Rare illuminated Greek manuscripts

Help us open access to our oldest illuminated Greek manuscripts

We need your support to raise £15,000 for ten of the oldest illuminated Greek manuscripts in our collection

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Why we need your help

Our collection of over 1,000 volumes of Greek manuscripts is arguably the largest and most important resource for the study of Hellenic culture outside Greece. The collection ranges in date from the third century B.C. to the present century, about half of which are illuminated or decorated. The manuscripts illustrate the rich culture of Greek-speaking people from the time of the Iliad and Odyssey through the Hellenistic, early Christian, Byzantine and Ottoman eras and beyond the creation of the Greek nation state.

Through funding from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, we have been working to catalogue, conserve and digitise our Greek manuscripts collection to make them freely available to all online since 2008. Two-thirds of the collection are now available in full at www.bl.uk/manuscripts, transforming access to and usage of the collection. We now aim to digitise the remainder and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation has renewed their support, offering to match donations we raise.

We urgently need to raise £50,000 before April 2015 so we can receive the full matched funding which is necessary to complete this project. You can help us by supporting our public appeal for £15,000 to ensure the costs of digitising 10 of our oldest illuminated Greek manuscripts, dating from the 8th-10th centuries. Please play a part in this crucial project and make a donation today.

Your gift to support this project will be doubled thanks to the Niarchos Foundation’s matched funds:

• Your £15 donation is worth £30 which will help to digitise twelve pages in a manuscript
• Your £1,500 donation is worth £3,000 which will help to digitise one entire manuscript