Papers by Marina Kurysheva
Graphosphaera. 2026. Т. 6. № 1. С. 129–150. , 2026
The article is dedicated to a unique manuscript Vlad. 430 (Syn. gr. 186) created in the Norman Ki... more The article is dedicated to a unique manuscript Vlad. 430 (Syn. gr. 186) created in the Norman Kingdom of Sicily and kept in the State Historical Museum in Moscow. The analysis of paleography and codicology, as well as the study of the features of illumination (headlines, initials, “vignettes”) of this codex allow us to date it to the middle – second half of the 12th century (before 1182), that is, to the reign of the Norman kings of the Hauteville dynasty. The minuscule script of the Moscow manuscript Vlad. 430 (Syn. gr. 186) cannot be attributed to any of the main scripts dominant in the Greek book literature of Southern Italy in the 12th century; however, it contains all the elements of 12th-century Greek script, i. e. ‘typographic minuscule’. The scribe uses dark brown ink of a warm shade, typical for the 12th century. He also constantly uses ancient letter forms (beta, lambda, delta). This is not a standardized handwriting of a professional scribe, but a handwriting of, so to speak, a provincial (from the point of view of the Byzantines) notary, who was, however, familiar with the Constantinople books of similar content.
![Research paper thumbnail of “Master of Сeremonies” and His Manuscript: The New Edition of the Treatise “De Cerimoniis” (Book Review: Constantin VII Porphyrogénète. Le Livre des Cérémonies. In 5 vols. / éds. G. Dagron (†), B. Flusin, D. Feissel [et al.]. Paris : ACHCByz, 2020. VIII, 2892 p. vol. 52/1–5)).](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/131510229/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Вестник Волгоградского государственного университета. Серия 4, История. Регионоведение. Международные отношения. – 2025. – Т. 30, №6. – С. 289–297.
The article analyzes the approaches and decisions of a group of scholars who prepared a new editi... more The article analyzes the approaches and decisions of a group of scholars who prepared a new edition of the treatise "The Book of Ceremonies" (De cerimoniis aulae byzantinae). Despite the obvious merits of this edition, primarily in the field of philological study of the text and commentary on the realities of Byzantine diplomatic protocol, religious rituals, and bureaucratic practices, the general approach to the publication of the text raises serious doubts. The publication is based on the idea that the main text of this compilation belongs to Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos and should be dated to the beginning of his real reign, i.e., 945-946. All other, at least no less, and in fact more substantiated hypotheses that the original treatise was created by parakoimomenos Basil Lekapenos the Nothos or an anonymous "Master of Ceremonies" around and after 963 are not even considered. Following their concept, the editors took the non-obvious path of excluding entire fragments of the text that didn't fit into it chronologically. Moreover, some fragments of the compilation were simply omitted in the new edition, and some were enclosed in square brackets. The only codex in which the treatise survived in its complete form, Lipsiensis Rep. I 17, received only a formal description and not a full-fledged paleographic and codicological study. The given dating of the two codes of the treatise, Lipsiensis Rep. I 17 and the Palimpsest, are not substantiated in any way and therefore arbitrary. Results. As a result, it should be noted that in this edition the Lipsiensis, as a unique example of high court book culture of the 10 th century, did not receive the necessary comprehensive study, and the text of this manuscript, the only complete text of the treatise "De cerimoniis," would deserve a complete edition without omissions, no matter what their motivation.
Altera Roma: римское наследие и судьбы византийской цивилизации. Тезисы докладов XXIV Всероссийской научной сессии византинистов / Под ред. М. В. Грацианского. Москва, Нижний Новгород: Нижегородский государственный университет им. Н. И. Лобачевского, 2025. С. 137–139.
