“You are not the writings of this hand.” This very small but important comment, pointing to the author, makes the rare 12th-century manuscript of Homer’s Description of the Odyssey so valuable to the city of Thessaloniki, where it was either written or at least completed and revised at the last stage. from the life of the learned archbishop of Thessaloniki Efstatiou.

“It’s as if we can touch his reeds, a piece of European literary heritage born in Polis and Macedonia.” Philipomaria Pontani, professor of classical philology at the Ca’Foscari University of Venice, researcher Eustathia, had no doubt about the excitement and awe experienced by the inhabitants of Thessaloniki, looking at the Byzantine manuscript stored in the Archaeological Museum of Venice. Thessaloniki since the day before yesterday.

Awe, because the monumental commentary on the Odyssey, written by the scholar Eustathius to teach Homer in the twelfth century, returned, if only briefly, to the city, where it undoubtedly assumed its final form, before 1192. The rare Byzantine codex of Marcianus the Greek 460, one of only two autographs of the “Parakliti” preserved throughout the world (the other is now in Paris), was first removed from the Marcian Library in Venice, where it has been kept since the 15th century, and placed in the Archaeological Thessaloniki. Museum next to the oldest book in Europe, the Derveni Papyrus, dating from the 4th century. for example “Two unique works echo in a periodical exhibition, the result of a collaboration between the Museum and the Municipality of Thessaloniki, which links Byzantium with antiquity, demonstrating, as Museum Director Aggeliki Kukuvu says, “a long tradition in the Thessaloniki area.”

Eustathius’ Parecolai, “despite being written 900 years ago, is to this day the most extensive and detailed single-author commentary on Homer, the standard treatise of the entire European rhetorical tradition,” explains Mr. Pontani, who is the scientific curator of the exhibition along with AUTH Professor and President of the Academy of Athens Antonis Regakos. “This is not only a masterpiece of Byzantine philological work on ancient texts, but also a monumental treasure trove of information, references and observations that Eustathius used in his high-level lessons,” he adds.

The leading “master of rhetoric” of the Patriarchal School of Constantinople and a prolific writer, Eustathius left an indelible mark on the scientific circles of the Comnian period. The Parekvolai were probably rescued after the occupation of Thessaloniki by the Ottomans. “Letters of Eustathius”, as Cardinal Bessarion, a cleric and bibliophile of the 15th century, writes and signs on the first page of the manuscript, “a Greek by origin”, as he noted in the books of his collection, which he bequeathed to the Venetian Peaceful Republic. For the Italian scholar, the cultural value of the codex lies in the complex and impressive method of the author’s work, “collecting in a purely encyclopedic spirit countless elements, sometimes only superficially related to the poetic text.” However, they were, as Mr. Pontani tells us, an occasion for references to geographical, historical or other elements of ancient Greek culture by authors and texts that are now lost.

This encyclopedic approach is far from the explanatory, overtly allegorical approach of the Dervenius papyrus, Pontani and Regakos note. “Eustace, although occasionally interested in allegory, strives to give his students a systematic introduction to the Homeric world,” they emphasize, adding that both authors of ancient texts “apply the explanatory method of poetic memorabilia, leaving behind a valuable legacy of Greek culture that is still today influences our perception in the study of understanding the past.