The history of the development of Byzantine Studies is not only a part of historiography and philology, but it also constitutes a special chapter in European cultural history and thinking.  The evaluation of Byzantium and the attitude towards this empire on the borders of Europe and Asia which had claimed to be the inheritor of the Roman Empire, has always been connected with a whole set of political, cultural and religious factors.  With the exception of a rather short episode when Cyril and Methodius led a mission to Great Moravia, the Czech countries have never been under the direct influence of Byzantine civilisation, but have developed in the sphere of Western Latin culture.  It is therefore understandable that modern historical and philological enquiries have also been directed towards the study of the Middle Ages in Western and Central Europe and that Byzantine studies started to develop relatively late, and have stayed on the periphery of our research interests.

          In the fourth volume of Otto's encyclopaedia, we can read a definition of "Byzantinism" which runs as follows: "it is the state of things as it was in the Byzantine Empire, ie. depravity, especially of courtly life, surfeit of luxury and ceremonies at the court, undignified lickspittle and butteriness towards the sires"[ii].  This fourth volume was published in 1891 and ironically, this was the same year in which Karl Krumbacher wrote the first "scientifically" valuable history of Byzantine literature[iii].  The founder of Czechoslovakian Byzantology, Jaroslav Bidlo (1868-1937), evaluated this work as an key enterprise in the development of Byzantine studies[iv].  What is important, in our new encyclopaedias, is that the meaning of "Byzantine" has advanced towards "the Byzantine nature of culture and lifestyle", overshadowing the older pejorative meaning.  On the other hand, the terms "Byzantium" and "Byzantinism" in the public's view, sometimes regain a pejorative meaning in conjunction with the view on the postwar political development in Eastern Europe.

          It is clear that Byzantine studies, from the very beginning, were a historical science closely connected with the pressing political problems of the time.  Some scholars see the reason for the growing attention to Byzantium in the second half of the twentieth century as a result of the interest in historical forms of totalitarian states.  But there also may be a different reason.  Traditional European historiography sprang from historical issues that started with the Roman Empire and continued via the empire of Charles the Great to the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation and then to modern national states.  Only Roman-Germanic culture was regarded as an active historical agent: the East, not only the Orient, but also the European "Greek-Slavonic" East, stayed as a "stagnant" area of the edge of historical interest[v].  After WWII, the European East came to the historical scene as an important agent.  The development of its civilisation can fully be understood through a better look at its historical roots and circumstances[vi].  We can say that today's interest in Byzantine civilisation and culture is connected with the suppression of a Eurocentric approach to history.  In wider circumstances, this interest is, in many ways, connected with the actual treatment of the relation between East and West, with efforts for deeper mutual understanding and comprehension of historical issues.

          We can trace the development of Byzantology as an independent historical and philological discipline in Bohemia at the beginning of the twentieth century.  The origin of Czech Byzantology is connected with temporal national cultural interests at a time of national renascence, with an interest in the development of the Slavonic nations.  The foundations of Byzantology were laid by Jaroslav Bidlo, a professor of Eastern European history and the history of the Balkan peninsula at the Faculty of Philosophy at Charles University in Prague.  He wrote a lengthy key article[vii] in which he not only referred critically to Krumbacher's works (which represented the state of Byzantological philological knowledge of that time), but also discussed Byzantology as a scientific discipline and introduced the main issues.  Byzantology, in the Czech intellectual environment, sprang from Slavonic studies, the studies of the history of Slavonic nations for whom Byzantine civilisation formed the basis for their own cultural development[viii].  In this, Jaroslav Bidlo added to the works of the former Czech historians, especially to those of the great Balkan historian, Konstantin Jireček (1854-1918) who, however, did not directly influence the Czech scene, since he was a professor at the University of Vienna[ix].  Another historian of the Balkan nations and their relations with Byzantium was Bidlo's younger contemporary, Karel Škorpil (1859-1944).  However, he lived abroad and, as the first leader of the archaeological excavations in Plisca and Preslav, he is deservedly named "the father of Bulgarian archaeology"[x].  An important Slavist and Byzantinologist, Miloš Weingart (1890-1939), in the introductory part of the first volume of Byzantinoslavica (1929), pointed out that Czech Slavonic studies, from the very beginning since Josef Dobrovský and Pavel Josef Šafařík, had not neglected the study of Byzantine history and letters.  These historians realised that without knowledge of the Byzantine world, it would not be possible to understand fully and rightly the medieval development of the southern and eastern Slavs, and that knowledge of Byzantine-Slavonic relations would provide a key to the understanding of southern-Slavonic and Russian culture[xi].

