Why Tselikas is God of Greek Paleographers

[Secret Alias]

Professor Agamemnon Tselikas. He graduated from the Philosophy School of the University of Athens. As a scholar of the Hellenic Institute of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Studies in Venice, he specialized in Greek and Latin palaeography, especially in Greek manuscripts of the 15th and 16th centuries, under the supervision of M. Manousakas.

With a scholarship from the French CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research) he continued his research at the National Library of Paris and his paleographical studies at the Parisian École Pratique des Hautes Études.

He was a scientific associate of the Byzantine Research Center of the National Research Foundation. Since 1980, he has been in charge of the Historical and Palaeographic Archive of the Educational Foundation of the National Bank (MIET). In 1984 he organized a free Seminar on Greek Palaeography, which has since become an institution at MIET. He teaches Greek Palaeography as a visiting professor at the Department of Philology of the University of Patras, at the Department of Historical Studies at the Ionian University in Corfu and at the Department of Cultural Studies at the University of Bologna - Ravenna.

To date, he has carried out 150 palaeographic missions to Libraries, from Budapest and Sofia to Alexandria, Jerusalem, Damascus and Sinai.

He has published more than 150 articles-studies on Palaeography subjects.

He has been honored with the Cross of the Taxiarch of the Holy Sepulcher by Patriarch Diodoros for the classification of the Archive of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the publication of its catalog, as well as by Patriarch Theodore II of Alexandria with the notary's office for his work in his Library Patriarchate of Alexandria.

Angeliki Rovatsou : Mr. Tselika, you direct the Palaeographic Archive of MIET. Since when;

Agamemnon Celikas:The history of the Palaeographic Archive begins at the same time as the re-establishment of the Educational Foundation of the National Bank. We are in December of '74, mainly in '75. The General Secretary of the Foundation is Linos Politis. The Board of Directors consists of great personalities of the time, Papanoutsos, Georgakis, Kakridis, Prevelakis, great personalities of the philosophical, philological and scientific fields. I mention some names to you so that you can see from the faces what was the reasoning behind the re-establishment of the National Bank Foundation – which existed before the dictatorship and was re-established under the name of the Educational Foundation. First manager Manolis Kasdaglis. A man of letters, the young man, I would say, editor of publications and writer as well as writer of the 30's generation, with many relationships. The main purpose of MIET, part of an effort to educate the Greek people after the dictatorship, in a climate of renaissance of education and wider education, was to translate textbooks of humanities studies in general, philosophy, history, philology, which of course also have a relation to Greece directly, textbooks from foreign languages, mainly English, French and German, to be channeled to universities as well as to the general reading public. Linos Politis, now known as a professor of modern Greek philology, was also one of the most renowned paleographers of the time in Europe. He had done research on Mount Athos, he had toured many regions of Greece and recorded manuscripts, he had published studies on Byzantine manuscripts. He was a great man. He therefore found the opportunity to propose to the Educational Foundation the establishment of a department dedicated to Palaeography and History, but History from the side of written sources, and with the following objective: to organize missions for microphotographing of manuscripts and historical archives throughout Greece, to create a film library, along the lines of the Institute for Research and History of Texts at the French CNRS [National Center for Scientific Research]. Something similar also existed in Greece, at the Vlatadon Monastery, in Thessaloniki, at the Patriarchal Foundation for Patristic Studies. Linos Politis wanted this film library to be open to the research public and, at the same time, in this area of ​​the film library to promote paleographic research and study. Very nice. Thus, the first missions began. I had the happiness, not just the luck, to have known Linos Politis since my student years – I didn't have him as a professor, but I had also entered paleography on my own, outside the university, so, already in '69, I tried to I managed to contact him. And after my own studies in Greece, at the Hellenic Institute of Venice, in Paris, etc., when I came back, then we literally met in person, to tell the truth, and I started working with him from '78, and especially since the 1980s – military service intervened – as his partner and assistant exactly, when this activity had almost just begun. After his death, in December '82, I took over the continuation of the operation of this place. This is my little, personal story in relation to the Foundation.

