The digital collection “Monastic Archives: Manuscripts from Mount Athos and Patmos” is a rare collection with significant value for researchers in archaeology, humanities and social sciences. The collection is hosted in ‘PANDEKTIS’ repository and includes more than 5.009 Byzantine and Post-Byzantine manuscripts and documents from Mount Athos and Patmos. Since the process of the digitization is still in progress, we expect that in the forthcoming period the database will be enriched with 10.000 manuscripts. 

The database contains information concerning archival material from the Athonite Archives and from the monastery of Patmos recorded on microfilms. Today, the collection includes 5009 Byzantine and Post-Byzantine manuscripts; 4902 manuscripts are kept in 11 monasteries of Mount Athos (e.g Haghiou Pavlou, Dionysiou, Docheiariou, Karakallou, Kastamonitou, Xeroptamou, Pantokratoros, Stavronikita, Hilandar, Protaton and Panteleimonos). The remaining 107 are preserved in the monastery of Saint John the Theologian in Patmos. The National Documentation Centre has supported the digitization of this material.

Each entry includes data regarding each manuscript's form and content, along with a detailed summary. In the case of manuscripts which belong to Patmos, the user has also access to the complete texts of the diplomatic editions. To obtain the full edition of each manuscript, researchers may contact the Institute of Byzantine Research. Copyright for the use of the images belongs to the monasteries of Mount Athos included in the Program and to the monastery of Saint John the Theologian in Patmos. 

The discovery and study of unpublished primary resources which promote our empirical knowledge and understanding of history, has been the institution’s motivation for collecting and publishing this material online. The project was supported by the action “Archival, diplomatic and paleographic research”, an infrastructure program which promotes systematic research of archival and manuscript collections. In the frame of this program, research engages with libraries and monastic Archives in Greece and particularly focuses on the monastic community of Mount Athos and the monastery of Saint John the Theologian in Patmos. Research was conducted by researchers of the institute for Byzantine Research and also by external collaborators. Dr. K. Chryssochoidis, research director of the IBR/NHRF coordinated the project.