Byzantine Studies

Serbian postage stamp, issued on the occasion of the 23rd World Byzantine Congress 2016 in Belgrade

The Byzantine is an interdisciplinary branch of science that deals with history , culture , religion , art , literature, science, economy and politics of the Byzantine Empire busy. The German philologist Hieronymus Wolf is considered to be the founder of Byzantine studies , a humanist of the Renaissance who began to collect, translate and publish the writings of Byzantine philosophers around 100 years after the final conquest of Byzantium by the Ottomans . The first neo-Greekist and linguist who can also be regarded as a Byzantinist was Karl Krumbacher .

The demarcation of Byzantine studies as a science

definition: Byzantine Studies (Byzantinology) is the science that deals with the history and culture of Byzantium (Byzantium ↔ Byzantine Empire, Greek Middle Ages; Byzantium = Constantinople [as the capital of the Byzantine Empire]). The uniformity of the "Byzantium" object of investigation is opposed to a variety of perspectives (= individual disciplines, special subjects). - "Byzantine" research already existed in the high medieval Byzantine Empire. In the late Middle Ages, interest in Byzantium was given by Italian humanism (original Greek sources) and spread - especially in the 17th century - across Europe and Russia. The late 19th and 20th centuries then saw the formation of Byzantine Studies as an independent science.

Byzantium: Greco-Hellenistic culture, Roman state tradition, oriental influences and Christian belief with a relative uniformity of language and culture make Byzantium in the Middle Ages. Byzantine history is mostly based on the reign of Constantine the Great (306–337) and the founding of Constantinople (330). (So-called. No later than the actual division of the Roman Empire in a Western and a Ostreich Reich division of 395 ) starts the Byzantine or late classical phase Byzantine ( early Byzantine time to about 641), which not only of Byzantinists, but also from ancient historians processed becomes. Emperor Justinian (I) (527-565) conquered Italy, Africa and southern Spain, but after the violent invasion of Islam (634/98) a Byzantium, reorganized by the thematic constitution, remained only in the Greek-speaking areas of Greece, Asia Minor and southern Italy limited; Latin was given up as the official language under Herakleios , as was the old Roman imperial title.

With this came the end of antiquity and the Middle Byzantine period began. It was also the epoch of iconoclasm (717–843) and the time of the emergence of the western empire (800). Under the Macedonian dynasty (10th / 11th century) Byzantium regained power against Islam and Bulgarians, but the death of Emperor Basil II (976-1025) marked a turning point, the defeat of Mantzikert (1071) the collapse of Byzantine power Asia (Seljuks) and southern Italy (Normans). A certain stabilization could - with simultaneous western crusade movement (1096–1099, 1147–1149, 1189–1192) - be achieved under the Comnenen - at least until the battle of Myriokephalon (1176). Internal disputes subsequently favored the conquest of Constantinople by the Crusaders ( 4th Crusade , 1204) and the establishment of Latin states in Greece.

With the palaeologists and the reconquest of Constantinople (1261) the late phase of the Byzantine Empire as a small state begins, which was particularly threatened by the advance of the Ottomans (from 1300) and the economic influence of Venice and Genoa ( late Byzantine period ). An empire weakened by civil wars, among other things, had to capitulate to the Turks (conquest of Constantinople in 1453, Mistras in 1461). The Comnenian Empire of Trebizond (1204–1461) , which emerged in the course of the 4th Crusade, should also be mentioned .

language: The language level of the Byzantine period is the Middle Greek language . Three language layers of Middle Greek can be identified: Atticism (Attic literary language), Koine (Hellenistic common language), Dimotiki (modern Greek vernacular), whereby a distinction must be made between the spoken Greek and the written, classical tradition.