The real development of Byzantine studies in Czechoslovakia came after the First World War.  An important impulse for this development was the arrival of a group of excellent Russian historians and experts in Byzantine and old Slavonic art to Prague; the leading figure was Nikodim Pavlović Kondakov (1844-1925)[xii].  The great emigration wave after the Bolshevik revolution in 1917 brought to the host countries a large number of Russian academics who tried to continue their research on an individual as well as on a collective basis[xiii].  Prague became one of the most important centres for Russian intellectuals in the prewar period.  Kondakov founded an institute that remained active after his death in 1925 and provided administrative and practical help to many Russian and other Slavonic scholars who settled in Prague[xiv].  Kondakov's successor, another Russian emigrant, Nikolaj Lvović Okunĕv (1886-1949), was an important figure for Czechoslovakian Byzantology and related subjects.  The aims of the society were to publish the research inherited from Kondakov, and to continue the scientific enquiry in the directions started by Kondakov, that is archaeology and Byzantology[xv].  The activity of the Institute also touched on other related theses, including Byzantine, old Russian and Balkan art and general eastern European culture, the art of late antiquity, and art of the Near East and of migrant nations.  Among those who attended these Czech lectures were Josef Myslivec and Karel IV Schwarzenberg[xvi].  Kondakov's Institute has now become today's Ústav dĕjin umĕní Akademie vĕd České republiky (The Institute of the History of Art at the Czech Academy of Sciences).  Here we can find an institutional archive, parts of the personal inheritance of individual members including Kondakov, an extraordinary library containing about 10,000 volumes.  An extensive collection of icons is loaned as a deposit in the National Gallery in Prague[xvii].

An important act was the foundation of the Slavonic Institute in Prague in 1928 that has become the administrative basis of all Czech Slavonic studies[xviii].  In 1929, it started to publish the journal Byzantinoslavica - it was published until the beginning of the Second World War as a regular "Symposium for the study of Byzantine-Slavonic relations".  Its managing editor and real creator was, until his early death in 1939, the aforementioned excellent Czech scholar, Miloš Weingart, who managed to persuade almost all the leading scholars in Czechoslovakia to contribute to the journal and also many other scholars from Slavonic countries, and even some western scholars, who dealt with various aspects of this question.  In this way they created a journal of high professional quality; important and essential articles and studies were published here, often presenting original and sometimes even revolutionary discoveries and opinions.  At the same time, it played an important and informative role providing a forum in which scholars could comment critically on new and important issues in the field of international Byzantine studies.  It was only natural that the main specialisation of the journal was Slavonic studies and that great emphasis was placed on the diffusion of Byzantine culture among Slavonic nations.  Much attention was paid to studies on Cyril and Methodius' mission and to old-Slavonic literature in general[xix].  In this connection, we must mention František Dvorník (1893-1975) who based the study of Byzantine-Slavonic relations on the all-embracing research of the power and political concerns throughout Europe in the ninth century.  He approached the question of the origin of old-Slavonic hagiography and its relationship to contemporary Byzantine literature in a completely new way[xx].  His later work led him to a complete re-evaluation of the so-called Photian schism[xxi], and after the Second World War, when he was a professor at Harvard University and a member of the Byzantine Institute at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, he studied political theories in Byzantium and wrote several monographs on this topic[xxii].  He continued to work on the question of Byzantine missions among the Slavonic nations, and his last monograph on this topic, summarising the results of his life-long studies, was published in 1970, both in English in America and in Czech in Prague[xxiii].

