Byzantine research in Vienna: what blessed beehives reveal about Byzantine life

Why is gold measured in carats? Where do legal principles like caveat emptor come from and how is a Hollywood-funded church representative of 6th century architecture? Traces of Byzantium are everywhere, even where we least expect them. After all, Byzantium is not a thing of the past. It is a living and ever-evolving field of study – and Byzantine research lives best in Vienna.

The 25th International Congress of Byzantine Studies (ICBS 2026, August 24-28) shines a light on Austria's capital as a world-leading hub once more. We spoke with Professor of Byzantine Studies, Claudia Rapp, about Vienna's role at the forefront of Byzantine research, about how modern lenses continue to reshape our understanding of Byzantine history and what blessings of beehives and prayers for silkworm growth have to do with it.

Rudolphina: Many achievements from Byzantium remain very relevant today, especially when we think about law, art history and liturgy. Can you think of other things that we encounter in everyday life that have their origin in Byzantium? 

Claudia Rapp: You know how gold is measured in carats? That actually comes from the measuring unit in Byzantium that is connected to the name for the smallest coin in bronze, which is called keration. And speaking of law: Roman law, as we know it, was actually finalized under Byzantine emperor Justinian in the 6th century. And many legal principles, like Nemo judex in propria causa, meaning "Nobody Should Judge Their Own Case", or caveat emptor, meaning "Let the Buyer Beware", come from Roman law that ultimately was codified by emperor Justinian. Another example would be church architecture, a lot of which is rooted in Byzantine traditions.

Rudolphina: You have taught and done research in the UK and the US for over twenty years before coming to Vienna. What have been the biggest differences in working in the US and in Europe, specifically Vienna?

Rapp: Here in Austria, more of my students have travelled to the regions of Byzantium. Greece, Turkey or Italy are all holiday destinations for Austrians and for many, it's their first contact with what a Byzantine church looks like. In Los Angeles, where I taught at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles), I had a lot of students whose cultural heritage reached back to Russia, Armenia, Iran. They had connections to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East through their cultural formation and stories they heard at home. I also had a lot of students who were of Hispanic, Latino and Chicano background, for whom the Catholic Church was a point of reference. 

Whenever I wanted to explain to my UCLA students what a Byzantine church looked like, I took them on a field trip to downtown Los Angeles, to the Greek church that was built by people who made their money in Hollywood. And it was fascinating: It's a beautiful early 20th century church, with chandeliers from Czechia and with children of donors depicted as little angelic faces in the arch leading to the apse. It's essentially a piece of Los Angeles history that looks like an Orthodox church in Byzantium. So, we find different ways to make the history real and to meet the students where they come from. 

There is also a nice collection of Greek manuscripts in the Getty Museum and in the Special Collections of UCLA, where I could teach palaeography, the study of old writing systems, and introduce students to the history of Byzantine manuscripts.

New questions bring to light new fragments of history

Rudolphina: You have written a book titled Zerrspiegel, Streiflichter und Seitenblicke: Perspektiven der Byzantinistik heute (English: Distorted Mirrors, Spotlights, and Side Glances: Perspectives of Byzantine Studies Today). In a historical context, Zerrspiegel or 'distorted mirror' means that texts should not be taken literally and that they often do not reflect the reality of that time. Does this mean that the Byzantine legacy must be continually re-examined?

Rapp: Yes, that is ultimately a question for all disciplines that work historically and depend on written sources. The narratives we receive were written by a specific person at a particular moment in time and it's our task to understand what made them write, and why they are writing in this particular way. One way of being innovative with regard to this is to find new texts to complement our knowledge – and that means to do 'Seitenblicke' (side glances) and consider texts that have previously not been used to understand a historical moment. 

In the case of my own research and the study of Byzantine liturgical manuscripts for priests, we find that they contain short prayers for specific occasions in the daily life of families and communities. For example, we find prayers for the first day of school for boys – and in later centuries also for girls, which we didn't know before. We also find prayers for the blessing of a beehive or the first harvest, and I've recently worked on prayers for the growth of silkworms. There are also prayers for when the priest supports a woman during difficult childbirth and many more occasions. These prayers allow us a look through the keyhole into the daily life of a society that the official narratives – which were produced by the highly literate, elite members of society – would not necessarily give us.

Another approach is to look at well-established Byzantine authors like Procopius in the 6th century or Anna Comnena in the 12th century and ask new questions. For example, 50 years ago, nobody looked for women in the texts. Now, we're increasingly looking for minorities in texts and it's become part of the way we read them. There's a lot of new questions we can ask in order to tease out new information from texts we've already read ten times.

Rudolphina: That reminds me of an interview with your colleague, Guilia Rossetto, who explained that a lot of her research is concerned with little notes in the margins of historical texts.

Rapp: The scholia, exactly. Also, we are just beginning to understand the notes left by scribes when they finished a manuscript. In these notes, they will sometimes talk about their own lives, about their family members, or sometimes they will talk about the fact that there was an earthquake. And in addition to these notes by scribes, you may find entries by later owners or readers who leave what we call paratexts, additional material surrounding a main text. This could be a note like "My abbott is a wicked man", though rare, or it could be "On this day, my granddaughter died". So, a lot of information, again, that comes directly from life, that previous scholars did not pay attention to because they were focused on reconstructing classical antiquity through material preserved in Byzantium.

