A Descriptive Catalogue of the Greek Manuscripts in the Library of the Monastery of Kykkos

Description

The primary aim of this project was to describe the contents of each manuscript and make them available to scholars in various fields of Greek Cypriot Studies. The Greek manuscripts of Kykkos number over ninety volumes, forming the largest collection of handwritten books preserved until today in a Cypriot monastery. The Holy, Basilike, and Stauropegiake Monastery of Kykkos, erected by the Byzantine Emperor Alexios Komnenos (1081 – 1118), had a library since its founding. The handwritten books were indispensable to the holy worship at Kykkos and its long monastic, liturgical and spiritual practices. After its erection, along with its own metochia and every other monastic annex (cells and chapels), the monastery of Kykkos very early obtained a nucleus of its own monastic library with various handwritten books used in the daily monastic life: Gospel Lectionaries, Apostles, Horologia, Psalters, Euchologia, Triodion, twelve Menaia used for the whole ecclesiastic year, Typikon (Ritual Ordinance) and Lives of Saints. Most of these medieval books have been destroyed. As is the case with most handwritten books in Cyprus, the present collection of manuscripts of the monastery of Kykkos has not been preserved in its original form. We have learned from the various scribes’ colophons and notes that the library of Kykkos was often supplied with further manuscripts through donations by Cypriot and foreign scribes. The occasional supplementation of the library with private books, most of them belonging to deceased monks, has been of extraordinary significance for the enlargement of the library at the monastery of Kykkos.

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