František Dvorník was not the only Czech scholar interested in Byzantium.  We must also mention Karl Müller, who was a translator of ordinary Byzantine literature, especially novels and epics, into Czech, and who wrote the first (and so far, only) Czech overview of the history of Byzantine literature[xxiv].  Another scholar, Theodor Saturník (1888-1949), dealt with Byzantine law and the Slavonic nations.  His follower, Josef Vašica (1884-1968), continued his work in an original way.  We must also mention the contribution of other scholars, such as Josef Vajs (1865-1959) who, through their work on old-Slavonic literature, contributed considerably to the knowledge of its Byzantine models.  In the period between the wars, the study of Byzantine art and old-Slavonic art reached a very high standard in Czechoslovakia: despite the leading role of the Russian scholars living in Prague (led by N. L. Okunĕv), Czech scholars did make a great contribution as well.  We must mention especially Josef Cibulka (1886-1968), the prominent expert in early Christian archaeology, and of his disciples, Josef Myslivec (1907-1971) whose career was, however, forcibly interrupted by long years of unjust imprisonment in the 1950s.

The period between the wars also saw significant scientific and cultural contacts made between Czechoslovakia and Greece and the study of the history and culture of Byzantium was of particular importance, encouraged by the work of Jaroslav Bildo, Milada Paulová, František Dvorník and others, and the publication of Byzantinoslavica.  Modern Greek research became one of the main topics in the Centre for Greek, Roman and Latin studies ČSAV, which was founded in 1953.  The Head of this Institute was the classical archaeologist Antonín Salać (1885-1960) who was a member of the expedition which carried out archaeological research on the island of Samothraki and in the ancient Kymé in the interwar period.

The Second World War was a great landmark in the development of Byzantine and Slavonic studies in Czechoslovakia.  Opportunities to research and publish results were repressed and international relations disrupted.  Some of the prominent experts died at that time and some had to emigrate.  After this forced break, however, there was a time of intensive development.  Shortly after the end of the Second World War, Milada Paulová (1891-1970), a follower of Jaroslav Bidlo at Charles University[xxv], together with the art historian, Nikolaj Lvovič Okunĕv and the paleoslavonic scholar, Bohuslav Havránek, continued to publish the Byzantinoslavica.  She turned this journal into an international journal with a much wider scope which dealt with all areas of Byzantine studies, without neglecting its original aim.  The journal also now contained a bibliographic section which included up-to-date information on the development of Byzantine studies on an international basis and the study of Byzantine influence on the Slavonic nations.  Among the contributors were many scholars from both Slavonic and Western countries with the result that the journal gained international recognition.  The publication of Byzantinoslavica was assured in 1953 when the Slavonic Institute was incorporated into the new Czech Academy of Sciences. Milada Paulová led the journal until the mid 1950s when a Slavonic scholar, Antonín Dostál (1906-1997) took over.  For the organisation of the redaction work, Bohumila Zástĕrová (1915-1987) was responsible and for a long-time she worked with Milan Loos, a great authority in the field of Byzantine religious history and Medieval heresies[xxvi].  Some time later, Vladimir Vavřínek joined them and he took over the editorship of the journal after their deaths.  He was the chief editor of Byzantinoslavica until the mid 1990s[xxvii]. Vladimer Vavřinek started with the study of ancient history and later on, turned his attention towards the question of change in late antique society and Medieval Byzantium.  He was most interested in the study of the history of the Byzantine missions towards the Slavs, the Christianisation of Great Moravia, and the relationship between old-Slavonic and Byzantine literature, a topic in which he followed František Dvorník to a certain extent[xxviii].  The scholars working on Byzantinoslavica were not, however, the only group of Byzantinists.  They kept close relations with Czechs working on paleoSlavonic research, especially a group who published (from 1958) the monumental Slovník jazyka staroslovĕnského (Dictionary of Old-Slavonic Language).  The chief editor was Josef Kurz and the dictionary is now almost completed under the editorship of Zoe Hauptová[xxix] who co-operated with Kurz for a long time.  As the continuation of this dictionary, the Greek - Old-Slavonic Dictionary is being prepared, an idea initiated by Ilona Páclová (now deceased).

