Paris 54’s Place in Thirteenth-century Constantinopolitan Book Illumination

The definitive study of thirteenth-century Byzantine manuscript illumination has yet to be written.1 There are huge gaps in our understanding of its evolution, and the situation is further complicated by calamities such as the Fourth Crusade and the ensuing Latin occupation of Constantinople (120461). Nicaea must have played a role in book production in the period before 1261, but clearly Constantinople and Thessaloniki were the major centers in the early Palaeologan period.2 Scribal signatures in Byzantine manuscripts are rarely helpful in providing information concerning locale, however.