and yellow from safran flowers. Expensive metals such as gold or silver were used only in exceptional cases of official documents for the entire text, rarely for entire religious or other texts and more often for titles or initials. The basic instrument for writing on papyrus or parchment was a small, flexible piece of cane, called “kalamos” or “grafis”, that would be placed in a 5 special holder called “kalamarion”, and the ink would be kept in glass, clay or metal containers. The covers of codices were usually made of wood and covered with leather; official editions for the imperial court or that were gifts from the emperor to convents or dignitaries, would be covered with gold or silver and gems. Byzantine manuscripts were written, copied and often decorated and bound in the copying workshops of large convent libraries and the imperial workshops in Constantinople. There were large copying workshops for Byzantine manuscripts at the Monasteries of , (Agion Oros), the St. Catherine’s Monastery of Sinai, the Monastery of Patmos island, monasteries in Syria, and Jerusalem. The special areas were called scriptoria; writers and copiers of various skill levels, monks, priests and commoners copied manuscripts and often, decorated them. Because the copying process was done by specialized but also unskilled copiers, there were errors and changes to the content of an original reference copy. Specialized artistic workshops undertook the adornment and illustration of the manuscripts.

Illustrated Manuscripts: Miniatures, Headpieces and Initials

Byzantine art is expressed in the production that came out of the Byzantine Empire and the most important birthplace is the capital of Constantinople.

6 depicts the transcendental world of faith through the messages of Christianity and was dominant for a millennium and a half in the Orthodox Christian East. Byzantine painting is formed and evolves mostly through the tradition of Hellenistic art and the pictorial tradition of the Far and Middle East. The characteristic, unrealistic forms of Byzantine style, which are removed from the naturalism of the classical Greek tradition, with the elimination of volume and perspective, aim to project the esoteric qualities of the intellectual world and spiritual exaltation. However, the close connection of Byzantine painting with the human form shows its proximity with the humanistic character of ancient and differentiates it from decorative Islamic art or the naturalistic style of Chinese art. The human form is replaced in the center of Byzantine iconography only by symbolic representations such as the cross, the dove or liturgical symbols. Alongside the monumental works of Byzantine art with ecclesiastic architecture, murals, and smaller religious pictures, the decoration of manuscripts evolved. The illustration of manuscripts functioned as a visual interpretation of the text and gave the reader the opportunity to better understand it, offering at the same time the potential for deeper spiritual emotions and aesthetic delight. The Byzantines illustrated the books of the Old and (Psalms, Octateuchs, Gospels), excerpts from the Gospels relevant to holidays, liturgical books, lives of the saints, speeches by the Great Fathers (Saints Basil the Great, , ), the dogmatic texts of monasteries, texts from ancient , secular texts and works of science. The illustration of Byzantine manuscripts follows the tradition of illustration that existed in early Christian centuries. The illustrators followed the trend that the Greeks had established and tried to justify their idolatrous past in their own ways. Greek myths became Christian, Orpheus became Christ, mermen, Sphinxes, centaurs and goat-like gods explain the rational and irrational nature of man. Illustrated Greek manuscripts initially fed the Byzantines with a wide variety of pictorial subjects from classical tradition, which in turn they managed to

7 incorporate comparatively in their own work, as Weitzmann, the most famous scholar of Byzantine manuscripts, has proven on many occasions. After the end of the theological and political turbulence about the use of images and the importance of divine representation with the triumph of the acceptance of images, in the 9th century AD, artistic creation is reborn and the style of Byzantine ecclesiastic art develops rapidly, from the return to majestic types of ancient, classical tradition to the dramatic styling of the late Byzantine years. The subjects of illustrations present a schematic world with a tendency to portray faces head on, a minimal representation of physical anatomy and architectural objects without a physical dimension and with an ethereal golden depth that emphasizes the transcendental dimension and the holy light. The aim is no longer to yield the ideal beauty, but the sublime in the inner strength of the facial expression. In the illustration of Byzantine manuscripts, the faces of Jesus, Mary, the evangelists and saints follow established iconographic forms, which follow the era in which they are created in style and genre; they are connected to the narratives of the texts and grant high value and political importance to the manuscript, as next to the silhouettes of saints there are often emperors and noblemen, thus symbolizing their power supported “by Cod’s mercy”. At the same time, the depiction of plants, animals and everyday scenes of Byzantines express a more personal and free side of the byzantine artist. After completing the text, Byzantine copiers often decorated the initials themselves, added calligraphy, adorned the title by making oblong or Pi-shaped (piomorfa) headpieces (epititla) and banners with rounded, spiral, heart shaped, lyra shaped, flower or saw shaped motifs, often with decorative elements at the end of chapters, along with a note, remembrance, prayer or, rarely, their signature. The adornment of Byzantine initials (protogrammata), meaning the 24 capital letters in the beginning of manuscript texts or some chapters is particularly inspired;

