2.2 - Administrative Elites and the ‘First Phase of Byzantine Humanism’: The Adoption of the Minuscule in Book Production and the Role of the Stoudios Monastery

Summary

Abstract

This study investigates the interconnection between the adoption of the minuscule script for the transcription of Greek literary texts (one of the most significant innovations in the history of Byzantine book culture) and the huge cultural revival of ninth-century Byzantium. The focus lies on the social changes that occurred among the Constantinopolitan elites at the end of the eighth century as a result of the political events following the death of Emperor Leo IV. The adoption of the minuscule in the copying of books will be described as a three-step process, whose phases will be discussed with particular attention to the social milieus in which they emerged and developed (especially the bureaucratic circles of the capital connected to the finance administration and some monastic networks). In conclusion, the study emphasizes the importance of some very specific technical skills in one of the most decisive changes in middle-byzantine cultural history.

Keywords: bureaucracy, financial administration, Greek script, minuscule, majuscule, Byzantine humanism, monasticism

One of the most significant innovations in the history of Byzantine book culture is the adoption of the minuscule for the transcription of literary texts, which took place between the end of the eighth and the beginning of the ninth century: this script, which resulted from the process of normalization of a cursive that was already being used in bureaucratic milieus (Figure 2.2.1), superseded the traditional book scripts known as majuscule. This phenomenon shortly preceded a wide cultural revival by which the empire emerged from a long period of decline. This study makes suggestions concerning the interconnection between these phenomena and investigates their causes, focusing on the relationship between such mutations in Byzantine (book) culture and the deep socio-political changes that took place in the empire from the end of the eighth century, the precursors of which can be traced back to the seventh century. It is structured into three main sections: the first section below briefly presents the innovative character of ninth-century book culture, with special attention paid to the manuscript tradition and to the circulation of classical texts. The following section then focuses on the socio-cultural and political conditions in which the adoption of the minuscule for the copying of books took place.