Istanbul workshop may have copied rare Iliad manuscript

ISTANBUL

Professor Hamdi Şahin, head of the Department of Ancient History at Istanbul University, has examined the manuscript. (AA Photo)

A 260-leaf manuscript of Homer’s “Iliad,” preserved in the collection of Ottoman Sultan Fatih Sultan Mehmet at Topkapı Palace, may have been copied in a writing workshop based in Istanbul, according to research conducted by Istanbul University.

The manuscript, attributed to Patriarch Gennadios II and dated to the 12th or 13th century, was examined by Professor Hamdi Şahin, head of the Department of Ancient History at the university’s Faculty of Letters.

The study analyzed the manuscript’s handwriting, page layout, decorative elements and extensive marginal commentaries, revealing previously undocumented features of the work.

Researchers believe its carefully organized pages, writing quality and combination of Homer’s biography with detailed explanations of the epic point to production in an Istanbul-based workshop.

The main text is written in large, clear Greek letters, while smaller annotations fill the surrounding margins. Red ink was used for headings, capital letters and decorative patterns. The pages also feature geometric diagrams, ornamental bands and botanical motifs.

The manuscript begins with information about Homer’s life, ancestry and birthplace, followed by summaries of the books of the Iliad. The epic itself begins on the seventh leaf and is preserved in its entirety.

One of the study’s most significant findings concerns the manuscript’s place in the transmission of the ancient Greek text. Researchers believe it may represent an intermediate copy between earlier 10th- and 11th-century manuscripts and versions produced in the 14th and 15th centuries.

They also suggest it may have served as a model for later copies. Its relationship with two manuscripts preserved at Venice’s Marciana Library, the Venetus A and Townleyanus, is also being investigated.

Şahin said the research began in February 2026 while he was preparing an academic article about Homer. After noticing a potentially misspelled word in the text, he compared the manuscript with modern editions and then turned to original manuscripts.

Describing the Istanbul manuscript as previously unstudied, Şahin said: “Our manuscript sits precisely between the early copies and those from the 14th and 15th centuries. We therefore believe it may have served as a model for copies produced afterward.”

The researchers also found that the manuscript’s commentaries drew on more than one written source, offering further insight into the transmission and interpretation of ancient Greek literature during the Byzantine period.