This short-term project (Feb 2020 – Sept 2021) is a search operation for unknown, lost, and forgotten Greek manuscripts and texts in the holdings of one of the largest repositories of Greek and Byzantine manuscripts worldwide, the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana in the Vatican City State. The idea of such a search operation is certainly not new. Still, the format, intensity and systematic strategy of this project is unique especially for the digital era which allegedly makes such investigations redundant. However, several important features of manuscripts can only be seen and gathered by analysing the original object.

The search operation focuses on hitherto uncatalogued manuscripts that are for the better part barely known and/or studied. It will start with a series of manuscripts of the Vaticani graeci collection which contain predominantly theological texts and have been identified as particu­larly promising objects of investigation.
The quantity and relevance of the output of this research project is not predictable. The best-case scenario, and a real sensation, would be the discovery of an unknown or the rediscovery of an allegedly lost text or manuscript.

Due to COVID-19 and the pandemic measures, the project sadly had to be suspended twice for a period of several months. The pandemic downscaled the project in various regards drastically. Nevertheless, this website was set up in February 2021. On the blog of this website I present first observations and new findings and further information on the project. Unfortunately, I am unable to show any pictures of the manuscripts on this blog for reasons of copyright.

This research project was funded by the (programme Spark) and hosted by the Center of Global Studies of the University of Bern. It was officially concluded by an International Workshop held at the Swiss Institute in Rome on 30th Sept/1st Oct 2021 (see blogpost of 3rd Oct 2021). Various publications emerging from this project, including the conference proceedings, will be announced on this website in due time!