Apart from paleoSlavonic studies, which in Byzantinoslavica were represented by Emilie Bláhová, Czech Byzantinists in the postwar period directed their attention towards the study of classical antiquity.  The foundations of this work had been laid by two eminent professors of classical philology at the Faculty of Philosophy at Charles University.  The first, Karel Svobada (1888-1960), concentrated his studies on the Byzantine novel and the work of Michael Psellos[xxx], and the other, Antonín Salač (1885-1960), published some source material for Byzantine history, especially the charter of the law school of Constantinople.  He also dealt with the relations between Hussite Bohemia and the Constantinopolitan church, and in his archaeological excavations in Greece, he was interested not only in antique objects, but also in finds from the Byzantine period. Karel Svobada's follower, who also worked with Antonín Salač, Růžena Dostálová, edited the Byzantine and Greek part of Slovník řeckých spisovatelů (Dictionary of Greek Writers) and she founded a series of translations of the works of Byzantine historians[xxxi].  At the same time, she seeks to cultivate modern-Greek studies as a logical continuation of Byantology and pays attention to Greek-Czech relations in history[xxxii].

Byzantine studies form a natural part of Balkan studies which, especially from the 1960s, constitute an independent subject.  In Czechoslovakia, Balkan studies are based especially at Masaryk University in Brno, where the discipline was founded there by Professor Josef Macůrek (1901-1992), the author the work, Dĕjepisectví evropského východu[xxxiii], and where Josef Kabrda (1906-1968), an expert on the early Turkish period, also lectured[xxxiv].  In the 1970s, this subject in Brno was pursued by František Hejl, and today especially by Ivan Dorovský, whose interest is directed towards modern history and Balkan philology.  Czech historians have always been interested in the history of the southern Slavonic countries.  In this connection, we must mention Czech Balkanists and Yugoslavians; the aforementioned Konstantin Jireček and Milada Paulová, as well as Frank Wollman and Václav Žáček.  After the Second World War, several scholars attempted to produce complete descriptions of the development of the southern-Slavonic nations[xxxv].

Czechoslovakian archaeology was connected with Byzantine art, although only in a marginal way; especially the findings from the period of the migration of nations and of Great Moravia.  Two scholars gained international fame in this field: Josef Poulík (1910-1998) and Vilém Hrubý (1912-1985).  Josef Pošmourný and Josef Cibulka dealt with the influence of Byzantine architecture on Great Moravia, while Zdeněk Klanica and Klement  Benda were interested in virtu (little art objects).  In Slovakia, the scholar who dealt with the artistic side of Byzantium was Ján Dekan and the scholar who was interested more in the historical point of view was Alexander Avenarius (1942-2004), especially Byzantine-Avar and Byzantine-Slavonic relations[xxxvi].  At the university in Bratislava, the Byzantine and Medieval Slavonic archaeology and the history of art is taught by Tatiana Štefanovičová[xxxvii].

There is no independent department of Byzantine Studies (common in other Slavonic countries) at a Czech University, but Byzantine history is taught within general history.  At Charles University, Milada Paulová was followed by her disciple, Věra Hrochová, who specialised in late Byzantine towns and the period of the crusades[xxxviii], while in Brno, the Lecturer in Byzantine history was Lubomír Emil Havlík (1925-2000), who became known for his work on early Slavonic history.  The history of Byzantine art and the art of the Slavonic nations was taught at the University in Prague by Vladimír Fiala, who specialised in the art history of Bulgaria, now studied by Jana Hlaváčková, who works especially on Byzantine iconography.

