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TheProsopography of the Byzantine World (PBW) is a project to create aprosopographicaldatabase of individuals named in textual sources in theByzantine Empire and surrounding areas in the period from 642 to 1265. The project is a collaboration between theBritish Academy and theBerlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
The project was begun in the 1980s with the aim of completing the work on laterRoman Empire and Byzantine prosopography begun byTheodore Mommsen in the 19th century and carried on byA.H.M. Jones andJ. R. Martindale, which producedThe Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire (three volumes, Cambridge, 1971–1992), covering the period from 260 (the accession ofGallienus) to 641 (the death ofHeraclius, marking the end oflate 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 theAmorian dynasty), 867–1025 (Macedonian dynasty up to the death ofBasil II) and 1025–1261 (last Macedonians, theKomnenian period, and up to the recovery of Constantinople from theLatin Empire). ThePalaiologan period, after 1261, is covered by theProsopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit, launched by theAustrian Academy of Sciences under the direction ofErich Trapp and published between 1976 and 1991.
The first result was theProsopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit, Abteilung I: 641–867, edited byFriedhelm Winkelmann andRalph-Johannes Lilie and published in five volumes between 1998 and 2002. A version of this database is hosted at Berlin-Brandenburg Academy. In 2001, the British Academy published a CD-ROM with its ownProsopography of the Byzantine Empire I (641–867), edited byJohn Robert Martindale, which is complementary to the German work. Asection of the database covering the period 1025–1261 is hosted atKing's College London and is freely accessible from theinternet.
The project aimed to cover all named individuals in the Byzantine world in the period from 641, whereThe Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire ends, to 1265. The geographical scope has since been extended to coverJerusalem. As of 2006 the PBW itself covers the period 1025 to 1180, a total of some 10,000 individuals. The data is drawn from textual sources and also fromsigillography which constitutes an important resource in Byzantine prosopography. Around 7500seals are recorded. The project team estimate that, in printed form, the database would amount to some 1400 pages.
The project was chaired until 2005 by DameAveril Cameron. The current chair is ProfessorCharlotte RouechéFSA, head of the Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies department at King's College London. The project has been funded by theArts and Humanities Research Council.
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