Byzantinology

Byzantine studies or Byzantinology is an interdisciplinary branch of the humanities that addresses the history, culture, costumes, religion, art, such as literature and music, science, economy, and of the Eastern Roman Empire. The discipline's founder in Germany is considered to be the philologist Hieronymus Wolf, a Renaissance humanist. He gave the name Byzantine to the eastern Roman Empire that continued after the western part collapsed in AD 476. About 100 years after the final conquest of Byzantium by the Ottomans, Wolf began to collect, edit, and translate the writings of Byzantine philosophers. Other 16th-century humanists introduced Byzantine studies to Holland and Italy.

Byzantine studies is the discipline that addresses the history and culture of Byzantium (Byzantium ↔ Byzantine Empire, the Greek Middle Ages; Byzantium = Constantinople [as capital of the Byzantine Empire]). Thus the unity of the object of investigation ("Byzantium") stands in contrast to the diversity of approaches (= specializations) that may be applied to it. – There were already "Byzantine" studies in the high medieval Byzantine Empire. In the later Middle Ages the interest in Byzantium (in particular the original Greek sources) was carried on by Italian humanism, and it expanded in the 17th century throughout Europe and Russia. The late 19th and early 20th centuries brought the formation of Byzantine studies as an independent discipline.

Greek / Hellenistic culture, Roman state traditions, Oriental influence and Christian faith, together with a relative unity of language and culture, constitute medieval Byzantium. The starting point of Byzantine history is usually taken to be the reign of Constantine the Great (306–337) and the foundation of Constantinople (330). The "east-Roman" or late antique era of Byzantium begins at the latest with the division of the Roman Empire into a Western Roman Empire and an Eastern Roman Empire (395). This "early Byzantine" period lasts until approximately 641. Emperor Justinian I (527–65) reconquered Italy, north Africa, and southern Spain, but after the expansion of Islam (634/98) a reorganized Byzantium, now based on administration by Themes, was limited to the Greek-speaking regions of the Balkan peninsula, Asia Minor, and southern Italy; Latin was abandoned as the language of officialdom. This may be perceived as the "end of antiquity," and the beginning of the "middle Byzantine" era.

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