From the rich Byzantine tradition, historiography with the genres “contemporary history monograph” ( historia , especially widespread in late antiquity , see Prokopios of Caesarea , Agathias and others) and “chronicle” ( Johannes Malalas [6th century]; Georgios Synkellos , Nikephoros , Theophanes [8th / 9th century]; Georgios Monachos [9th century]; Constantine VII. Porphyrogennetos , Leon Diakonos [10th century]; Michael Psellos [10th / 11th century]; Johannes Skylitzes , Johannes Zonaras [12th century], Michael Glykas Sikidites, Niketas Choniates [12th / 13th century], Georgios Akropolites [13th century], Georgios Pachymeres [13th / 14th century], John VI Kantakuzenos [14th century]; Georgios Sphrantzes [15th century]).

Hagiographic writings are the biography ( bios ) and the eulogy ( egkomion ); hagiographic collections are the menaia and sinaxaria . The so-called occasional works include letters, speeches, poems (rhetoric, panegyric), also in the church sector. From the field of Byzantine administration in the broadest sense, we also know peoples and city registers as well as works on court ceremonies and rankings. Scientific works include the strategic fonts. Secular and ecclesiastical legal texts are also to be mentioned, in addition in the ecclesiastical area patriarchal catalogs of the dioceses, in secular and ecclesiastical documents and files (see diplomatics below). The vernacular literature is first documented in writing in the verse epic Digenis Akritas from the 12th century.

Auxiliary sciences of Byzantine studies

a) Traditionals. Written material was recorded mainly and alongside inscriptions, coins and medals on papyrus , parchment or paper . The papyrus scrolls of antiquity (papyrology) soon receded alongside the medieval parchment codices (codicology), while paper appeared in the 9th century (← Arabs ← China).

b) Diplomatics (= doctrine of Byzantine documents). According to the issuer principle, the documents can be divided into secular (emperor, despot, private documents) and spiritual (patriarchal, bishop's documents), according to tradition, into originals (for imperial documents only from the 11th century), imitations and simple copies. In the case of imperial documents, we distinguish between documents with a legislative content (types: edikton, typos, pragmatikos typos, thespisma, neara, nomos, sakra; mandatum principis ), documents on specific legal cases (type epistula: epistule, sakra ; type subscriptio: lysis [administration, taxes ] semeiosis ) foreign affairs documents (contracts, letters to foreign rulers) (types: sakrai, grammata, Basilikon, prokuratorikon chrysobullon ), privileges ( chrysobullos logos , chrysobullos horismos, chrysobullon sigillion) and administrative records (types: prostagmata [ horismoi ] sigillia , codicilli ). Church documents are documents and official letters of the patriarch, including gramma, homologia (creeds), diatheke (testaments), aphorismos (excommunication), paraitesis (abdication) as well as the solemn praxis ( synodike ) and the hypotyposis (synodal resolution) and the tomos (Beliefs).

c) Sphragistics (= seal studies) with gold [chrysobull], lead bulls, wax and paper seals and palaeography (= teaching of fonts) (see above language and writing) are closely connected to diplomacy .

d) Epigraphy (= doctrine of inscriptions), with inscriptions in stone, ore, ivory, in mosaics, enamel and on paintings.

e) Numismatics (= doctrine of coins and [Byzantine] coinage). Building on the late antique gold currency of the solidus, coinage in the Byzantine Empire was based on a gold currency with silver, bronze and copper coins until the middle of the 14th century. Up to the beginning of the 8th century the solidus , the semis and the triens determined the Byzantine coinage, from the 8th century there was only the solidus as gold coin, from the 10th century additionally the tetarteron ; in addition - due to a gold-silver ratio of 1:14 and 1: 8 - miliarense , siliqua and hexagram (in some cases only marginally) could assert themselves as silver coins. Emperor Alexios I (1081–1118) was able to stabilize the currency again by introducing the new gold coin of the Hyperpyron . In the late Byzantine Empire, the basilicon appeared as a silver coin. In keeping with the economic and power-political decline, there was finally no gold currency in the last hundred years of Byzantine history, but a monetary system based on four types of silver coins with the silver hyperpyron as the main coin.

