One
of the four patriarchates of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Patriarchate
was founded in Jerusalem by the Fourth Ecoumenic Synod in the 5th century.
Soon after its foundation, many philosophical schools were founded by the
patriarchs (i.e. the school of Origenes, Patriarch’s Hesychius) and
in later time during the 16th century by the patriarch Dositheos. Many libraries
were active in the monasteries of the valley of Jordan River, and the city
of Jerusalem. In the 19th century, all the manuscripts and old printed books
were transferred in the central library of the Patriarchate in Jerusalem
and founded the main Patriarchate Library, which possesses 1800 manuscripts
from 9th to 19th century and hundreds of original documents from 10th to
19th century in different languages as Greek, Arabic, Georgian, Latin, and
Ethiopian.
The participation in the NOESIS project will be of great importance for
the history of the manuscripts in the collection, whose production methods
and materials used are very rare. The library will give access to its collection
for digitisation and will provide relevant local historical information.