Byzantine studies

The opening session of the IV International Congress of Byzantine Studies in the Aula of the University of Sofia, 9 November 1934

Byzantine studies is an interdisciplinary branch of the humanities that addresses the history, culture, demography, dress, religion/theology, art, literature/epigraphy, music, science, economy, coinage and politics of the Eastern Roman Empire. The discipline's founder in Germany is considered to be the philologist Hieronymus Wolf (1516–1580), a Renaissance Humanist. He gave the name "Byzantine" to the Eastern Roman Empire that continued after the Western Roman Empire collapsed in 476 AD. About 100 years after the final conquest of Constantinople by the Ottomans, Wolf began to collect, edit, and translate the writings of Byzantine philosophers.[1] Other 16th-century humanists introduced Byzantine studies to Holland and Italy.[1] The subject may also be called Byzantinology or Byzantology, although these terms are usually found in English translations of original non-English sources. A scholar of Byzantine studies is called a Byzantinist.

  1. ^ a b Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261–1557), Helen C. Evans, ed., exh. cat. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004 Quote: "And, whereas Wolf initiated Byzantine studies in Germany, particularly through the editing of texts, other sixteenth-century humanists were doing the same in Holland and Italy."

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