f) Metrology (= study of measures and weights). A multitude of measures of length were used, such as daktylosm kondylos, anticheir, palaiste, dichas, spithame, pechys (small cubit), bema (step), orgia ( fathom ), schoinion (measure for measuring the field), plethron, milion, allage , day route. Measures of capacity were among others: litra, tagarion, pinakion, modios , area measurements among others modios, megalos modios and zeugarion . Measures for water and wine were called megarikon, metron and tetartion . Weight measures were krithokokkon, sitokokkon, gramma, obolos, drachme, ungia, litra, kentenarion, gomarion and pesa .

g) Chronology (= doctrine of the calculation of time). For the eras used in Byzantium, the following conversion applies: year 1 AD = year 754 from urbe condita = 195. Olympics 1st year = year 49 of the Caesarian era of Antioch = year 5493 of the Alexandrian era = year 312 of the Seleucid era = Year 5509 of the Byzantine World Era. The Byzantine year began on September 1st, the assumed day of the creation of the world, so that when converting to the year counting, care must be taken that for days between January 1st and August 31st, only 5508, for days between January 1st and August 31st, only 5508 September and December 31st, however, have to be deducted 5509 years. In addition, dating by indications was also common.

Societies, institutes, research centers

Learned societies

Association Internationale des Études Byzantines (umbrella organization of national societies for Byzantine Studies; founded 1948)
German Working Group for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies (founded in the 1950s)
Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies (founded 1983)

University institutes in Greece

Byzantine Studies and Folklore ( Τομέας Βυζαντινής Φιλολογίας και Λαογραφίας ) at the University of Athens

Byzantine and Neo- Greek Studies ( Τομέας Μεσαιωνικών και Νέων Ελληνικών Σπουδών ) at the University of Thessaloniki

Byzantine and Neo- Greek Studies ( Tομέας Bυζαντινής και Nεοελληνικής Φιλολογίας ) at the University of Crete

Byzantine and Neo- Greek Studies ( Tομέας Μεσαιωνικής και Νεοελληνικής Φιλολογίας ) at the University of Ioannina

Research centers in Greece

National Hellenic Research Center in Athens ( Εθνικό Ίδρυμα Ερευνών: Ινστιτούτο Ιστορικών Ερευνών, Τομέας Βυζαντινών Ερευνών ; founded 1958)

University institutes in Germany

Byzantine Studies is classified as a minor subject in German university policy .

Department of Byzantine Studies and Modern Greek Philology in the Institute for Classical Studies at the University of Cologne

Byzantine and Modern Greek Philology in the Institute for Classical Philology and Comparative Literature at the University of Leipzig (endowed professorship for Byzantine and Modern Greek Philology sponsored by the Republic of Greece since 2005)

Byzantine Studies in Faculty 07 - History and Cultural Studies at the University of Mainz

Institute for Byzantine Studies, Byzantine Art History and Neo-Greek Studies at the University of Munich

Institute for Byzantine and Neo-Greek Studies at the University of Münster

Professor of Byzantine Studies at the Institute for Greek and Latin Philology at the Free University of Berlin

German research centers

Leibniz ScienceCampus Mainz: Byzantium between Orient and Occident at the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz (RGZM), incorporating the Byzantine Archeology Mainz (concluded cooperation between the RGZM and the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, 2005–2011)
Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies in Regensburg (founded in 2012 through the merger of the East European Institute Regensburg , founded 1952 in Munich with significant participation by Theodor Oberländer , and the Southeast Institute , founded 1930 in Munich, both moved to Regensburg in 2007)
Byzantine Institute of the Scheyern Monastery (founded in 1939 by Johannes Maria Hoeck and Hans-Georg Beck )
Byzantine Institute in Ettal Abbey (founded in 1951 by Johannes Maria Hoeck )
German Study Center in Venice (founded 1972)
Leibniz Science Campus Mainz: Byzantium between Orient and Occident (founded 2011)

University institutes and research centers in Austria

Institute for Byzantine and Neo-Greek Studies at the University of Vienna (founded in 1962 under the name of the Chair of Byzantine Studies , since 1978 under the current name)

Institute for Medieval Research, Byzantium Research Department of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna

