Historical and cultural-literary aspects of Berat during the XIV-XV centuries, from the chronicles of the manuscript codices from London's British Library and Oxford's Magdalen College

Abstract

In the Additional Fund of the British Library manuscripts in London, there are a considerable number of handwritten codices (nearly 451) of Epirote origin.¹ At this point, four codices from the British Library have been identified² that were written or used in the city of Berat: from the British Library, Additional 37007 of the XIII-XIV centuries and Additional 37008 from the year 1413; from Saint Mary Magdalen College in Oxford, Magdalen College graecus. 9 from the XII century and Magdalen College graecus 16 from the XIV century.
Aside from the importance of the historical chronicles for the history of the Albanians, these codices, together with others preserved in the Central State Archive in Tirana,³ written book culture, which was cultivated in southern Italy, Epirus, and Constantinople during the XIV-XV centuries, even in the Albanian milieu.⁴
In this paper we will present data that deals with the history and the book production culture of Berat prior to and during the time of Skanderbeg based on data found in the above-mentioned codices.