The library of Megisti Lavra-Βιβλιοθήκη της Ιεράς Μονής Μεγίστης Λαύρας

Library. The Library of the Great Lavra is the first to be created on Mount Oros, as it was established almost with the foundation of the monastery. The founder, Saint Athanasios the Athonite, had his own library, which formed the first nucleus. According to Makarios Trigonis, custodian of the monastery (1772), the library, which was located in the area of ​​the catechumens, above the narthex of the catholicon, belonged to Athanasios himself and was located in front of his cell: "Similarly, his cell is there it is, and his library is full of various handwritten books". Also, the interest in the books of Athanasios, who was an excellent calligrapher, prompted him to create a code copying workshop already in the early years. The collection was subsequently enriched by manuscripts that were either copied in the laboratory or arrived through donations, exchanges and purchases.

From the 10th century onwards, the collection was kept in various places: inside the catholicon, the old abbot's house and the tower of Tsimiskis, in a cell to the left of the chapel of the First Martyr Agios Stefanos which is located at the top of it - information however indisputable.

During the 13th century, the Lavra library numbered around 1,000 manuscripts. During this period, it also inherited the collection of Latin manuscripts belonging to the Amalfitans, after the destruction of their monastery.

As early as the 13th century the manuscripts were placed in at least sixteen special places in the library space, as shown by the classification numbers of the surviving manuscripts. In 1701, Ioannis Komnenos notes in his Proskynitarion: "above the narthex there is an admirable library, in which there are various old hand-written books, of great value worthy of men of wisdom and philology". The books must have remained in this position until 1814, when the chancel and narthex of the catholicon were demolished and rebuilt in their present form.

It is not known where the books of the narthex were taken. However, the bulk of the Lavra's books were kept in two rooms, which were located to the left of the courtyard, as seen from the entrance gate. About this library there is the information of the traveler Carlyle in 1801. Also, Robert Curzon, who visited the monastery of Lavra in 1837 and stayed there for three days, tells us that the library of the monastery was contained in two small rooms, facing a narrow courtyard, to the left of the large courtyard, and that these rooms communicated with each other. Regarding the books, he mentions that they were almost sorted, on shelves, but abandoned, with the long-term dust covering them, and that very few volumes had the title written on their spines. He characterizes the collection as very large, about 5,000 volumes, of which about 4,000 were printed books—among them several fine classics and editiones principes. The 900 manuscripts consisted of 600 papyrus and 300 parchment codices. Curzon entered the library several times and looked very carefully at all the manuscripts. He believes that he missed nothing particularly interesting about classical antiquity or the Enlightenment. However, none of the Gospels, which were decorated with arabesques, seemed to him particularly valuable.

The next testimony is from 1869 by Ioannis M. Raptarchis: "The library of the monastery, located to the left of the entrance to the large courtyard, consists of two adjacent rooms, where the books are kept neatly in wooden cases".

From 1876, according to Gerasimos Smyrnakis, or in 1870, according to Nikodimos Lavriotis, the Library together with the Archive and the Vault were housed in a separate building east of the catholicon. This building is divided into three rooms.

Regarding the enrichment of the Library of the monastery of Lavra, we highlight the case of Manuel Moschiotis. We read in a document of the Great Lavra: "The Frankish books, where they are in the Library, have written on the inside the name of the person who brought them, it was Manuel Moschiotou; and it seems that someone was pre-eminent and he had the books, and he was brought in according to the year". These books, as we learn from Evlogios Kourilas, even in 1935, "in Latin and Italian, mostly theological and historical, are unfortunately lying without any order or inscription in the so-called museum of the monastery, now they have become a barn from the parish to the monks of indifference about foreign language books". It seems, however, that Moschiotis did not only take with him to the Lavra the "Frankish" books, but also other rare publications of Greek interest. For example, in the library of the monastery there are books with the note "by Manuel Moschiot", such as Claudius Ptolemaios, Great Synagogue Books XIII; Theon Alexandreos, Eis tử ἀἰἰἰ ἐπομονίματα Books 1Α΄ (Basel 1538); Strabo, On Geography books XIII (Basel 1549); Stephen of Byzantium, About Cities (Aldos Manutios, Venice 1402).

Sources of wealth of the Library can also be considered the personal libraries of the "ὑπεροριος", i.e. displaced hierarchs who ended up in the monastery following a decision of the ecclesiastical or secular authorities. Of the 23 patriarchs and 137 metropolitans or bishops who came and died in the Lavra, we note a few names: the patriarchs Anthimos II of Adrianoupolis († 1628), Dionysios III Vardalis († 1704), Jeremias III († 1735 ), Cyril V († 1778), the metropolitan of Artis and Nafpaktos Neophytos Mavrommatis († 1746) and the metropolitan of Tornovou Iosif († 1755). In fact, the Library preserves books of these, but also of many other high priests.

The best testimony about the library of the monastery in the second half of the 18th century are the notes of the predecessor Kyrillos Lavriotis of Peloponnese. Kyrillos, who lived in the monastery intermittently from 1759 to about 1810, read hundreds of printed books and manuscripts, and his notes can be found either in the pages or in the margins of the pages. From these notes we are informed, among other things, about book purchases by him. Kyrillos bought many books wherever he was—in Iasi where he was a teacher (1768), in Venice (1779), in Gallipoli, in Karyes—even taking care of their binding.

Ianos Laskaris, commissioned by Lavrentiou Medici, chose (1491–1492) with great care, from the most important monasteries of Athos, a large number of valuable codices with works of classical authors and great Fathers to enrich the Florentine library. He removed 50 codes from the Great Lavra alone.

By order of Tsar Alexios and Patriarch Nikon, Arsenios Sukhanov was sent to Mount Athos in order to receive from there liturgical codes in view of the revision of the old translations. Exceeding the order, or following another secret order, Sukhanov collected a number of great codices between the years 1653 and 1655. He eventually brought 498 codices to Moscow, which were deposited in the then patriarchal library. Of these, 53 were from the Lavra Library.

Again in the middle of the 17th century, the Unite Cypriot scholar Athanasios Rhetor, by order of the Chancellor of France P. Séquier and Cardinal Mazarin, obtained from Mount Athos 109 manuscripts, most of them from the Great Lavra, which today belong to the National Library of France labeled Coislinus.

At the time of Vasily Barsky's second visit to Mt. (1744) over 500 parchment books and other papers were kept in the Lavra Library. The monks told him that there had formerly been many more parchments, which had been sold "by the lot, like wood, for a small price to the Latins," and some of them were in the library of St. Mark in Venice and in other cities of Europe.

Until today, the Library of the Holy Monastery of Megistis Lavra is housed in the independent building of 1870 that was expanded by two antennas in 1958. From 1983 to 2018, the Center for the Preservation of Holy Heritage carried out a series of renovations and interventions to remodel and improve the functionality of the premises where the Vault and the Library of manuscripts, but also of printed editions, ancient and newer, are housed. In the eastern part of the northern wing, the library of modern publications was installed in 1984 on the first floor.

File. The Archive of the Great Lavra contains 200 imperial chrysovulas, approximately 20,000 Greek, Byzantine and post-Byzantine documents as well as 10,000 Turkish, Romanian, Slavic, Latin and Arabic.

Source https://www.aboutlibraries.gr/libraries/handle/20.500.12777/lib_92