During his lifetime, Antonio Agustín collected 272 Greek manuscripts. On his death in
1586, all of them were bought by Philip II for the library of El Escorial, except for fifteen that were
sent to the Vatican Library to prepare the edition of the Ecumenical Councils. This work gives an
overview of the almost one hundred that survived the fateful fire of 1671 at El Escorial, paying
special attention to those of classical content and datable between the 12th and the first half of the
16th century, for which a catalogue update is provided. In addition, the ways in which Agustín built
up his collection of Greek manuscripts through dealers are explained, as well as the origin of some
codices from Crete, southern Italy, Cyprus and Constantinople. The final appendix contains a table
with the signatures of all the Greek manuscripts preserved or missing, their current location, dating
and contents. The text is accompanied by 14 illustrative plates.