Vienna as a global centre for Byzantine studies

Rudolphina: Vienna was never part of the Byzantine Empire, yet it is considered a leading hub for Byzantine studies. What are the reasons behind this?

Rapp: The history of Austria is closely connected with the history of Byzantium through a multitude of ties. During the Crusader period, the ruling house of the Babenbergers had two marriages with Byzantine princesses, both named Theodora. One Theodora, who was married to Heinrich II. (also called "Jasomirgott"), is even buried in the crypt of Schottenstift. A colleague of mine, Christian Gastgeber, found a list of relics in the archives purchased for St. Stephen's that originally came from the Byzantine Empire. In the Renaissance, Cardinal Bessarion [note: Byzantine philosopher and later, Latin patriarch of Constantinople] visited Vienna, so the city was definitely on the radar of the Byzantine emperors. My colleague, Andreas Rhoby, has a book in press on Byzantium and Austria showing even further connections.

Furthermore, we have well over a thousand manuscripts copied in Greek in the Austrian National Library, containing texts from classical antiquity and from the Byzantine period – a huge treasure that has led to many research projects. Even after the Byzantine Empire fell, Greek trading networks under the Ottoman Empire extended to Vienna. In the 19th century, important Greek thinkers worked and published here, and we now have two Greek Orthodox churches in Vienna.

Rudolphina: Are there specific reasons for why Byzantine studies in Vienna are at the forefront of Byzantine research worldwide? 

Rapp: That has to do with institutional history. The Habsburg Empire had long been interested in the Christian precursors of the neighbouring Ottoman Empire. This interest reaches back to the 16th century, when Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq was sent to Constantinople as an ambassador by the Habsburg emperors. He returned with over 270 Greek manuscripts that now form the nucleus of the Austrian National Library's Greek collection.

Furthermore, there has always been an interest in the region's historical geography and art history. Famous art historians like Josef Strzygowski worked in Vienna in the 1930s and Vladimir Sas-Zaloziecky founded the Austrian Association for Byzantine Studies in 1945. In the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, Herbert Hunger established an institutional basis for the study of Byzantium, with the Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies and at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, where he was president. This means that we have two substantial legs to stand on. 

Currently, about 40 people of multiple generations are actively engaged in Byzantine research here in Vienna, from master's students to emeriti. People work on Byzantine or related topics in art history and archaeology, the department of Protestant Theology and the Juridicum [note: Faculty of Law at the University of Vienna]. We also work closely with Medieval Slavic studies and collaborate with Near Eastern studies through the EurAsia Cluster of Excellence, where the University of Vienna is one of the four lead institutions. In all of these contexts, Byzantium serves as a pivot between the Euro‑Mediterranean area and the Near and Far East, highlighting its role as a global player.

Considering the whole 'Lebenswelt' and staying innovative

Rudolphina: What continues to fascinate you most about Byzantine studies to this day?

Rapp: That it's a very dynamic field, which is something that the congress will very much showcase. There will be well over 1,200 presentations and many interesting side events. Over 1,400 people have already registered.

Coming back to your question, what continues to fascinate me is how the field develops and changes and how it's influenced by cultural studies. For classical antiquity, scholarship has been divided into philology, art history, archaeology and history. In Byzantine studies, to really understand what's going on, you must bring all these together. Furthermore, to grasp a period, phenomenon, or concept you need to consider the complete environment or 'Lebenswelt'. I learned that from my teachers, especially Cyril Mango at the University of Oxford, and this exact approach keeps our discipline vibrant. We must work together, be open to new questions and to humble new materials – like side notes in manuscripts and little prayers.

And people are doing the most fascinating work right now, for example in bioarchaeology: They are conducting pollen counts in ice cores and lake sediments that reconstruct regional vegetation – that was unthinkable only a couple of years ago. There are great advances made these days and artificial intelligence can help us in achieving them. 

Rudolphina: I imagine the congress highlights many of these advances. Since you mentioned the interesting side events, which ones would you particularly recommend to the public? 

Rapp: There are three things I would recommend: One is the exhibition Spurensuche Byzanz. Fragmente des Griechischen Mittelalters at the Papyrus Museum that showcases material – again, humble things, like fragments – that help us put together a bit of the puzzle of Byzantine history. And this material spans the entire history from late antique papyri to perhaps the most famous document of late Byzantine administrative history, the register of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. 

The second event I highly recommend is the concert by Baroque Arabesque, who specialize in Mediterranean music. Through the music, you understand the cultural influences between the existing traditions and the new Middle Eastern traditions of music. And third, we have a project called Costumes of Authority: Dress to Impress. These costumes are the garments that were worn by people from the royal house, as well as bishops, as depicted in 12th century frescoes from the church in Faras in Nubia. Members of the Sudanese community here in Vienna will show the costumes on stage, while historians explain the historical background.

Rudolphina: That sounds wonderful. All the best for the congress and thank you for the interview!

Rapp: Thank you, this was fun!