Minor Libraries of Greece

This initiative concentrates on publishing catalogues of manuscripts and early printed books found in lesser-known Greek collections—both public and monastic—and on reconstructing their histories through unpublished archival evidence. It began in 2007 with the catalogue of the manuscript codices of the Municipal Library of Tyrnavos and continued in 2016 with the corresponding catalogue of that library’s early printed books, a sequel to earlier cataloguing undertaken by the former Center for Neohellenic Research (today Section of Neohellenic Research) of the NHRF. Since then, equivalent catalogues of early prints and manuscripts belonging to smaller monasteries in Greece have been incorporated, while the study Νεώτερη ιστορία της βιβλιοθήκης της Ελληνικής Κοινότητας Καστοριάς [Modern History of the Library of the Greek Community of Kastoria] (Z. Melissakis), tracing the modern history of that community’s library, much of which was dispersed in the early twentieth century to the National Library of Greece and to other regional libraries, is currently in preparation.