AR: How are your investigations organized?

AT:Every year a program was entered based on the literature that existed, based on the information also that we personally could have, based on our personal research also on paleography, not only in our area but also since somehow, with Montfaucon between the 17th and 18th centuries, palaeographic research began to develop. Paleography is always related to travel, to movement. Libraries exist all over the world. Here in the Greek area we have public, we have municipal libraries but mainly we have libraries in monasteries, so in order to have access to the manuscripts, one has to travel. It is an itinéraire, which does not start exactly from the beginning of paleography, nor only from the Renaissance. Even from the Byzantine years, the access to the sources involved the journey. The detection, in different places and spaces, of finding the sources. We have very nice examples, but let's say it, like this, more scientifically, since the foundations of paleographic science as a science, next to philology, next to the methods of history. So every year there was a schedule of travel, missions. Each mission was mainly carried out by a specialist photographer – it was not common landscape photography. It was very mechanical work, I would call it monotonous, but it was essential work. The photographer was using black-and-white film back then, we're talking about '80, '81 – not that color film didn't exist, but this film that he used, and this is important, was black-and-white film that had a silver base, had metal and on the paper of the photo also that was printed, this is a key element of the preservation of the photo. Color film wears out, deteriorates, and so does color photography. Black and white is immortal. All the libraries of the world even now, in the digital age, always have silverfilm copies. So, based on these technical data, the missions began, literally with the aim of combing all of Greece, from North to South and from East to West, mainly for libraries that were hard to reach, were on mountains, in monasteries, had been closed for decades , municipal libraries where people didn't know what was inside. Of course we had our information, we were not discovering America at the time, but over the years many things are forgotten or neglected. Also, an opening was made to the patriarchal libraries. One of the first libraries to be photographed was the library of the Patriarchate of Alexandria. In three missions then. I was not responsible, it was a very good colleague and dear friend of mine, Kritonas Chrysochoidis, research consultant at the National Research Foundation. Then expeditions were organized to Macedonia – Linos Politis had a special love for what is being done in Macedonia in relation to manuscripts and I will return to this – and the expeditions were repeated many times, two and three and four times, in Kastoria, in Veria, in Siatista, a little in Kozani, to tell you the truth, not at all in Grevena, where even today we are not allowed to approach the Library with the "so I want" of the Metropolitan there , in Xanthi... Of course, in the prefecture of Thessaloniki, the Aristotle University, where Linos Politis was a professor before he was persecuted by the junta, took over all the work in the prefecture of Thessaloniki, in Halkidiki, in the monastery of Agia Anastasia of Farmakolytria. We didn't deal with Mount Athos - now I say "we", because already in the 80's all this exodus took place, that's why I told you that I had the happiness already from the first years to be here. So we didn't deal with Mount Athos first of all because it was a huge undertaking and would last many years. After all, the Patriarchal Foundation for Paternal Studies in the Vlatadon Monastery of Thessaloniki dealt with Mount Athos and its main goal was precisely the microphotographing of the manuscripts of Mount Athos, which is still valid and of course contributes substantially to research. We also did not deal with the Meteora manuscripts, because the Academy of Athens dealt with this area. Not even with Patmos, because in Patmos a special microphotography center had already been established inside the monastery. We took the mountains, to tell you the truth. We caught the korfobunia. In Skopelos, for example. Linos Politis took advantage of his holidays and wherever he went, he always carried notebooks with him, the famous notebooks of Linos Politis. He climbed the mountains, asked and noted where he had found manuscripts, and many times the expedition was organized based on these pads as well. Well, in Skopelos we went up to five or six monasteries up there that no one knew about, not even the Skopelians. With a mule, there was no road. Photographed in sunlight, there was no electric. In Skiathos, at