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Byzantine Studies and History

Byzantine Studies and History is a research topic within Classics. Science Explorer counts 20k research works in it since 1950. 10.7% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers covers a wide range of topics related to Byzantine and Eastern Mediterranean studies, including intellectual culture, religious identity, historical texts, and cultural exchange. It explores the development of Byzantine philosophy, the spread of Christianity in the region, and the dynamics of Mediterranean trade during the medieval period.

  • Byzantium
  • Eastern Mediterranean
  • Medieval Christianity
  • Intellectual Culture
  • Cultural Exchange
  • Religious Identity
  • Byzantine Philosophy
  • Historical Texts
  • Christian Orthodoxy
  • Mediterranean Trade
Research works
20k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
2.2k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.7%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
-4%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
22% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Byzantine Studies and History

Which countries lead Byzantine Studies and History research?

By volume, the United States and the United Kingdom publish the most (694 and 394 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 694 works
  2. 2 United Kingdom 394 works
  3. 3 Russia 390 works
  4. 4 Türkiye 347 works
  5. 5 Italy 320 works
  6. 6 France 318 works
  7. 7 Germany 241 works
  8. 8 Poland 214 works
  9. 9 Greece 139 works
  10. 10 Spain 113 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 21.9%United Kingdom: 12.4%Russia: 12.3%Türkiye: 10.9%6 others listed: 42.4%22%largest
United States694 · 21.9%United Kingdom394 · 12.4%Russia390 · 12.3%Türkiye347 · 10.9%6 others listed1,346 · 42.4%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Byzantine Studies and History research?

By volume in 2022-now, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique publishes the most Byzantine Studies and History research, followed by Russian Academy of Sciences and University of Edinburgh.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 119 works
  2. 2 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 116 works
  3. 3 University of EdinburghUnited Kingdom 56 works
  4. 4 Ca' Foscari University of VeniceItaly 48 works
  5. 5 University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 46 works
  6. 6 National and Kapodistrian University of AthensGreece 39 works
  7. 7 Weatherford CollegeUnited States 37 works
  8. 8 University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 33 works
  9. 9 Bulgarian Academy of SciencesBulgaria 32 works
  10. 10 Jagiellonian UniversityPoland 29 works

Who are the leading researchers in Byzantine Studies and History?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Byzantine Studies and History include Michel Foucault, Peter W.F. Wilson and Christof Koch.

  1. 1 Michel Foucault France 208k citations
  2. 2 Peter W.F. Wilson United States 161k citations
  3. 3 Christof Koch United States 137k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Byzantine Studies and History?

The most cited paper in Byzantine Studies and History is "The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity" (Peter Brown, 1971), with 906 citations. Next come "The Chrysanthemum and the Sword" (726) and "Early Greek elegy, symposium and public festival" (556).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity Peter Brown · The Journal of Roman Studies Nov 1971 906
2 The Chrysanthemum and the Sword Ruth Fulton Benedict · Psychologists in Word and Image Book chapter 27 Mar 1995 726
3 Early Greek elegy, symposium and public festival E. L. Bowie · The Journal of Hellenic Studies Nov 1986 556
4 The Epic Successors of Virgil: A Study in the Dynamics of a Tradition William S. Anderson, Philip Russell Hardie · The Classical World 1995 528
5 FROM POLIS TO MADINA: URBAN CHANGE IN LATE ANTIQUE AND EARLY ISLAMIC SYRIA Hugh N. Kennedy · Past & Present 1985 354
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Byzantine Studies and History research done?

The largest centres of Byzantine Studies and History research in 2022-now are Moscow (Russia), Paris (France), Athens (Greece) and Istanbul (Türkiye). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Venice, Saint Paul and Yerevan.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 MoscowRussia 197 works
  2. 2 ParisFrance 113 works
  3. 3 AthensGreece 69 works
  4. 4 IstanbulTürkiye 60 works
  5. 5 EdinburghUnited Kingdom 56 works
  6. 6 Saint PetersburgRussia 56 works
  7. 7 BudapestHungary 55 works
  8. 8 LondonUnited Kingdom 54 works
  9. 9 SofiaBulgaria 54 works
  10. 10 OxfordUnited Kingdom 50 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. VeniceIT · 49.2 works34×
  2. Saint PaulUS · 28.2 works32×
  3. YerevanAM · 48.0 works24×
  4. TbilisiGE · 41.1 works23×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Byzantine Studies and History than the world average.

See Byzantine Studies and History on the map

Where is the best place to study Byzantine Studies and History?

Among universities, judged by research, Indiana University, University of Edinburgh and Ca' Foscari University of Venice score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 18.98%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Indiana UniversityOndokuz Mayıs Univer…Ca' Foscari Universi…University of Edinbu…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Indiana UniversityUnited States 66.141.8%4.5×17 +153.1%
2University of EdinburghUnited Kingdom 63.65.0%16.5×56 +332.9%
3Ca' Foscari University of VeniceItaly 62.412.8%51.3×48 +61.7%
4Ondokuz Mayıs UniversityTürkiye 60.339.4%7.8×8 +337.5%
5University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 59.714.2%8.3×46 -17.0%
6Weatherford CollegeUnited States 57.614.9%7.1×37 +173.7%
7University of CyprusCyprus 52.818.6%23.2×13 +9.1%
8University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 50.19.8%7.0×33 -9.7%
9University of ExeterUnited Kingdom 49.811.4%12.1×20 +18.8%
10Eötvös Loránd UniversityHungary 49.421.9%11.9×14 +44.5%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Byzantine Studies and History, country by country

Is Byzantine Studies and History research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 4% lower than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2021.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Byzantine Studies and History as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.018% in 2024.

still counting0.010%0.020%0.030%Byzantine Studies and History0.016% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Byzantine Studies and History over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Byzantine Studies and History9.3% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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