8 these first letters often contained in themselves a small narrative of the text. However, the addition of images either on the borders of the text or as a full page representation was often the job of workshops specialized in miniatures. For the production of luxurious manuscripts, artists specialized in miniatures and gems worked together; only during the last era of the Palaiologoi emperors were the miniatures independently commissioned works of art and were supplementary to the codex. The iconographic adornment of manuscripts enhanced the holy, liturgical, artistic and commercial value of them; as a complete artistic work, it increased quality, luxury and price.

The language of the Byzantine Manuscripts

The language of the Byzantine manuscripts is a topic of special research as many of the surviving manuscripts of scholarly are written in a form of archaic Greek language, the attikizousa, which tries to emulate the Attic writing style of the 5th and 4th century BC. This language differs from the simple vernacular language of ordinary people, the lite, which was derived from the evolution of the Koine Hellenistic language and its numerous local variations. As Helen Glykatzi – Ahrweiler says “The Byzantines were appalled by the Classical spirit, but they were attracted to Classical literature. Thus, we owe the preservation of Classical literature largely to the Byzantine intelligentsia”. The Greek language from the 7th century replaces Latin as the official language of the Byzantine Empire. The gap between the spoken language of multinational working classes, who lived in the countryside and on the borders of the empire, and the official written language was deep, but in many manuscripts the State and the Church used often a closer to the vernacular form of language for understanding the law and for the spread of the teachings of Christianity. The fact remains, however, that the Byzantine language was mixed, and although did develop into a new vernacular Greek language during the last centuries of the Byzantine Empire, it founded a kind of , a dichotomy between literary and language, which marked the Greek education to modern times.

Dr.Argyro KASOTAKI-GATOPOULOU Assistant Professor The Greek Studies Department - Hankuk University of Foreign Studies

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References

1. History of the Greek People, vol.VIII, IX, Ekdotike Athenon AE, Athens 1979 2. Illuminated Manuscripts - Miniatures, Headpieces, Initial Letters, The Treasures of Mount Athos, vol. A-D, Ekdotike Athenon AE, Athens 1991 3. Sinai, Treasures of the Monastery, Ekdotike Athenon, AE, Athens,1990 4. Glykatzi –Ahrweiler, E. “The Language”, The and Historical Archives, ELIA, Athens 1999, pp. 126-135 in http://www.elia.org.gr/default.fds?langid=1&pagecode=08.03.04.01&pageid= 134 5. Kalabartzi-Katsarou, K. “The Byzantine Script”, Archaiologia, Vol.5, 1982, pp. 35-46 in http://www.archaiologia.gr/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/5-5.pdf 6. Michelis, P.A. An Aesthetic Appreciation of Byzantine Art, The Panagiotis and Effie Michelis Foundation, Athens 2006 (7th Ed.) 7. Stefanidou, A. “Forms of Ancient in the Illuminated Byzantine Manuscripts”, Keimena, vol 4, June 2006 (in Greek) http://keimena.ece.uth.gr/main/t4/arthra/tefxos4/downloads/stefanidou.pdf 8. Tavlakis, I. “The Copy and the Manuscript Tradition of Ancient Texts, Archaiologia”, Vol.5, 1982, pp. 30-34 in http://www.archaiologia.gr/wp- content/uploads/2011/06/5-5.pdf

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