the Monastery of the Annunciation, with a generator that we bought a barrel of oil to work. In Symi, in the Dodecanese, in the same way, with a car to the top of the mountain and from there with an animal to go down to Taxiarchis below, to Panormitis. Now you go to Panormitis and by helicopter but then... Such stories, that's why I'm telling you about the itineraire. Just to serve the researchers. And of course all that was discovered was announced in a Bulletin that we issued every two or three years. Also a great mission and activity is that we have photographed all the manuscripts of the free Cyprus, We didn't deal with Mount Athos - now I say "we", because already in the 80's all this exodus took place, that's why I told you that I had the happiness already from the first years to be here. So we didn't deal with Mount Athos first of all because it was a huge undertaking and would last many years. After all, the Patriarchal Foundation for Paternal Studies in the Vlatadon Monastery of Thessaloniki dealt with Mount Athos and its main goal was precisely the microphotographing of the manuscripts of Mount Athos, which is still valid and of course contributes substantially to research. We also did not deal with the Meteora manuscripts, because the Academy of Athens dealt with this area. Not even with Patmos, because in Patmos a special microphotography center had already been established inside the monastery. We took the mountains, to tell you the truth. We caught the korfobunia. In Skopelos, for example. Linos Politis took advantage of his holidays and wherever he went, he always carried notebooks with him, the famous notebooks of Linos Politis. He climbed the mountains, asked and noted where he found manuscripts, and many times the expedition was organized based on these pads. Well, in Skopelos we went up to five or six monasteries up there that no one knew about, not even the Skopelians. With a mule, there was no road. Photographed in sunlight, there was no electric. In Skiathos, at the Annunciation Monastery, with a generator that we bought a barrel of oil to work. In Symi, in the Dodecanese, in the same way, with a car to the top of the mountain and from there with an animal to go down to Taxiarchis below, to Panormitis. Now you go to Panormitis and by helicopter but then... Such stories, that's why I'm telling you about the itineraire. Just to serve the researchers. And of course all that was discovered was announced in a Bulletin that we issued every two or three years. Also a great mission and activity is that we have photographed all the manuscripts of the free Cyprus, We didn't deal with Mount Athos - now I say "we", because already in the 80's all this exodus took place, that's why I told you that I had the happiness already from the first years to be here. So we didn't deal with Mount Athos first of all because it was a huge undertaking and would last many years. After all, the Patriarchal Foundation for Paternal Studies in the Vlatadon Monastery of Thessaloniki dealt with Mount Athos and its main goal was precisely the microphotographing of the manuscripts of Mount Athos, which is still valid and of course contributes substantially to research. We also did not deal with the Meteora manuscripts, because the Academy of Athens dealt with this area. Not even with Patmos, because in Patmos a special microphotography center had already been established inside the monastery. We took the mountains, to tell you the truth. We caught the korfobunia. In Skopelos, for example. Linos Politis took advantage of his holidays and wherever he went, he always carried notebooks with him, the famous notebooks of Linos Politis. He climbed the mountains, asked and noted where he had found manuscripts, and many times the expedition was organized based on these pads as well. Well, in Skopelos we went up to five or six monasteries up there that no one knew about, not even the Skopelians. With a mule, there was no road. Photographed in sunlight, there was no electric. In Skiathos, at the Monastery of the Annunciation, with a generator that we bought a barrel of oil to work. In Symi, in the Dodecanese, in the same way, with a car to the top of the mountain and from there with an animal to go down to Taxiarchis below, to Panormitis. Now you go to Panormitis and by helicopter but then... Such stories, that's why I'm telling you about the itineraire. Just to serve the researchers. And of course all that was discovered was announced in a Bulletin that we issued every two or three years. Also a great mission and activity is that we have photographed all the manuscripts of the free Cyprus, the famous blocks of Linos Politis. He climbed the mountains, asked and noted where he found manuscripts, and many times the expedition was organized based on these