An important way of making international contacts is to hold conferences.  In Czechoslovakia, there have been several Byzantine Symposia.  In 1977, in Liblice, a symposium entitled "Byzantium in the height of its power", was held and attended by thirty-six scholars from six socialist countries.  The papers were published in the volume Beitrage zur byzantinischen Geschichte in 9.-11. Jahrhundert[xxxix].  In September 1982, at the sixteenth international conference EIRENE, traditionally dedicated to classical studies only, the first Byzantine symposium dedicated to the question of continuity or discontinuity of historical development in the time of transition from late antiquity to early Bzyantium was held.  This symposium was attended by sixty-seven scholars from thirteen countries, eastern as well as western, and its proceedings were published in the volume from Late Antiquity to Early Byzantium[xl].  The importance of this symposium internationally is indicated not only by the number of participants and papers delivered, but also by the fact that the publication of the volume was sponsored by UNESCO.  In September 1990, there was another conference in Bechynĕ on the topic: "Byzantium and its neighbours from the second half of the ninth century until the twelfth century".  This conference was attended by over sixty scholars from fourteen countries.

International co-operation has widened recently.  In the manuscript department of the State Library in Prague, there is a collection of Greek papyri from the Hellenistic period until the conquest of Byzantine Egypt by the Arabs: among these papyri are some from the early Byzantine period.  On the basis of an agreement between the Czech Academy of Sciences and the Florentine Bibliotheca Laurentiana, an Italian and two Czech scholars have become responsible for publishing them: Rosario Pintaudi, Růžena Dostálová and Ladislav Vidman[xli].

In 1992, under the supervision of Bohumila Zástěrová, the book Dějiny Byzance (History of Byzantium) was published.  The authors were prominent Czechoslovakian Byzantinists - Alexander Avenarius (†), Růžena Dostálová, Vladimír Fiala, Věra Hrochová (†), Milan Loos (†), Oldřich Tůma, Vladimer Vavřínek and Bohumila Zástěrová (†)[xlii].  The publication had to provide a modern picture of the historical development of the Byzantine Empire.  Due to the importance of Byzantium for the history of central Europe, especially for eastern-Slavonic and southern-Slavonic nations, a chapter dealing with Byzantine-Slavonic relations was added to the book.  This publication attempted to provide a response to the view that Byzatium means constrained absolutism and formalistic splendour without life and creative power.  In the introductory part, Vladimír Vavřínek points to the fact that often, in general, Byzantium means arrogance and servility at the same time.  Byzantine culture is alien to everyone who has been brought up in the tradition of western culture based on Latin foundations.  The book represents a summary of scholarship of one generation of Byzantine scholars in Czechoslovakia[xliii].

It is important to mention the work of the Institute of Classical Studies at the Faculty of Philosophy at Masaryk University in Brno which deals with almost all aspects of the study of the ancient world: the language, social and cultural background of the ancient Greeks and Romans; the development of ancient Greek and Latin, ancient literature, philosophy and religion, ancient Greek and Roman history, and the evolution of ancient social institutions, archaeology, development of the arts etc.  Apart from these activities, the Institute pays attention to scholarship in Byzantine Studies and modern Greek language.

Among important centres of Byzantine studies in the Czech Republic, we must name the Institute of Saint John the Theologian for Eastern Christian Studies in Olomouc under Petr Balcarek and his wife, Manuela E. Gheorghe.  The aim of the Institute is the presentation, diffusion, strengthening and deepening of Orthodox Christianity and its spiritual and cultural traditions on the basis of academic study and scholarly research.  Petr Balcarek delivers lectures on Early Christian and Byzantine Iconography up to the 15th century at the Theological Faculty at Palacky University in Olomouc[xliv].

In Slovakia[xlv], activities in the area of Byzantine studies are concentrated mostly in Bratislava and Prešov.  At the Faculty of Philosophy at Komenský University in Bratislava under Martin Hurbanić, there are efforts currently to establish a journal, Byzantinoslovaca.  The first issue should be dedicated to the prominent scholar, Alexander Avenarius.  According to Matin Hurbanić, this journal will continue Byzantine studies in Slovakia, following the work of A. Avenarius.

