Paris Gregory

[3] Some have speculated as to the reason for devoting a manuscript to an emperor who was most likely illiterate, but the formality of the gesture, and intricate design of the work lend to the idea that this was done as a celebratory gift, and not something Basil I would have actually have been expected to read.

The Homilies are considered by many art historians to be one of the best preserved and most carefully designed Byzantine manuscripts to survive the period immediately following Iconoclasm.

[6] Important segments of text meant to be read carefully are punctuated with large golden symbols, and the paintings throughout are done using colorful tempera.

The parallel between the Arian and Macedonian heresy being carried out in the fourth century, and the tensions rising between the Latin and Orthodox interpretations of the Holy Spirit at the time the manuscript was created is apparent from the offset.

Photios was virulently opposed to the Latin interpretation of divinity and was trying to cement the tried and tested wisdom of the eastern Orthodoxy by using the sermons of Gregory, a fellow patriarch who stood defiantly against the rule of Julian, a non-Christian emperor of the fourth century.