pads. Well, in Skopelos we went up to five or six monasteries up there that no one knew about, not even the Skopelians. With a mule, there was no road. Photographed in sunlight, there was no electric. In Skiathos, at the Annunciation Monastery, with a generator that we bought a barrel of oil to work. In Symi, in the Dodecanese, in the same way, with a car to the top of the mountain and from there with an animal to go down to Taxiarchis below, to Panormitis. Now you go to Panormitis and by helicopter but then... Such stories, that's why I'm telling you about the itineraire. Just to serve the researchers. And of course all that was discovered was announced in a Bulletin that we issued every two or three years. Also a great mission and activity is that we have photographed all the manuscripts of the free Cyprus, the famous blocks of Linos Politis. He climbed the mountains, asked and noted where he found manuscripts, and many times the expedition was organized based on these pads. Well, in Skopelos we went up to five or six monasteries up there that no one knew about, not even the Skopelians. With a mule, there was no road. Photographed in sunlight, there was no electric. In Skiathos, at the Annunciation Monastery, with a generator that we bought a barrel of oil to work. In Symi, in the Dodecanese, in the same way, with a car to the top of the mountain and from there with an animal to go down to Taxiarchis below, to Panormitis. Now you go to Panormitis and by helicopter but then... Such stories, that's why I'm telling you about the itineraire. Just to serve the researchers. And of course all that was discovered was announced in a Bulletin that we issued every two or three years. Also a great mission and activity is that we have photographed all the manuscripts of the free Cyprus,all.I was lucky enough to enter the archbishop's palace, the archbishop's palace that was bombed in the coup, and fortunately down in the basement, in a concrete room, they had stored manuscripts for well-known reasons, and that's exactly where the photography took place in Nicosia and Larnaca and in the Monastery of Agios Neophytos of Englistos, and in Paphos, in the Monastery of Kykkos as well, before it was renovated and became this great and splendid monastery of Cyprus. All manuscripts. And as I say, we returned to Cyprus "one by one". I also learned Cypriot! I want to say that we shot a lot of areas and, of course, although as I told you in December 1982, Linos Politis died, the work continued uninterrupted, with exactly the same mentality: to be, as he also said, "everything in common give them away". That is, the door is open to everyone without discrimination. We don't check what the alpha or beta is studying, the help is free, almost all the times we've been asked for copies, and we've only given them free for scientific reasons of course, because there was no commercial exploitation going on. We here now have about 9,000-9,500 manuscripts photographed, we have about 30 large archives photographed, which is a key source for many PhD theses. But when we were at the beginning, back then in '80-'81, and we were talking with Linos Politis, he told me the following: "Okay, we're getting it together. What are we doing? These must be given to the scientific public." But in order to be able to take advantage of them, to be helped, one must know the method of access to this scientific object. That is, to know how to read, to know paleography, to know how to read Byzantine manuscripts. And they are not only from one era, they are from many eras, they are from many regions. The world of the handwritten book is fascinating. It is not just an object that you leaf through, it is a world around it: They are the ones who wrote it, if one starts with the author, and how the text of the ancient author came to the Byzantine years. They are the ones who copied it, the ones who made the book, why they made it, where they used it, how they used it, who they wrote it for. Then, after it was written and that generation passed, what was the fate of the book? Did you understand? All the way until a manuscript ends up on the shelf of a modern library in a monastery or in a public or private library. It's that too. It is not only the technique of reading. Why is the manuscript what it is? It is a carrier of a text, it is a carrier of speech, it is a carrier of thought. This thought is illustrated by the letters. So even if I can read, that's not enough. I have to get into thinking and, in essence, do history of literature, do history based on the sources, and do everything, and philosophy, everything: history of science, history of medicine, history of law, history of mathematics, everything. I mean, I'm learning to read and, depending on the text I read, I proceed. Very simple.

