Reading in Byzantium was rarely a private or silent act. A text might be chanted in church, recited in a monastery refectory, or proclaimed in public as an imperial edict—turning the written word into something heard, shared, and discussed as much as quietly studied. The Byzantine Empire, heir to both classical Greek learning and Christian scripture, developed a distinctive relationship with texts, preserving ancient knowledge while reshaping it within a Christian intellectual world.
One of the most striking windows into Byzantine reading culture comes from the ninth-century patriarch Photius, who compiled summaries and critical notes on nearly 300 books he had read—often, as he explains, in the company of friends. His Bibliotheca is not just a catalogue of texts, but a record of how reading functioned as a social, educational, and cultural activity in Byzantium.
Literacy and Access to Reading
Photios depicted in the Skyllitzes Matritensis
Literacy in Byzantium was uneven but more widespread in urban and administrative settings than in many other parts of medieval Europe. Basic literacy, especially the ability to read religious texts, was common among clergy, monks, bureaucrats, and many city dwellers. Constantinople, with its dense network of schools, monasteries, and administrative centres, had the highest concentration of literate individuals in the empire.
Education typically included instruction in reading, writing, and rhetoric. For elite boys, the curriculum was based on classical studies, focusing on grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy, with authors such as Homer forming the core of literary education. While educational opportunities for girls were more limited, elite women, including empresses and aristocrats, were often well educated and accomplished readers.
What Byzantines Read
12th-century Byzantine manuscript – Codex Basilensis A. N. IV. 2
Byzantine literature can be broadly divided into three overlapping categories: religious, classical, and practical.
Religious texts were by far the most widely encountered. The Bible, psalters, lives of saints, sermons, and theological treatises circulated in great numbers. Many people encountered these works through public readings in church, but private devotional reading—especially from psalters—was also common.
Classical Greek literature remained central to elite education. Authors such as Homer, Plato, Aristotle, and Euripides were studied not as pagan curiosities, but as foundations for mastering language, style, and moral reasoning. Photius’ Bibliotheca shows that even in the ninth century, educated Byzantines were still reading, judging, and comparing large numbers of ancient and late antique works.
Practical texts included law codes, medical manuals, military treatises, and agricultural handbooks. These were not literary luxuries, but working documents, closely tied to professional life and state administration.
Reading as a Social and Oral Activity
Miniature from the Romance of Alexander in which the Amazons are depicted receiving a letter from Alexander the Great. Istituto ellenico di studi bizantini e postbizantini , fol. 168r
In Byzantine culture, reading was very often performed aloud. Silent, private reading certainly existed, but communal and performative reading was widespread: monks listened to texts during meals, congregations heard scripture read in church, and imperial pronouncements were publicly proclaimed.
Even elite literary culture was shaped by this oral dimension. Photius, for example, evaluated prose not only as something to be read on the page, but as something to be heard and judged by its sound and rhythm. Reading, in many contexts, was closer to a shared performance than a solitary experience. This also meant that illiterate people could still participate in a culture shaped by texts, by hearing them read, remembered, and discussed. As one fourteenth-century chronicler out it:
If you know letters, start reading; if, on the other hand, you are illiterate, sit down by me and listen.
Books, Manuscripts, and Readers at Work
Jaharis Byzantine Lectionary, Byzantine, folios 42v-43r, opening page of the Gospel of Saint Matthew (MET, 2007.286)
Books in Byzantium were handmade manuscripts, usually written on parchment. Because of the skill, time, and resources involved in producing them, books were valuable possessions, most often kept in monasteries, churches, schools, and aristocratic libraries.
Manuscripts were rarely pristine objects. Readers annotated, corrected, and commented on them. Marginal notes might contain summaries, objections, cross-references, or personal reactions. The Bibliotheca itself reflects this culture of active reading: Photius did not merely consume books, he digested, compared, and evaluated them, relying on memory and notes to manage an immense reading life.
Illuminated manuscripts, especially religious ones, show that reading was also a visual experience, where images guided interpretation and reinforced the spiritual and emotional impact of the text.
Monasteries and the Preservation of Knowledge
Monasteries were the backbone of Byzantine book culture. Monks copied texts, maintained libraries, and made reading a central part of spiritual discipline. Reading was not just a way to acquire information, but a tool for moral formation and contemplation.
Through this continuous copying, study, and transmission of texts, Byzantium preserved a vast body of ancient Greek literature that might otherwise have vanished. This long process of preservation and reinterpretation eventually helped shape the intellectual foundations of Renaissance humanism in Western Europe.
In Byzantium, reading was not merely an intellectual pastime. It was a social practice, a religious act, an administrative tool, and a bridge to the ancient past. Whether in the chanting of scripture, the public reading of laws, or the elite literary projects of figures like Photius, texts were woven into the fabric of everyday life. Through this deeply embedded reading culture, Byzantines not only understood their own world—they ensured that much of the ancient world would survive to be read again.
Zoe Tsiami is a PhD(c) in Byzantine History at University of Thessaly. Her research interests include baptism, catechism and naming practices in the Early Byzantine period. She has published papers and taught at workshops relevant to Early Byzantine/Christian history.