University institutes in Switzerland

Institut du monde antique et byzantin of the Université de Friborg

University institutes in Great Britain

The Ioannou Center for Classical and Byzantine Studies , Oxford University
Center for Hellenic Studies at King's College London (founded 1989)
The Hellenic Institute at the Royal Holloway College of the University of London (founded 1993)
Center for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies at the University of Birmingham

Research centers in the USA

Center for Hellenic Studies at the University of California, San Diego (founded 2014)
Byzantine Institute of America in Boston (founded in 1930 by Thomas Whittemore and Paul Atkins Underwood; closed in 1962 due to a lack of funding)
Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection in Georgetown, Washington, DC (founded 1940)
Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies , in Belmont , Mass. (founded in 1956 by Constantine Cavarnos )

Research centers in Italy

Istituto Ellenico di Studi Bizantini e Postbizantini di Venezia in Venice (founded 1951)
Istituto Siciliano di Studi Bizantini e Neoellenici "Bruno Lavagnini" in Palermo (founded in 1960 by Bruno Lavagnini )

Research centers in France

Center de recherche d'Histoire et Civilization de Byzance (founded in 1972 by Paul Lemerle , part of the Unité mixte de recherche (UMR) 8167 Orient et Méditerranée of the CNRS in Paris since 2006)
Institut d'Études Byzantines at the Collège de France , Paris (houses the Center de recherche d'Histoire et Civilization de Byzance and related documentation centers)

Research centers in Turkey

Koç University Stavros Niarchos Foundation Center for Late Antique and Byzantine Studies (CLABS), İstanbul - Geç Antik Çağ ve Bizans Araştırmaları Merkezi (founded in 2015 by Koç University , Istanbul , and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation )

literature

Overview representations

Hans-Georg Beck : Byzantine Studies Today . De Gruyter, Berlin 1977, ISBN 3-11-007220-3 .
Falko Daim , Jörg Drauschke (ed.): Byzanz - the Roman Empire in the Middle Ages. 4 volumes. Verlag des Römisch Germanisches Zentralmuseums, Mainz 2010 (Vol. 1: World of Ideas, World of Things. ISBN 978-3-88467-153-5 ; Vol. 2, 1 and 2: Schauplätze. ISBN 978-3-88467-154 -2 ; Vol. 3: Periphery and Neighborhood. ISBN 978-3-88467-155-9 ), ( Monographs of the Römisch Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz 84, 1–3), (four-volume academic volume accompanying the special exhibition Byzantium. Splendor and Everyday Life , which the current state of research on Byzantine archeology in an interdisciplinary way).
Herbert Hunger : Studies on Greek palaeography. Hollinek, Vienna 1954 ( Biblos-Schriften 5, ZDB -ID 501904-7 ).
Herbert Hunger: Byzantine basic research. Collected Essays. Variorum Reprints, London 1973, ISBN 0-902089-55-2 ( Variorum reprint CS 21).
Johannes Irmscher : Introduction to Byzantine Studies. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1971 ( Collection Akademie-Verlag 21 Geschichte , ISSN 0138-550X ).
Elizabeth M. Jeffreys , John Haldon, Robin Cormack (Eds.): The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies. Oxford 2008.
Alexander P. Kashdan , Giles Constable: People and Power in Byzantium. An introduction to modern byzantine studies. Center for Byzantine Studies, Washington DC et al. 1982, ISBN 0-88402-103-3 .
Ralph-Johannes Lilie : Introduction to Byzantine History. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart a. a. 2007, ISBN 978-3-17-018840-2 ( Kohlhammer-Urban Pocket Books - History / Cultural History / Politics 617).
Otto Mazal : Handbook of Byzantine Studies. Academic Printing and Publishing Establishment, Graz 1989, ISBN 3-201-01432-X .
Gyula Moravcsik : Introduction to Byzantinology. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1976, ISBN 3-534-05670-1 .
Silvia Ronchey : Lo Stato Bizantino. Einaudi, Torino 2002.