Let me say something else. It is equally fascinating to deal with the history of writing itself, the letters themselves, with the symbolism they have, with the way they were designed or how they entered Greece, what development they had. And this too is a very charming journey. To see how you write today and how Thucydides and Pericles wrote, make the comparison. Because Greek writing has been unchanged since it entered the Greek space – I'm talking about this writing, because we also have older writings, as you know, Mycenaean writings, linear writings, etc. – but there around the 8th century BC. , since these shapes took the form of the letters and the representation of the Greek language, the Greek phthongs, we write in the same way. We didn't change our writing, just like we didn't change our language. This is, I can tell you, a unique phenomenon in the world. To find a people who write for 2,800 years in the same way!

AR: The Chinese?

AT: Leave the Chinese. We are talking about the European area. We have not lost either our language or our writing and we have not essentially lost the basis of our culture. It's another thing if we, on our own, take out our eyes. Or we let others do it for us. In fact, we have not lost this line.

AR: Thanks to the language, you say.

AT: Language and writing. Go to Constitution, for example, in the Metro. The simplest thing I tell you. Entering you will see a "museum". It has some inscriptions, approach and read. You will read. Go to the gallery of Attalus, where all the resolutions are, and you will read. You will recognize A, O, P, P, S, etc. With some minor variations but you too, and in your own writing, have variations that you write. I want to say: this is also one of the issues that concern those who deal with paleography. Let's say, you can see from people coming here one saying, for example: "I want to study the manuscripts of Isocrates." Hello, you're welcome. Nice. We have photographed these, other manuscripts are abroad, which the reason says, so he deals with the texts of Isocrates. Another deals with the form of Greek letters in the 5th century. Different things. Another deals with the history of Botany - which is also fashionable. We also have manuscripts and, of course, we also have texts. Another deals with the history of education: how was ancient Greek taught under the Ottoman rule or in Byzantium, for example? How was Hekavi taught in the schools of the Turkish rule? – and it is not only Hekabi , for example I mention it. Is Hekabi really taught in schools today ?

AR: I don't think so. Certainly not in schools.

AT:Then he was taught. Did you understand? We follow the course of Greek education based on the handwritten book and from a certain time of course and parallel to the appearance of the printed book. Why what is happening in the Greek area due to the historical situations? We are in Byzantium. After the Fall, in the West we have the Renaissance which has started since the end of the 14th century. We have the Greek scholars who went there and the relationships they developed and, with their own input of course, the reproduction of Greek texts and manuscripts in the West takes another path. In the Greek area, under the situations that arose either in areas that had Turkish rule or in areas that had Venetian rule - not to forget that too - other conditions were created. But the production of books did not stop at all, and in fact, while in the West we had a slow spread of the printed book and until the beginning of the 17th century manuscripts were abandoned as a means of disseminating texts, here the production of handwritten books continues for many reasons. Now I won't explain them all to you, but they are in relation to the demand that existed and the needs that existed in each region. In other words, in the Greek area, we had more need, so to speak, for church books, for our liturgies, which was not the case in the West. Not all the necessary books for ecclesiastical practice had begun to be printed. Little by little these also appeared and were slowly channeled into the Greek area, that is, if we are talking about the 17th century, let's say, we don't have all church books printed. And not even in a quantity that covers the needs of our East. Therefore, the Greek manuscript continues to be produced in the Greek area and I can tell you that in some cases it is still being produced even after the Revolution of '21. For this reason, we here as paleographers do not stop at the 16th century, as our European colleagues do. They reach 1600 and stop there. We continue and I can tell you that we go up to the middle of the 19th century studying the writing at the same time. Only in the last two or three palaeographic conferences did our friends the European Hellenists get word that, okay, in palaeography we start from antiquity with epigraphs, with papyrus, very nice, we enter the form of the book which we call the Code - and not now a roll of papyri etc. – very nice, we go to Byzantium, wonderful, and they stopped in 1600. But we are also Byzantium after Byzantium and continuation of Hellenism. So little by little they also started to deal with the 17th century and a little with the 18th century and from the point of view of paleography, although not so much, timidly. But they understood, mainly from a great introduction by Linos Politis, that the paleography in our country goes back even further than 1600. Therefore, you understand the scope of the activity. And what I told you before: “Okay, we got it together. And what to do with them? We have to open them up to the world," so we have to train people to read us, so we said let's start the lessons. Linos Politis did not make it to the beginning of the lessons. I took it upon myself, at first I would tell you so timidly, not knowing how we could measure the interest these courses would have in the wider world, because universities were supposed to have these courses in their curriculum.