Вся совокупность имеющихся данных говорит о том, что автором составителем трактата «De cerimoniis... more Вся совокупность имеющихся данных говорит о том, что автором составителем трактата «De cerimoniis aulae byzantinae» и соответственно писцом рукописи Lipsien. Rep. I. 17 был анонимный придворный бюрократ «мастер церемоний»—ὁ (ἐπὶ) τῆς καταστάσεως (Э.Моффрат, М.А.Курышева), который скомпилировал и написал его для служебного пользования. Не исключено, что именно этот анонимный писец и автор-составитель трактата был распорядителем церемонии похорон Константина VII Багрянородного 15 ноября 959 г. / The totality of available evidence suggests that the author-compiler of the treatise De cerimoniis aulae byzantinae, and accordingly the scribe of manuscript Lips. Rep. I. 17, was an anonymous court bureaucrat — the "Master of Ceremonies" ὁ (ἐπὶ) τῆς καταστάσεως — who compiled and wrote it for official use. It is not excluded that this very anonymous scribe and author-compiler of the treatise was the organizer of the ceremony of Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus' funeral on November 15, 959.
Искусство византийского мира 3: сборник статей памяти О. С. Поповой / Ред.-сост. О. В. Овчарова, И. А. Орецкая. М.: Государственный институт искусствознания МК РФ, 2025. С. 124–135., 2025
The article is focused on the three most vivid and well-described writing styles of the Macedonia... more The article is focused on the three most vivid and well-described writing styles of the Macedonian Renaissance period in the Byzantine Empire – minuscule bouletée, italicized minuscule “of the monk Ephraim type” and Perlschrift. These styles epitomize the dynamics of changing fashions in Byzantine book culture of the late 9th to late 11th century and appeared to be oriented towards the social groups from which the order to write books and documents came. First, it was the court aristocracy, which from the end of the 9th to the middle of the 10th century bought manuscripts written in bouletée handwriting. Then, educated inhabitants of Constantinople and its environs, to whom belonged the monk Ephraim, whose school of writing became popular in the middle of the 10th century. And finally, it was the high-ranking aristocrats of the newly “assembled” and unified Byzantine Empire, for whom Perlschrift manuscripts were written from the third quarter of the 10th century to the very end of the 11th century.
ΔΙΔΑΣΚΑΛΟΣ ΚΑΙ ΣΟΦΟΣ. Сборник статей к 90-летию И. П. Медведева / Под ред. Л. А. Герд. СПб.: Индрик, 2025. С. 226–232. , 2025
The contemporary stage of codicology and paleography gives us an opportunity to examine not only ... more The contemporary stage of codicology and paleography gives us an opportunity to examine not only palimpsests, but also washed off texts on the sheets of parchment, which had been used to binder and to repair manuscripts. Original Greek acts of the Byzantine period hitherto were unknown in the collections of the manuscripts in Russia. In the codex from the Synodal Greek collection of the State Historical Museum in Moscow – MS Syn. gr. 391 (Vlad. 355) – I found the original Greek document on the parchment, the text of it had been washed off, and the charter had been folded in half as a guard sheet. To the Russian-language article, I added the English abstract of my paper presented at the Congress of Byzantine Studies in Sofia in 2016.
Электронный научно-образовательный журнал «История». – 2025. – T. 16. – Выпуск 4 (150). URL: https://history.jes.su/s207987840035423-4-1/, 2025
Paper fragments of four Greek manuscripts have been discovered in the Russian National Library du... more Paper fragments of four Greek manuscripts have been discovered in the Russian National Library during the restoration of the binding of the Gospel in Arabic, with a Latin translation, published by the Medici printing house in Rome in 1591. According to my attribution, these are liturgical texts: 35 leaves from an Octoechos with Arabic notations in the margins, an edge-cut bifolium with the liturgy of St. Basil the Great, one edge-cut leaf from a Book of Hours, and a schematic drawing of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. My analysis of the paleography of the writing of these fragments allows me to conclude that all these manuscripts were created in the Greek communities of the Basilian monasteries of Southern Italy and Sicily in the 13th to the 15th centuries, and the drawing, apparently, before the middle of the 16th century. The Gospel of 1591 first belonged to the famous Russian intellectual Simeon Polotsky, then passed to the renowned copyist of the Moscow Printing Court, Priest Nikifor Semyonov, and after that it came to be found in the library of Sylvester Medvedev. This Arabic Gospel and especially the Greek fragments from the binding are unique in our archival collections representing late medieval and early modern book culture.
