Codex and Code

Codex and Code: Classical and Digital Approaches to Greek Palaeography is an Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Programme coordinated by Democritus University of Thrace in collaboration with the Historical and Palaeographical Archive of the National Bank of Greece Cultural Foundation. It creates an international learning environment for the study of Greek manuscripts and written cultural heritage by bringing established philological disciplines into sustained dialogue with digital technologies.

From codex to code

The programme is founded on a simple principle: classical and digital methods are most productive when they are taught together. The ability to read a script, understand the material structure of a manuscript, identify textual variants and reconstruct a transmission remains essential. Digital tools, meanwhile, extend the ways in which written evidence can be documented, compared, encoded, visualised and shared.

The curriculum therefore moves continuously between physical artefact and digital representation, close reading and computational analysis, historical interpretation and structured data. Participants are encouraged to understand digital methods not as replacements for philological judgement, but as new instruments within a rigorous and critically informed study of manuscripts.

A blended learning experience

The BIP consists of two connected phases. Four online sessions establish a shared foundation in papyrology, codicology, Greek palaeography and their digital counterparts. The onsite phase in Patmos develops this foundation through an intensive five-day programme of keynotes, lectures, workshops, manuscript-based training, discussions and study visits.

Why Patmos?

Patmos offers a uniquely meaningful setting for a programme on the Greek book. Its monastic and manuscript tradition allows participants to experience the relationship between texts, scripts, books, collections, institutions and place. Sessions at the Library of the Holy Monastery of Saint John the Theologian bring the study of manuscript culture into direct contact with the historical environment in which that culture has been preserved.

Who is the programme for?

The programme is designed primarily for students and early-career researchers in Classics, Greek Philology, Byzantine Studies, Papyrology, Palaeography, Codicology, Textual Criticism, History, Cultural Heritage and Digital Humanities. It is open to BA, MA and doctoral students, with particular relevance to participants who wish to combine traditional manuscript studies with digital research methods.

No single technical specialisation is assumed. The preparatory online sessions are intended to establish a common conceptual basis before the onsite workshops.

Programme profile

• International and interdisciplinary teaching team
• Online preparation followed by intensive onsite learning
• Work with manuscript evidence and digital resources
• Integration of theory, guided practice and independent reflection
• 3 ECTS upon successful completion and recognition by the home institution