AR: Do they?

AT: Some periods they did, some. But very sparsely. It always depended on whether there was a professor who had a closer specialization with this area. But sporadically, not systematically. So we started these courses in 1984 at the other headquarters we were at, at 13 Thukydidou Street, and I can tell you that from the first year, despite all expectations, they were a huge success. Why; At first they were free, we do not collect anything here, the collection is prohibited by bat. And this is our joy, to tell you the truth. Although from time to time some ask "what do we owe?" and we say "these are free", they discount it because they don't pay for it. Well, if they want to pay, let them go across the street to the cafeteria, we don't collect. Anyway. And while the courses started with the prospect of lasting a year, that is to say it was a year-long series of courses oriented only on the technique of reading, eventually three cycles were created. The first cycle is purely technical and includes an introduction to the world of manuscripts, the second cycle is more philological and historical, in the sense that we work with archival sources, equally from the Byzantine and post-Byzantine periods. The 3rd cycle was created for the following reason: there were too many, I tell you, who watched below, regardless of age, sex, gender, etc. They said, "Fine, we've done two years, aren't we going to do anything more that's so cool?" - Well, let's do something else." Therefore, a 3rd cycle is also created, in which the course is never the same as the previous year. It's always something new. So we have students who have been attending for 15 years. It has become a way of life now. And a way of life because there is also a communication at the same time. Let's say this year, the second part of the period we were told to work on a handwritten textbook of speeches of Demosthenes, an 18th century manuscript, just to see how Demosthenes was taught in a school during the Turkish occupation, specifically in Tyrnavos, Thessaly. And it was taught in an amazing way! Which you can't even imagine. We have done countless subjects, because every year we do not only do one object, let's say last year we did manuscripts from the monastery of Prophet Helios in Santorini. We took the Library, we singled out some manuscripts of various content, from theology, hagiology to astronomy we did – in relation to the manuscripts that were in the collection. Such things. So the interest is renewed.

AR: How is the world informed? How do they know you, that is?

AT: We make an announcement, in early October we send announcements to the universities, to the libraries, now with the Internet we announce it there as well, then by word of mouth... After all, there are also colleagues at the university, and even peers after all, who say "go and in the Paleographic Archive, do your paleography and come." This is done normally. We have no competition with the university. Just the same, by God. All the same, we always operate, not only with these courses here and as a research space, but also in general, helping the university. By God, it's not a matter of competition, just like that! Why, after all, how many of us are there in Greece? If we take our eyes off each other and there is competition, he doesn't say. It's stupid, it's stupid. And I say this because there is such a wealth of research and such a volume to be researched that one would say "okay, kid, the colleague can deal with this, I'll deal with something else, equally important".

AR: So there is so much material?

A.T. : I told you. Furthermore, we have photographed around 9,000-9,500 manuscripts. Just read the titles in the Catalog... And it's not just the ones we have. By God, no! Here in Athens alone, consider that we may have roughly 8,000 manuscripts in our Libraries (National Library, Parliamentary Library, Gennadius, Ethnological Society, Benaki Museum, Byzantine Museum), so? So if you know how to approach the specific topic, then you also find the corresponding interests. Shall I tell you something? Many times research has two starting points: either I imagine something and I want to look it up and find the sources for what I've come up with, or, conversely, I'm in a library, I see a text and I say, "Oh, I'll work on that !". That is, the library gives me the trigger when I don't have a priori a topic to research. Or one can search for the alpha subject, struggle and not be able to find satisfactory sources and fall somewhere and be fascinated by it and give up the first and go on with the second. But the question is always: do you know the technique and approach method? That's the secret. If you don't know the approach method, then you are doing nothing.

