Records of the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies

This material is held atUniversity of Birmingham, Cadbury Research Library, Special Collections

Scope and Content

Material produced by, and relating to, the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies [SPBS] consisting of administrative papers of SPBS, such as correspondence, reports, committee meeting agendas, meeting minutes and other documents ranging in date from the 1960s until the 2010s. The collection also includes various membership lists and information and an incomplete sequence of issues of the 'Bulletin of British Byzantine Studies' which include annual reports, balance sheets and financial statements. Other publications and publications correspondence are also present within the collection. Some parts of the sequences of papers or publications are incomplete.

The Executive Committee of the SPBS also doubles as the British National Committee for the International Byzantine Association, the Association Internationale des Études Byzantines [AEIB]. As such, within the collection there is material which relates both to the National Committee and the AEIB. Records in these series also contain some records of the Centre for Byzantine Studies at the University of Birmingham. These records consist of administrative papers and papers relating to the International Congress of the AEIB, specifically surrounding the 2006 Congress within Oxford but also on Congresses before and after this, and of material relating to the election of an AEIB President in 2010. The British National Committee files contain minutes of Committee meetings and correspondence relating specifically to this committee, which predates the Executive Committee of the SPBS. There are also a few documents relating to the Centre for Byzantine Studies at the University of Birmingham, where there were members of staff who were members of the SPBS. The documents of these organisations range from the late 1970s to the early 2010s

Administrative / Biographical History

The Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies [SPBS] was established in 1983, with the object of furthering study and knowledge of the history and culture, language and literature of the Byzantine Empire and its neighbours.

Its scope is wide, covering history, archaeology, art history, philology, theology and literary studies, and embraces all the language areas formerly within the Byzantine Empire: Syriac, Armenian, Arabic and Slavic, as well as Greek and Latin.

The Society's world-wide membership is drawn from the interested public as well as practising academics: no professional qualifications are required. The executive of the SPBS also serves as the UK National Committee of the Association Internationale des Études Byzantines [AIEB].

Source: SPBS website accessed 14 February 2020 via https://www.byzantium.ac.uk#

Arrangement

The Collection is arranged into the following series:

A: Records of the Society for Promotion of Byzantine Studies, including Executive Committee and administrative papers, legal records, membership records, and publications.

B: Records of other organisations which relate to the Society for Promotion of Byzantine Studies, including the Centre for Byzantine Studies at the University of Birmingham, the Association Internationale des Études Byzantines [AEIB], and the British National Committee of the Association Internationale des Études Byzantines.

Access Information

The majority of this collection is open to all registered researchers, but file B/2/2 is closed.

Acquisition Information

Presented during 2014; with additional deposit received in February 2020

Other Finding Aids

Conditions Governing Use

Permission to make any published use of any material from the collection must be sought in advance in writing from the Director, Cadbury Research Library: Special Collections (email: special-collections@contacts.bham.ac.uk). Identification of copyright holders of unpublished material is often difficult. The Cadbury Research Library: Special Collections will assist where possible with identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material.

Related Material

Some scanned issues of the 'Bulletin of British Byzantine Studies' can be found on the SPBS website via https://www.byzantium.ac.uk/bbbs/