Вестник РГГУ. Серия «Литературоведение. Языкознание. Культурология». 2025. № 5. С. 131–144. , 2025
The article explores three miniatures illustrating the myth of Zeus’s birth on the island of Cret... more The article explores three miniatures illustrating the myth of Zeus’s birth on the island of Crete, sourced from three different Greek manuscripts. The original image is located in the 11th-century Byzantine manuscript containing the ancient text of the didactic poem on hunting, the Cynegetica, by Oppian of Apamea from the third century A.D. The second miniature, a copy, is located in the 16th-century Renaissance Italian manuscript by the Venetian scribe Bartolomeo Zanetti. The third miniature, which was copied in Paris in 1554 by an anonymous miniaturist (collaborating with the renowned Cretan calligrapher Angelo Vergecio) from an Italian version, radically transforms the artistic approach of the protograph. As a result, the miniature of the Parisian manuscript becomes a true cartoid, incorporating elements of the actual geography of Crete and the major cities during Venice’s domination over the island into its mythological space. The Byzantine image is transformed into a Renaissance mini-masterpiece.
Индоевропейское языкознание и классическая филология-XXIX (1) / Гл. редактор Н. Н. Казанский. СПб.: ИЛИ РАН, 2025. С. 1033–1038 / Indo-European Linguistics and Classical Philology XXIX (1) / Edited by Nikolai N. Kazansky. St. Petersburg: Institute for Linguistic Studies, RAS, 2025. P. 1033–1038.
The paper is dedicated to the comparison of the handwriting of the oldest part of the Greek manus... more The paper is dedicated to the comparison of the handwriting of the oldest part of the Greek manuscript-convolution BnF Suppl. gr. 607, containing Ancient and early Byzantine polemical texts, with a document issued by the Byzantine emperor Leo VI the Wise in 893 or 908. The paper analyses a sheet of parchment from the archive of the Athonite Protaton, containing three Byzantine documents of the emperors Basil I, Leo VI and Romanos I with Constantine VII. The paper shows that the document of Leo VI, written on one side of this sheet, is the original. The palaeographic proximity of the handwritings of the scribe of the document of Leo VI with the handwritings of the two scribes I and IV of Suppl. gr. 607 allows us to confirm the palaeographic dating of this manuscript to the 9th –10th century and finally to assign the time of its creation to the reign of Leo VI.
Древнерусское искусство: Искусство рукописной книги. Вып. 5. Libro manuscripto inspirata. Памяти И.П. Мокрецовой (1935–2020) / Ред.-сост. Э.Н. Добрынина. М.: Государственный институт искусствознания, 2024. С. 96–103. , 2024
The article concerns the problem of reconstructing the organization of Athos monasteries' librari... more The article concerns the problem of reconstructing the organization of Athos monasteries' libraries in the Byzantine and post-Byzantine periods. Manuscripts themselves often contain notes indicating where and how exactly they were stored. Information on this can also be found in monastic typikons and property inventories, as well as in pilgrims' and travelers' notes. Finally, some details about how and where books were kept are provided by the study of monastic and church architectural complexes.
Восточная Европа в древности и средневековье. Вып. XXХVI. Родственные и квазиродственные связи в экономической, политической, конфессиональной и культурной жизни. М.: ИВИ РАН, 2024. С. 101–105., 2024
A unique case of generational succession among byzantine literati (scribes) of the 10th–11th cent... more A unique case of generational succession among byzantine literati (scribes) of the 10th–11th centuries
Электронный научно-образовательный журнал «История». – 2023. – T. 14. – Выпуск 12 (134). Часть I. 1 2 3 4 5 6 URL: https://history.jes.su/s207987840028463-8-1/, 2023
The article gives the description and analysis of an anonymous small Byzantine chronicle from the... more The article gives the description and analysis of an anonymous small Byzantine chronicle from the manuscript Paris. gr. 1788 of the early 14th century. This chronicle covers the period from the reign of the Roman emperor Gaius Julius Caesar to the Roman emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos. It covers the events from 48 B. C. to 11 December 1282 A. D. This time span is conditioned by the idea of the continuous existence of the Roman state from its first emperor up to the iconic figure of the founder of the Palaiologan dynasty and the restorer of the Roman Empire. The chronicle was created shortly after 1282. It can be assumed that the text from the manuscript Paris, gr. 1788 is the copy from its original.
