A British Academy Research Project funded by the AHRC

PBW launched version 2006.1 of its electronic database of eleventh-century sources at King’s College London last August, during the International Byzantine Congress. The database has since been updated and version 2006.2 is now freely accessible on the net: http://www.pbw.kcl.ac.uk. It contains information on some 12,000 individuals, culled from more than 7,800 lead seals and from textual sources mainly in Greek but also in Latin and Arabic. This information is presented in some 63,000 small packets (“factoids”) that appear as answers to specific searches (or combinations of search terms) and are organized where appropriate in chronological order, based on almost 3,000 events (“narrative units”) recorded in the empire and the wider area in the course of the 11th and 12th centuries. Thus, PBW is much more than a fully searchable prosopographical database: its chronological component and the abundant sigillographic material it integrates turn it into a valuable research tool for sigillographers and historians alike. It is also a rich resource for students and for the interested general public.

This elaborate yet user-friendly database is the result of seven years’ work by the PBW team, guided by a committee of Byzantinists chaired by Dame Averil Cameron and more recently by Prof. Charlotte Roueché. The project was funded by two successive AHRC Resource Enhancement awards and was also generously supported by the British Academy. Throughout these years PBW was based at the Centre for Computing in the Humanities (CCH) at King’s College London, and has benefited enormously from the expertise of staff at the CCH (in particular Elliott Hall and John Bradley) under the guidance of its director, Prof. Harold Short.

During these years PBW has organized several workshops, including an international colloquium entitled Byzantines and Crusaders in non-Greek sources that was held at the British Academy in December 2002; the resulting volume, edited by Dr Mary Whitby for Oxford University Press, is due to appear in early 2007. Another international colloquium, this time entitled The Eastern Mediterranean in the Thirteenth century: identities and allegiances, will take place on 30-31 March 2007, also at the British Academy (further details on the project website). Its aim will be to examine and discuss from a prosopographical point of view the issues raised by the fragmentation of the empire after 1204, and the role of its immediate neighbours and the key players of the period.

In order to tackle the problem of non-Greek sources, and in particular the immensely rich Arabic material, PBW was instrumental in establishing a sibling project with funding from the Leverhulme Trust, the Prosopography of Arabic Sources for Byzantines and Crusaders, 1025-1204. Its aim is to process sources in Arabic which are also relevant to PBW’s period of coverage, and it is directed by Charlotte Roueché, Michael Jeffreys, Averil Cameron and Chase Robinson. Dr Letizia Osti was appointed in the summer of 2005 as the main researcher to carry out this work.

Funding is now being sought in order to ensure the proper maintenance and expansion of the database with the addition of further material, mainly from 12th-century sources. Also conditional on funding, PBW intends to initiate a new project that will deal with the prosopography of the thirteenth century. As there already exists a multi-volume prosopography of the Palaeologan period, published in 1979-1996 by the Austrian Academy (Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit 1261-1453), this will bridge the gap: the prosopography of the entire period from the fourth to the fifteenth century, that also includes the Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire (PLRE, 260-641), the Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit (PmbZ, 641-1025), and the Prosopography of the Byzantine Empire I CD-ROM (PBE, 641-867), will have been fully covered. Thus the goal of full prosopographical coverage for the entire Byzantine period, bringing to a successful completion a quest begun more than half a century ago, will have been achieved. The next goal, of course, will be to unite these disparate products into a seamless searchable whole! In the meantime, please visit the project website, use the database, and send any feedback either through the form provided on the web page or to pbw@kcl.ac.uk.

Tassos Papacostas
King's College London