The Skylitzes matritensis under study

Within the framework of the research project, Byzantine Illuminated Manuscripts in Spain: Artworks, Context and Materiality -MABILUS (MICINN-PID2020-120067GB-I00), and thanks to a collaboration agreement signed in December 2022 between the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), the Biblioteca Nacional de España (BNE), and the Instituto del Patrimonio Cultural de España (IPCE), the Skylitzes matritensis (BNE, Vitr. 26-2) will be subjected to a scientific-technical study. For a better understanding of the genesis of this codex and other artistic issues related to its making, the IPCE will conduct a systematic analysis of parchments, the ink used, pigments, and the gilding from a selection of fourteen quires of this manuscript. This will be carried out with imaging techniques, such as photography in the visible spectrum (with different types of lighting: reflected, grazing, transmitted), fluorescence photography induced by ultraviolet radiation, infrared photography and infrared reflectography. Elemental analysis will be also carried out thanks to X-ray fluorescence examination. This is a pioneering study in the field of the bibliographic heritage of Spanish libraries as well as in the knowledge of the Byzantine book illumination.