Электронный научно-образовательный журнал «История». – 2023. – T. 14. – Выпуск 12 (134). Часть I. URL: https://history.jes.su/s207987840028499-7-1/. , 2023
The paper deals with the problem of organization of the libraries of the monasteries of Mount Ath... more The paper deals with the problem of organization of the libraries of the monasteries of Mount Athos in the Byzantine and post-Byzantine eras. The available data allow us to identify the locations of the monasteries of Mount Athos where books were kept and trace their movements between them. Unique information on the movements of codices between monasteries is also analyzed. Certain rhythms of time for the storage, cataloguing, reading and restoration of books and documents are explored. The main cultural and archival function of the Greek libraries of Mount Athos — the accumulation and preservation of books and documents — is shown through specific examples. Athonite librarians were actively engaged in the “production of eternity”, i.e., either preventing the physical aging of books or transferring texts from old media to new ones. It was book culture and the tradition of material support for intellectual pursuits (the creation, preservation and restoration of books), including on Mount Athos, that played a crucial role in the preservation and transmission of the Byzantine book heritage after the destruction of the Byzantine Roman Empire.
Электронный научно-образовательный журнал «История». 2022. T. 13. Выпуск 5 (115). URL: https://history.jes.su/s207987840021544-7-1/ , 2022
This paper gives a brief overview of the current state of research on the palaeography and codico... more This paper gives a brief overview of the current state of research on the palaeography and codicology of tenth-century Greek manuscripts. Although methods of attributing and dating individual handwritings and unique codicological features have now been developed in Greek palaeography, their application to the 9th to 11th century period was considered virtually impossible. This postulate is translated in all modern manuals on Greek palaeography. Our study of the individual peculiarities of the handwritings of the 10th century and the unique codicological characteristics of groups of codices enabled us to date, locate and attribute both individual manuscripts and their groups created in the most significant “scriptoriums” of Constantinople. Our emphasis was not on studying the “iconic” luxury codices, but on the most typical ones written in everyday handwriting of the era of the Macedonian dynasty. Our research has shown that the codices of the 9th to the 11th centuries can and should be studied by the same methods as those of subsequent centuries of Byzantine history.
Хризограф / Chrysograph. Вып. 4. Москва, 2018. С. 144–160., 2018
The manuscript of the Gospel and Epistle Lectionaries, RNL, Gr. 55 (Gregory– Aland l 250) is pres... more The manuscript of the Gospel and Epistle Lectionaries, RNL, Gr. 55 (Gregory– Aland l 250) is preserved in the collection of the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg. Evidently it was produced in the Imperial scriptorium during the lifetime of Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (913–959) and has for many years been associated in historiography with the name of the donor, parakoimomenos Basil Lekapenos Nothos. The manuscript has a notable characteristic: the primary text is written throughout in majuscule of the Coptic ductus. Another distinguishing feature is the way the text appears on the page in three columns, a very rare phenomenon in Byzantine manuscripts. As we tried to demonstrate in our previous work, this ‘ostentatious’ manuscript dates from the mid-10th c. like previous researchers, at the time we believed it was written by a single scribe. However, further study of the manuscript RNL, Gr. 55, has revealed the work of two scribes. Within the context of the complex calligraphic style chosen for the script of the main text – majuscule of the Coptic ductus – the work of both scribes demonstrates an equally high standard of calligraphy and appears similar, so that the way certain elements are written is the only factor by which they can be distinguished. There are several indications of individual particularities of their hand within the context of one type of script. We should also point out another difference in the organisation of work by the first and second scribes, which relates to the codicological characteristics of the manuscript. Only the second scribe marks the beginning of each new quire, writing a small, scarcely visible cross on the vertical line of ruling for the first column nearest to the binding, which appears in the manuscript from f. 88 onwards. This cross in combination with a signature in the lower left corner of the first sheet and the lower right corner of the f. 8 v in the quire is a distinguishing feature of the codicology of manuscripts by a renowned Constantinople scribe of the mid-10th c., the monk Ephrem. Almost the entire ornamental repertoire of the middle and second half of the 10th century can be found in RNL, Gr. 55: this is the not yet fully established book decoration of the transitional type, with use in the initials and headpieces of the ‘serrated’ style (Laubsägestil), and also of the recently emerged ‘flower-petal’ (Blütenblatt) ornament, accompanied by ‘enamelled’ initials and headpieces. It can therefore be established that the manuscript was copied by two scribes. The first scribe set the tone for the script and the second acted as a ‘secondary’ scribe, imitating the first. The first scribe of RNL, Gr. 55 had such an accomplished calligraphic hand as regards majuscule style of the Coptic ductus that he could be seen as a model for the production of such ‘elite’ manuscripts.