AR: What do you call a method of approach?

AT: Read! But that's not all. You read, for example, a dowry agreement from the 1600s. Fine, you read it. Furthermore, what can a dowry agreement tell you?

AR: The historical facts.

AT: Of course. You go into social history, you go into economic history, you go into linguistics, you go into five thousand fields. You even move on to other topics, to read both behind the lines, and behind the words. Why is a loan made? Or why is a donation made? But this in combination with other factors, with other elements. Well, that's it.

AR: Let me ask you something else now. This little book I saw here, by Roda Wieser, Writing, Rhythm, Personality, caught my attention . A graphological account , published (only 200 copies) in March 2014 by the Hellenic Institute of Graphology. What is it;

AT: Let me tell you about that too. Although in one part I can tell you, in another part I am not an expert, to tell you the truth. Perhaps it would be good to talk to members of the Institute who produced this booklet. But I will tell you from my point of view because I, as a paleographer, and all paleographers certainly, are concerned with the observation of writing. Observe your letters, for example, notice how you write them. This is how we begin the lesson on palaeography: observe how you write your letters. Why; Because the technique is based on observation. How is 'a' spelled in the 9th century? You have to notice it and someone has to show you how to notice.

AR: To date it?

AT:Not only. How it is designed. The so-called ductus, i.e. the path taken by the hand with the pen, the stylus, to write the letter. How this letter joins the next and what changes it undergoes over time. Therefore the paleographer begins by learning to observe. This is very important, you know. And not only the paleographer. Look at all science, all science must start from the method of observation: what is what and what do we call what? I'm not saying this, Aristotle said it too. Okay; Therefore, you have to learn to see, you have to learn to isolate those things that you see, to separate them. And paleography really helps you a lot with that, and you can take paleography classes and do completely different things but apply this way of attention. Did you understand? Well, from then on, because the writing doesn't change, the basis of the shapes, the letters, is the same. The script we speak changes. For if I write a letter, you can read what I have written, just as I can read what you have written. The characters are different but the writing is the same, they are two different things. Therefore we have the Greek writing, which as it appears in the different centuries, in the different regions, by different scribes, and little by little, as the technique of writing also spreads, we have more extent and expansion of the circulation of the handwritten book, therefore as a point, those of us who are concerned with the issue of the handwritten book, the handwritten document, let's conventionally set a limit, 1830, let's put it like that completely conventionally. Graphology starts elsewhere. It is now three years that this group of scribes has been coming here. Why did he come? And how did the relationship with the space evolve? You who hear "calligrapher," for example, may have a handwritten will of your grandfather, and because now our eye is not used to seeing handwriting, it is used to type, you cannot read it. Very nice. And you say, “Ah, who can read it? Ah, a graphologist.' Makes sense. Come on, graphologists don't deal with these things. Graphologists are basically concerned with determining whether a signature is genuine or not, identifying a signature or not, and everything that goes along with that process. And they also deal with analytical so-called graphology, consultative graphology, with the psyche of the person who writes in the alpha or beta way. This last part, this is what we also observe when examining the scriptures in the different eras. We cannot make an observation on the psychological-cultural level of the individual, but we can do it for groups, social groups or regions, so to speak, without entering the field of psychology. That is, to put it differently: A Gospel, for example, it is not written in a short and rough script. It is written in a formal script. Where this solemnity of writing parallels the solemnity of the text. Nice. Other types of texts are written using other types of writing. So, that's where we limit ourselves. We don't do writer's psychology. There the scribe is a professional scribe, perhaps it is his personal writing within the professional type of writing he uses. But you can't jump to conclusions. You can draw conclusions in general about the era, and not so "psychologically", to say that the other person, let's say, suffers from depression, to put it very simply. So this group, who are nice people and, I would say, very