In a constant close relation with daily religious practice in the monasteries, the Athonite libraries safeguarded, from their formation, all the necessary liturgical books, as well as those serving for the spiritual improvement of the monks. Furthermore, the erudite preoccupations of many monks supplied them with book collections of theological and lay content, while many volumes were often donated by from outside Mount Athos, enriching them with books of all genres. The wealth in time accumulated at Athonite libraries consists of both printed and manuscript material, with an important part of the latter deriving from the copying activity developed within the monasteries following their founding nearly until the 20th century. Besides, when the Athonites realized the value of the books and the necessity to organize and safely keep them, led them from an early period to take up action for their conservation, sorting and gathering in protected areas. This wealth, however, attracted attention from the West, which sought, until recent decades, not only access to this wealth, but also ways to acquire parts of it. Rulers, scholars or simply collectors from various countries and for centuries organized missions aiming at buying or snatching mainly manuscripts, making the monasteries’ collections suffer great losses. Losses also suffered from fires, while the outgoing of monks towards other lands for a variety of reasons was often accompanied by the outgoing of books. Regardless of the above, though, the content of the libraries was constantly renewed with new manuscripts that were copied and new printed books that kept arriving from purchases and gifts. From the 18th century the increasing interest in the books of the monasteries has been demonstrated by efforts for detailed cataloguing continued until today. The collections of manuscripts and incunabula are now treated as libraries of special scholarly interest and as treasury safeguarding places. Yet, in every monastery new functional libraries are in constant formation, as the need and interest for new books is incessant, resulting in the influx of a great number of contemporary editions.
Θεσσαλονίκη
(EL)
National Hellenic Research Foundation (NHRF)
