The Imperial Menologia and the "Menologion" of Basil II

The “Menologion” of Basil II may have been a unique production, but the influence of its miniatures on later Byzantine manuscript illustration was considerable. Significant echoes of the famous imperial manuscript can be found among liturgical manuscripts of the second half of the 11th century, and many of its miniatures were faithfully, even slavishly, copied in a specific group of 11th-century hagiographical manuscripts known as the “imperial Menologia.” Albert Ehrhard, in his fundamental study of this collection of texts, divided the various surviving “imperial Menologia” into two groups, which he called “Imperial Menologion A” and “Imperial Menologion B.” In both the Basil Menologion” and the “imperial Menologia,” the saints who figure in the manuscript are being summoned to the aid of the emperor

Ancient history · Political science · Byzantine Studies and History · Historical and Literary Studies · Historical Influence and Diplomacy · History