Byzantine Art and Architecture

The Byzantine and Christian Museum, which is based in Athens, is one of Greece’s national museums. Its areas of competency are centred on – but not limited to – religious artefacts of the Early Christian, Byzantine, Medieval, post-Byzantine and later periods which it exhibits, but also acquires, receives, preserves, conserves, records, documents, researches, studies, publishes and raises awareness of.The museum has over 25,000 artefacts in its possession. The artefacts date from between the 3rd and 20th century AD, and their provenance encompasses the entire Greek world, as well as regions in which Hellenism flourished. The size and range of the collections and value of the exhibits makes the Museum a veritable treasury of Byzantine and post-Byzantine art and culture.

The Dumbarton Oaks Byzantine Collection comprises more than twelve hundred objects from the fourth to the fifteenth centuries. Among the most important objects are treasures of gold, silver, and bronze vessels used for the celebration of the Eucharist. Other outstanding objects are late Roman and Byzantine jewelry, cloisonné enamels, glass and glyptics, ivory icons, and illuminated manuscripts. Although the collection focuses on Byzantine art, it comprises objects of Greek, Roman, and western Medieval art; works from the Ancient Near East; Pharaonic and Ptolemaic Egypt; and Islamic cultures. The collection also includes mosaics from Antioch and relief sculpture from the late Roman to Middle Byzantine periods, as well as more than two hundred textiles and comprehensive holdings of coins and seals.

When The Met was founded in 1870, it owned not a single work of art. Through the combined efforts of generations of curators, researchers, and collectors, our collection has grown to represent more than 5,000 years of art from across the globe—from the first cities of the ancient world to the works of our time.

The Museum of Byzantine Culture aims at presenting various aspects of Byzantine art and culture, as well as of the following era, after the fall of the Byzantine Empire to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. Frescoes, mosaics, icons, marble architectural members, integrally detached frescoed early Christian burials, valuable ecclesiastic utensils, objects of personal ornament, but also functional objects of everyday use present aspects of life in Byzantium, from the organization of religious and social life and the artistic and intellectual production to private life and activities in the market, the countryside and the sea.

The Benaki Museum, opened in 1930, has a large collection of relics from Greece and its ancient colonies demonstrating how the Greek culture has evolved from Ancient Greece to the present day.The museum’s extensive collection features relics and objects from 3000 BC up until the beginning of the twentieth century. These are displayed in a chronological order throughout the four floors of the neoclassical mansion, in which the museum is located.The Benaki Museum features Byzantine Art; Prehistoric, Ancient and Roman Art, Chinese Art; Post-Byzantine and Neo-Hellenic Art, and historic heirlooms, among several others.

The National Gallery of Art was conceived and given to the people of the United States by Andrew W. Mellon (1855–1937). Mellon was a financier and art collector from Pittsburgh who came to Washington in 1921 to serve as secretary of the treasury. During his years of public service he came to believe that the United States should have a national art museum equal to those of other great nations.

The J. Paul Getty Museum seeks to inspire curiosity about, and enjoyment and understanding of, the visual arts by collecting, conserving, exhibiting and interpreting works of art of outstanding quality and historical importance. To fulfill this mission, the Museum continues to build its collections through purchase and gifts, and develops programs of exhibitions, publications, scholarly research, public education, and the performing arts that engage our diverse local and international audiences. All of these activities are enhanced by the uniquely evocative architectural and garden settings provided by the Museum's two renowned venues: the Getty Villa and the Getty Center.

The Istanbul Archaeological Museums is among the most impressive historical venues for your outdoor events and made up of three main units: the Istanbul Archaeological Musuems, the Ancient Orient Museum and Tiled Kiosk Museum. The collection of the Archaeology Museum Turkey’s first museum houses over one million artifacts belonging various cultures collected from the imperial territories. The Archaeological Museum was ounded in June 13, 1891 under the name of Müze-i Hümayun (the Imperial Museum). Commissioned by archeologist, painter and curator.

The National Gallery of Art Library is a major national art research center serving the Gallery's staff, members of the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, visiting scholars, and the scholarly community at large.

The main ARIT-Istanbul library, at ANAMED, contains 10,500 monograph titles, and covers the Byzantine, Ottoman, and modern Turkish periods. The gift of the library of Dr. H. Kenneth Snipes greatly enhanced the ARIT Istanbul library holdings for the Byzantine era. The library will continue to develop its collections, especially for Byzantine studies. An updated catalogue of the holdings of the Istanbul center library is accessible via internet at the ARIT Istanbul Library webpage.