By Zoe Tsiami
Reading in Byzantium was rarely a private or silent act. A text might be chanted in church, recited in a monastery refectory, or proclaimed in public as an imperial edict—turning the written word into something heard, shared, and discussed as much as quietly studied. The Byzantine Empire, heir to both classical Greek learning and Christian scripture, developed a distinctive relationship with texts, preserving ancient knowledge while reshaping it within a Christian intellectual world.
One of the most striking windows into Byzantine reading culture comes from the ninth-century patriarch Photius, who compiled summaries and critical notes on nearly 300 books he had read—often, as he explains, in the company of friends. His Bibliotheca is not just a catalogue of texts, but a record of how reading functioned as a social, educational, and cultural activity in Byzantium.
Literacy and Access to Reading
Literacy in Byzantium was uneven but more widespread in urban and administrative settings than in many other parts of medieval Europe. Basic literacy, especially the ability to read religious texts, was common among clergy, monks, bureaucrats, and many city dwellers. Constantinople, with its dense network of schools, monasteries, and administrative centres, had the highest concentration of literate individuals in the empire.
Education typically included instruction in reading, writing, and rhetoric. For elite boys, the curriculum was based on classical studies, focusing on grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy, with authors such as Homer forming the core of literary education. While educational opportunities for girls were more limited, elite women, including empresses and aristocrats, were often well educated and accomplished readers.
What Byzantines Read
Byzantine literature can be broadly divided into three overlapping categories: religious, classical, and practical.
Religious texts were by far the most widely encountered. The Bible, psalters, lives of saints, sermons, and theological treatises circulated in great numbers. Many people encountered these works through public readings in church, but private devotional reading—especially from psalters—was also common.
Classical Greek literature remained central to elite education. Authors such as Homer, Plato, Aristotle, and Euripides were studied not as pagan curiosities, but as foundations for mastering language, style, and moral reasoning. Photius’ Bibliotheca shows that even in the ninth century, educated Byzantines were still reading, judging, and comparing large numbers of ancient and late antique works.
Practical texts included law codes, medical manuals, military treatises, and agricultural handbooks. These were not literary luxuries, but working documents, closely tied to professional life and state administration.
Reading as a Social and Oral Activity
In Byzantine culture, reading was very often performed aloud. Silent, private reading certainly existed, but communal and performative reading was widespread: monks listened to texts during meals, congregations heard scripture read in church, and imperial pronouncements were publicly proclaimed.
Even elite literary culture was shaped by this oral dimension. Photius, for example, evaluated prose not only as something to be read on the page, but as something to be heard and judged by its sound and rhythm. Reading, in many contexts, was closer to a shared performance than a solitary experience. This also meant that illiterate people could still participate in a culture shaped by texts, by hearing them read, remembered, and discussed. As one fourteenth-century chronicler out it:
If you know letters, start reading; if,
on the other hand, you are illiterate, sit down by me and listen.
Books, Manuscripts, and Readers at Work
Books in Byzantium were handmade manuscripts, usually written on parchment. Because of the skill, time, and resources involved in producing them, books were valuable possessions, most often kept in monasteries, churches, schools, and aristocratic libraries.
Manuscripts were rarely pristine objects. Readers annotated, corrected, and commented on them. Marginal notes might contain summaries, objections, cross-references, or personal reactions. The Bibliotheca itself reflects this culture of active reading: Photius did not merely consume books, he digested, compared, and evaluated them, relying on memory and notes to manage an immense reading life.
Illuminated manuscripts, especially religious ones, show that reading was also a visual experience, where images guided interpretation and reinforced the spiritual and emotional impact of the text.
Monasteries and the Preservation of Knowledge
Monasteries were the backbone of Byzantine book culture. Monks copied texts, maintained libraries, and made reading a central part of spiritual discipline. Reading was not just a way to acquire information, but a tool for moral formation and contemplation.
Through this continuous copying, study, and transmission of texts, Byzantium preserved a vast body of ancient Greek literature that might otherwise have vanished. This long process of preservation and reinterpretation eventually helped shape the intellectual foundations of Renaissance humanism in Western Europe.
In Byzantium, reading was not merely an intellectual pastime. It was a social practice, a religious act, an administrative tool, and a bridge to the ancient past. Whether in the chanting of scripture, the public reading of laws, or the elite literary projects of figures like Photius, texts were woven into the fabric of everyday life. Through this deeply embedded reading culture, Byzantines not only understood their own world—they ensured that much of the ancient world would survive to be read again.
Zoe Tsiami is a PhD(c) in Byzantine History at University of Thessaly. Her research interests include baptism, catechism and naming practices in the Early Byzantine period. She has published papers and taught at workshops relevant to Early Byzantine/Christian history.
Click here to read more from Zoe Tsiami
Further Readings:
Teresa Shawcross and Ida Toth (eds.), Reading in the Byzantine Empire and Beyond (Cambridge University Press, 2018)
See also: The First Book Reviewer
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