enthusiastic, came here looking to see if they could be helped in reading contracts. The result was that, okay, I showed them how and what and all that, but what was going on? "It's not better to tell us the philology of paleography, because we won't use that, that's not our job. People may think we read contracts, but that's not our job." So there we twisted it a bit, that I told them more about mine than they told about theirs. Meanwhile, I personally, now I am telling you a small detail, finding out the problem of the terminology of writing – you know it is not a simple thing, it is very complex – when I was in Paris I bought some books on graphology to see mainly how the graphologists call the scriptures. We, let's say, use, on the one hand, some completely conventional terms to name writings of the 10th century, the 13th, the 15th century, completely conventional, demonstrative names but, coming to the newer years, what other terminology could we use? Do I know too? Let the writing be right-leaning, left-leaning writing, upright, lying down, let's say such terms, and I wanted to see what happens or how some graphologists describe the letters. And I had actually bought some books when I was in France, around '77 – and it doesn't take much to cross the Rubicon – I'd taken what I needed from there, I'd understood what people were doing, but I'd left it at that. Fine, I wouldn't be the typist. And it happened that these people came here, that there was also a sympathy and a mutual willingness to exchange knowledge, opinions, etc. and, seeing the enthusiasm of these people, we say okay, you your graphology, I my palaeographic, and you learn, and I slowly enter into your reflection, without for God's sake - I dare not, I dare not - articulate word for consulting graphology. Or to determine authenticity, match a signature on a check. No. Because this is a purely professional matter, people have their business, it's over and done with. But it is of great importance now that yesterday, when we had this seminar, we heard from the Italian professors saying that, in addition to the observation we were talking about and in terms of which we identify, we are now slowly approaching the use of some instruments. As they say, something we did in the past with the use of photography: you photographed something, enlarged it and saw some details. Or, let's say in palimpsests, which we haven't talked about yet, we've always used ultraviolet light. Then the use of infrared light appeared, now there are also some "gadgets" that can monitor the movement of your hand without touching the stick on the surface of the paper, which is why. Well, technology is advancing and things are being put together, so everyone out there is drawing their own conclusions based on the observations they make and what exactly they want to prove. Perhaps I will close with this, graphology is a field that has not been cultivated in Greece, it is an extremely important and serious field, which would not be bad at all to expand. And I don't mean, of course, that everyone should become a graphologist, God forbid, because inflation also brings down quality, doesn't it? But, at least as far as the counseling part is concerned, the point is for some people to understand, especially in schools, workplaces, etc., how important it is to pay attention to writing, to draw some conclusions about general behaviors, to help someone personally , to face another person. Of course, this is not the only way to explain, because we are entering the field of psychology. It is not the only way, but it is one of the means by which one can ascertain some things and use them in conjunction with others. Let's explain, shall we? Well, that's the graphology part. at least as far as the counseling part is concerned, the point is for some people to understand, especially in schools, workplaces, etc., how important it is to pay attention to the writing, to draw some conclusions about general behaviors, to help someone personally, to face another person. Of course, this is not the only way to explain, because we are entering the field of psychology. It is not the only way, but it is one of the means by which one can ascertain some things and use them in conjunction with others. Let's explain, shall we? Well, that's the graphology part. at least as far as the counseling part is concerned, the point is for some people to understand, mainly in schools, workplaces, etc., how important it is to pay attention to the writing, to draw some conclusions about the general behaviors, to help someone personally, to face another person. Of course, this is not the only way to explain, because we are entering the field of psychology. It is not the only way, but it is one of the means by which one can ascertain some things and use them in conjunction with others. Let's explain, shall we? Well, that's the graphology part. https://www.archaiologia.gr/blog/2014/0 ... %BB%CE%B1/