This book is dedicated to monks, priests and priest-monks ("hieromonachoi") as copyists, readers, and owners of manuscripts in the Christian East. Did they only read and write, or did they also repair manuscripts? What texts did they copy? And what purpose did their books serve? By addressing these and related questions, alternating between overviews and case studies, the essays in this volume aim to shed new light on the cultural role of monks and clergy active in the Christian East-particularly in the Sinai and the Holy Land, with an additional focus on Antioch-between the 9th and the 16th centuries. Special attention is given to books written in Greek, Arabic, Syriac, and Georgian.
