«Le ambizioni di un calligrafo». I libri e le scritture di Isidoro di Kiev

A century after the groundbreaking monograph that Cardinal Giovanni Mercati devoted to the figure of Isidore of Kiev, the present paper aims to present the preliminary results of a broader study focused on Isidore’s books and handwritings. Through a comprehensive re-examination of the materials gathered by Mercati − together with those that have emerged over the past hundred years − and thanks to some new attributions, this contribution will shed light in particular on Isidore’s graphic education and careful management of his different ‘hands’, the group of collaborators and thus the intellectual network around him, as well as the material facies of his book collection both before and after its entry into the Vatican Library.