Вестник Волгоградского государственного университета. Серия 4, История. Регионоведение. Международные отношения. 2024. Т. 29, № 6. С. 236–245.
The Greek manuscript-convolute BnF Suppl. gr. 607, consisting of five parts united under one bind... more The Greek manuscript-convolute BnF Suppl. gr. 607, consisting of five parts united under one binding, has not yet been the subject of a comprehensive codicological analysis, nor has a paleographic study of all its individual parts been carried out. In the paper, with the help of paleographic analysis, all these parts were dated: the paper sheet with the owner’s inscription and four riddles – the end of the 16th century; fragments of the “History” by Nicetas Choniates from the first half to the middle of the 13th century; fragments of homilies by John Chrysostom from the end of the 11th to the beginning of the 12th century; an incomplete collection of Ancient and Byzantine passages from historians and excerpts from military treatises from the end of the 9th to the beginning of the 10th century; fragments of orator Lysias’ speeches from the second half of the 15th to the 16th centuries. On the basis of the analysis of codicology and the data available to us about the activity of its first owner, Minoides Minas, it is concluded that this convolute was made by him himself from the remains of the codices, which were previously separate. And it is concluded that there is no evidence that any parts were combined earlier. The 1510s binding was either acquired separately and used as a folder for valuable fragments of various manuscripts or belonged to one of the five parts, possibly a codex of Lysias' speeches.
Индоевропейское языкознание и классическая филология-XXVIII (1) / Гл. редактор Н. Н. Казанский. СПб.: ИЛИ РАН, 2024. С. 957–963.
The paper suggests a palaeographic dating of the so-called “oldest part” of the Greek convolute m... more The paper suggests a palaeographic dating of the so-called “oldest part” of the Greek convolute manuscript Supplément grec 607 of the National Library of France. This part of the manuscript is a miscellany of ancient military treatises from the 5th century BC to the 5th century AD. This is the oldest Byzantine collection of polemological materials, made on the basis of more ancient majuscule originals. Despite the fact that extensive historiography has been dedicated to this manuscript, the identification of the handwritings of its four scribes, the demarcation of these handwritings within the manuscript and their substantiated palaeographic dating have not yet been made. This manuscript does not fit into any style of writing from the era of book culture of the classical Macedonian Renaissance, associated with the circle of intellectuals of Emperor Constantine VII. In the collection there are no traces of treatises on the tactics of Constantine VII’s father Leo VI the Wise, which can be find in all the “imperial” military-tactical collections of the 10th century. The combination of palaeographic features of all four handwritings finds correspondence in the handwritings of the circle of scribes who worked on orders of Arethas of Caesarea, identified by Aubrey Diller, which allows us to date them no later than the first quarter of the 10th century. The archaic features of the graphical and orthographical peculiarities (primarily, a high degree of “admixture” of majuscule letters and irregular diacritics) of the manuscript allow us to date it to an even earlier time — the end of the 9th — beginning of the 10th century, i.e., attributing it to the era of the early Macedonian Renaissance, associated with intellectuals from the entourage of Emperor Leo VI the Wise.