İstanbul Research Institute Library was set up in 2006 and its collection has been constantly enriched and developed since then. The Library opened its door to users in March 2007. Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation, İstanbul Research Institute Library aims to meet researchers’ information needs in their fields, to enrich its collection according to its mission, to assist in scientific work in İstanbul and in whole Turkey and to become a user friendly library.

The Istanbul Department is dedicated to archaeological research in modern Turkey, with one focus on Byzantium. The Greek settlement founded in the 7th century BC became the Roman city of Constantinople in the 4th century AD and is now known as the Turkish metropolis Istanbul. As a second research focus, the Istanbul Department manages monument excavations in West Turkey (Pergamum, Milet, Didyma). Hittite culture and the Hittite capital Hattusa-Bogazköy in central Anatolia constitute another key research interest. The department’s research activities cover prehistory and ancient history, beginning in the 10th millennium BC and continuing through the Ottoman era into the 20th century.

Towards the end of the 19th century, the French Embassy’s translation office was situated at the current IFEA’s currently location. Later, in 1930, the IFEA was originally founded as the French Archaeological Institute in Istanbul. Researches at the IFEA expanded up to turcology. And the institution became French Institute of Anatolian Studies in 1975. The IFEA aims to bring together European and Turkish researchers from various disciplines of social sciences, working on subjects related to Turkey.

Dumbarton Oaks Research Library exists to advance scholarship in Byzantine, Garden and Landscape, and Pre-Columbian studies through the comprehensive collection of materials in multiple media, published and unpublished; description and arrangement of those materials and presence of informed staff to ensure efficient access; exhibition of collections; and preservation of knowledge in these disciplines whether in print or digital formats for use by future generations.

The Centre for Byzantine Research possesses a specialized Library that serves the needs of both the scholars who work on the Centre’s research projects, as well as those of other fellow scholars who study various topics related to Byzantium. The Library collection includes approximately 40,000 volumes and 300 titles of periodicals on Byzantine Archaeology and Art, Byzantine Law, Byzantine Theology, Byzantine and Medieval History and Literature. The Library is one of the richest in Europe regarding editions of Byzantine texts; it also has one of the largest collections in Greece of publications relating to mosaics and Byzantine manuscripts.

The Byzantine Library, founded jointly in Paris in 1929 by the American scholar Thomas Whittemore and the Boston Byzantine Institute, holds a specialized collection on Byzantine civilization in general and more specifically on early Christian and Byzantine archaeology and art, Byzantine history and literature, the history of the Orthodox Church, and the liturgy, art and history of the countries influenced by Byzantine civilization (Slavic countries, Georgia, Armenia, the Near East), as well as on Coptic art and literature.

The D.A. Zakythinos Library provides the researchers of the Section of Byzantine Research and the Section of Neohellenic Research with the necessary bibliographical support. Thus, the main bulk of titles reflect the orientation of the ongoing research projects. The Library holds approximately 40.000 titles (books, offprints, journals, maps and audio-visual material), covering a wide spectrum of Hellenic bibliography from the 16th to the 19th centuries and the periodicals collection numbers 1.100 titles.

"Elena and Ivan Dujčev" scientific library contains about 60 000 library items and is one of the richest documentary bases for investigation of Bulgarian, Byzantine and West European medieval history, art, paleography and literature. The works of classical and medieval authors, reference literature, Bulgarian and foreign specialized medieval publications, is extensively covered.

The Library focuses on all aspects of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine history, philology and especially the Greek territories subjected to Venetian domination and important works on Italian and European history and literature. Its central core is made up of all the books that were salvaged from the vast collection of the library of Collegio Flanghinis, some two thousand titles printed at the Greek printers of Venice from the 16th to 18th centuries.

The C.E.B.N.Ch. has got one of the richest and most specialized libraries of its kind outside Greece and Cyprus. It includes more than 25,000 titles and 85 scientific and literary magazines and it is open to the scientific public. They enriched their collections by donations like the ANAMED Library and they have many different donators: Public Bodies, Academic Institutions, Private entities, Publishing houses, Private individuals.

Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies Library offers more than 60,000 academic full text journals to the students and staff of the University of Vienna. An overview of all electronic journals is also available. They listed their electronic sources under the subject titles: Classical Philology. Byzantine Studies. Middle Latin and Modern Greek Studies. Neo-Latin Studies, Modern Greek Studies, History, Archaeology, Aegyptology, Byzantine Studies.