In the shadow of the book curse

In 1819 the Harvard Professor Edward Everett (d. 1865) was rummaging through monastic libraries in Greece for ancient manuscripts - as many professors were doing at the time, anyway. At Meteora he found the treasure he sought:

“I saw a few MSS in this library, among which was a fine parchment Chrysostom, in several vols. folio.—I asked if [the monks] cou…