Prosopography of the Byzantine World

The Prosopography of the Byzantine World (PBW) is a project to create a prosopographical database of individuals named in textual sources in the Byzantine Empire and surrounding areas in the period from 642 to 1265. The project is a collaboration between the British Academy and the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

The project was begun in the 1980s with the aim of completing the work on later Roman Empire and Byzantine prosopography begun by Theodore Mommsen in the 19th century and carried on by A.H.M. Jones, which produced The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire (three volumes, Cambridge, 1971–1992), covering the period from 260 (the accession of Gallienus) to 641 (the death of Heraclius, marking the end of late Antiquity).

In 1993, the British Academy signed a collaboration agreement with the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy. The work is divided into three periods, 641–867 (Heraclian dynasty to the Amorian dynasty), 867–1025 (Macedonian dynasty up to the death of Basil II) and 1025–1261 (last Macedonians, the Komnenian period, and up to the recovery of Constantinople from the Latin Empire). The Palaiologan period, after 1261, is covered by the Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit, launched by the Austrian Academy of Sciences under the direction of Erich Trapp and published between 1976 and 1991.