Отрада страстно желающей достичь истины. Сборник статей ко дню рождения Ирины Геннадиевны Коноваловой. М.: ГАУГН Пресс, 2024. С. 88–91.
The paper analyses an Arabic record of donation in Codex Sinait. gr. 417. The author of this reco... more The paper analyses an Arabic record of donation in Codex Sinait. gr. 417. The author of this record is identified as Sinai Bishop Joachim II, who ruled St Catherine’s Monastery of Mount Sinai from 1451 to 1459. The manuscript is written in the bouletée style, i.e., it belongs to the period of the early Macedonian Renaissance. Thus, the manuscript Sinait. gr. 417 was created in Constantinople or in some other major center of Byzantine book production in the early 10th century, and deposited in the monastery of St Catherine on Sinai in the mid-15th century.
Graphosphaera. 2023. Т. 3. № 2. С. 261–286.
The paper focuses on the attribution of two unique artefacts – a Greek manuscript and a funerary ... more The paper focuses on the attribution of two unique artefacts – a Greek manuscript and a funerary reliquary – associated with the du Bellay brothers. The Greek manuscript of the 16th century Grech. 150, stored in the Russian State Library (Moscow), written by the wonderful calligrapher Angelos Vergikios, contains the commissioner’s coat of arms in the headpiece. This is the coat of arms of the noble Anjou family du Bellay, which allows us to unequivocally believe that the manuscript was commissioned by one of the four brothers du Bellay – Guillaume, Jean, Marten, or Rene. The analysis of the brothers’ personal coats of arms with various additional attributes suggests that the manuscript belonged to either Guillaume or Rene. In the first case, the manuscript RGB. Grech. 150 would be datable to 1535–1541, in the second case, to 1535–1536. In 2019, during an archaeological study of La chapelle Notre Dame du Chevet de la cathédrale du Mans, a unique heart-shaped reliquary was found. It can be almost unambiguously attributed to Bishop Le Mans Rene du Bellay, who died in 1546 and bequeathed to place his heart just in this chapel of “musical angels”.
// Монфокон: Исследования по палеографии, кодикологии и дипломатике. Вып. 8. М., 2022. C. 220–233.
The paper offers a new date of a Greek parchment illuminated manuscript from the Lavra of St. Ath... more The paper offers a new date of a Greek parchment illuminated manuscript from the Lavra of St. Athanasius on Mount Athos: Mt. Athos, Lavra A 15 (Eustratiades 15) – the Four Gospels with prologues by St. Irenaeus of Lyon and catenae, with four miniatures of the Evangelists and three additional “arches” for the tables of canons. In the special literature this manuscript was dated differently: from the 9th to the 10th century, and even from the 14th century. The first part of the paper deals with the paleography of the manuscript. It is concluded that three scribes worked on this manuscript. The minuscule (main text) and majuscule (scholia in the margins) handwritings of these three scribes and the decoration of the manuscript (headpieces and initials) belong to the first half of the 10th century – to the era of the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus. The second part of the pare presents a study of inset miniatures with images of the four Evangelists. The miniatures have been dated in the literature to the beginning of the 14th century. However, we believe that they are works of Comnenian art of high artistic level, that is, they date to the beginning of the 12th century.
Graphosphaera. 2021. Т. 1. С. 159–168.
The paper proposes a new dating of the codex Paris. gr. 1788: the beginning of the 14th century. ... more The paper proposes a new dating of the codex Paris. gr. 1788: the beginning of the 14th century. Also, the author argues that the manuscript was created in Constantinople. Accordingly, the variant of the famous list of the tombs of Byzantine emperors placed in the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople, which is contained in this manuscript, has the same dating – the beginning of the 14th century. Therefore, the list was compiled when the Church of Saint Apostles still stood and was actively used not only for church services, but also for councils and church meetings, and so, the list of the tombs was a practically used document.