Byzantine studies or
Byzantinology is an interdisciplinary branch of the
humanities that addresses the
history, culture,
costumes, religion,
art, such as
literature and
music,
science,
economy, and
politics of the
Byzantine Empire. The discipline's founder in
Germany is considered to be the
philologist Hieronymus Wolf, a
Renaissance humanist. He gave the name Byzantine to the eastern Roman Empire that continued after the western part collapsed in AD 476. About 100 years after the final conquest of Byzantium by the
Ottomans, Wolf began to collect, edit, and translate the writings of
Byzantine philosophers. Other 16th-century humanists introduced Byzantine studies to
Holland and Italy.