Byzantine Art in the Fototeca Zeri: Photographic Evidence from the Muñoz Collection

The paper deals with the Federico Zeri Foundation in Bologna, whose photographic library has more than 290,000 photographs that belonged to the art historian Federico Zeri (1921-1998). One of the most prominent photographic collection, which includes more than 2,500 photographs, is the one that belonged to the roman art historian Antonio Muñoz (1884-1960). My aim is to show and present some photographs from his private collection, in particular the photographic reproduction of the Smyrna Octateuch, a manuscript of the Twelfth century, which was destroyed by fire in 1922, and the photographs of Seraglio Octateuch. My paper focuses also on the way Muñoz borrowed a methodological approach from Nikodim Kondakov, the Russian art historian pioneer of Byzantine studies. By virtue of their tie of friendship Muñoz helped Kondakov to sell the manuscript of the third volume of his Ikonografia Bogomateri. Thanks to the intercession of Muñoz, who personally knew pope Pius XI, the manuscript was bought by the Vatican in 1924.