The section

The Section of Byzantine Research was founded in 1960 as the Centre for Byzantine Studies (CBS). According to Dionysios Zakynthinos, its “rudimentary core and precursor” was the so-called «Ἐπιτροπή διερευνήσεως, φωτογραφήσεως και καταλογογραφήσεως τῶν ἐν δημοσίοις Βιβλιοθήκαις, μοναστηριακοῖς ἱδρύμασι καὶ ἰδιωτικαίς συλλογαῖς ἀποκειμένων δημοσίων κλπ. ἐγγράφων τοῦ Βυζαντίου» (“Committee for the Investigation, Photography, and Cataloguing of Documents in Public Libraries, Monastic Institutions, and Private Collections of Public and Other Documents of Byzantium”). Initially, the focus of the new centre expanded in 1960 to include Byzantine Studies in general. The first organised programmes were Paleographic and Archival Research and Byzantine Chronography. These two programmes remained central to the centre’s research policy until the mid-1980s, alongside the programme Historical Geography of the Hellenic Region, producing significant scholarly works.

With the passage of Law 1514 in 1985, the Centre was renamed the Institute of Byzantine Research (IBE). This institutional change, together with new international trends in historical research, prompted a restructuring of the IBE’s research agenda. While the original “major” programmes were retained, they evolved and became more specialised. For example, Archival, Palaeographic, and Diplomatic Research continued, while Byzantine Chronography was divided into two programmes: Byzantine Chronography and Byzantium and the Slavic-Balkan World. During the 1990s, two additional programmes were introduced: Byzantium and the West and Daily and Social Life of the Byzantines.

In 2012, the Institute of Byzantine Research became the Section of Byzantine Research (SBR) within the unified Institute of Historical Research, reflecting a commitment to a more comprehensive and diachronic understanding of Greek history. The Section continues to focus on Byzantine history and culture, the Empire’s relations with medieval Europe, the Balkans, and the Eastern Mediterranean, as well as Latin rule in Greece from the 13th to the 17th century, using literary and archival sources, archaeological monuments, artefacts, and works of art.

The Section’s main research objectives, organised into specific areas, are:

• The study of the society, economy, and institutions of the Byzantine Empire from its founding to its fall, along with the Latin dominions in Greece from the 13th to the 17th century.

• The expansion of research fields through new approaches to Byzantine history and the history of Latin rule, including the study of the natural environment and climate, science, daily, social, and religious life, interdisciplinary analyses of space, and the coexistence of Byzantines and Westerners in Greek territories under Latin rule.
• The promotion of Byzantine and post-Byzantine monastic archives and libraries through systematic recording and cataloguing.
• The publication of previously unpublished Greek, Latin, and Italian archival sources related to Greek history during the Middle Ages.
• The study and publication of Byzantine archaeological evidence, including investigations into the “life” of objects.
• The development of technical infrastructure for research databases and other digital applications.
• The dissemination of research findings through scientific conferences, workshops, and public lecture series.

Today, the Section of Byzantine Research is one of the largest research groups of Byzantinists in the world and a key centre for the study of Byzantium and the Latin dominations in Greece and abroad. Its status as a centre of excellence is maintained through the preparation, publication, and synthetic utilisation of primary sources, the expertise of its researchers in archival and narrative materials, and innovations in historical research that continue to open new scholarly directions.