Another centre of Byzantine studies is the Department of Byzantology at the Orthodox Theological Faculty, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Prešov[xlvi].  It is not necessary to stress the main subject of the department - the spiritual value and inheritance of the Byzantine state.  The Byzantine mission of Cyril and Methodius also enlightened the beginnings of our national history and therefore influenced the way Czechs and Slovaks look at Christianity.  Byzantology in our interpretation means mostly the church history of the Christian Roman empire, and later on, of only its eastern part.  Special attention is paid to spiritual themes and theological disputes which influenced the life of the church as well as of the whole of society.  The results of theological controversies, for example, iconoclastic or palamistic, define specific Orthodox theologies and are often the object of liturgical doxologies.  Another aim of the department is to introduce Bzyantine Studies to university students of theology, and to show that Byzantine Studies is a scientific discipline which is taught at a number of universities and Orthodox theological schools.  The Department concentrates on the study of Greek and Russian works[xlvii].  It is at this department that Alexander Avenarius worked and lectured, and it is important to mention an international conference held here in 2001, The Byzantine tradition in the context of European civilisation[xlviii].  In Prešov, under Vaclav Ježek and Eduard Neupauer, the journal Synergia was founded, dedicated to Byzantine history, culture and theology[xlix].  Byzantine subjects are also included in the Orthodox Revue, a journal for Orthodox theology (published in Prague) where the studies are published in Czech and Slovak.  Many important translations were published here, such as those of G. Palamas, B. Krivochéine, J. Meyendorff, G. Florovsky.

The most recent important event concerning Byzantine studies was The 10th Colloquium on Gregory of Nyssa (Gregory of Nyssa, Contra Eunomium II, Philosophy and Theology of Language, 15th-18th September, 2004)[l] which was organised by the prominent Czech expert on the work of Gregory of Nyssa, Lenka Karfíková[li].          

From what has been said above, we can say that Czechoslovakian Byzantology has a long tradition, supported by names such as Konstantin Jireček, Jaroslav Bidlo, Milada Paulová, Miloš Weingart, František Dvorník, Milan Loos, Růžena Dostálová, Alexander Avenarius, Vladimír Vavřínek, Vladimír Fiala, Věra Hrochová, Oldřich Tůma, Bohumila Zástěrová and others.

Appendix

Selected Bibliography on Byzantine Studies in the Czech Republic and Slovakia

The works of Czech Byzantinists until 1965 are registered in Bibliographie de la byzantinologie tchécoslavaque I-II, Praha, 1966.  A basic overview of the Byzantine period or of particular issues is covered in several articles by Czech authors: J. Bidlo, 'Studia byzantologická a Karla Krumbachera "Geschichte der byzantinischen Literatur"' ('Byzantine Studies and Karl Krumbacher's "Geschichte der byzantinischen Literatur"'), Český časopis historický 14 (1902), 129-158, 270-284; M. Paulová, "Die Tschechisch-Byzantinischen Beziehungen und ihr Einfluss", Byzantinoslavica 13/2 (1958): 195-205; V. Hrochová, "Základní problémy studia byzantských dĕjin" ("Basic problems of the study of Byzantine history"), Český časopis historický 12 (1964), 153-170; B. Zástěrová, "Přehled vývoje a dnešního stavu byzantologie" ("An overview of the development and contemporary state of Byzantology") Český časopis historický 14 (1966) 161-178;  volume Vybrané problémy současné byzantologie (Selected problems of contemporary byzantology), Praha 1978 (authors of individual articles: R. Dostálová, V. Hrochová, M. Loos, V. Vavřínek).  In 1992, the chapter "Byzantská studia v Československu" ("Byzantine studies in Czechoslovakia") was published in Dějiny Byzance (History of Byzantium), Academia, Praha 1992, 472-475.  Lubomíra Havlíková wrote the article "Česká byzantologie a archeologie (1991-2000)" ("Czech Byzantology and archaeology (1991-2000)") where she presents the development of Czech Byzantine studies (including history, archaeology, linguistics, literary studies, history of arts) between the years 1991-2000[lii].  In Byzantinoslavica (Prague) there is systematic information on new Byzantine publications in annotated bibliography.  The latest evaluation of Czech Byzantology is a dictionary entry "Czechoslovak Byzantology" by Petr Balcárek and Vladimír Vavřínek which should be published by Libri publishers, Prague, in 2005.