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Dumbarton Oaks Studies
Patronage in Thirteenth-Century Constantinople
An Atelier of Late Byzantium Book Illumination and Calligraphy
Hugo Buchthal, Hans Belting

This monograph is devoted to a group of fifteen illuminated Byzantine manuscripts of the late thirteenth century which, though closely interrelated and the result of collaboration by a very small number of scribes and artists, defy classification as works of a single scriptorium. It is argued that they were commissioned by an imperial princess who personally assembled a team of eminent craftsmen expressly to produce a limited number of distinguished books showing common characteristics and adhering to a common codicological program. The evidence offers an unexpected insight into the unique conditions that were responsible for some of the finest surviving illustrated manuscripts of the Palaeologan period.