List of Byzantine scholars explained

This is a list of Byzantine scientists and other scholars.

Before the 9th century

Most important scholars known before the Macedonian Renaissance were active under the Justinian dynasty.

• Theon of Alexandria (335–405), mathematician
• Hypatia (370–415), mathematician, astronomer, philosopher
• Anthemius of Tralles (c. 474–before 558), mathematician and architect of Hagia Sophia^[1]
• Eutocius of Ascalon (c. 480–c. 540), mathematician
• John Philoponus (490–570), mathematician, physicist, theologian
• Isidore of Miletus (6th century), mathematicist, physicist and architect of Hagia Sophia
• Cassianus Bassus (6th–7th century), author of Geoponika^[2]
• Leontios (died 706), emperor, astronomer, mathematician and engineer
• George of Pisidia (6th–7th century), scholar, zoologist and astronomer
• Timotheos of Gaza (6th–7th century), zoologist
• Stephen of Byzantium (6th–7th century), geographer
• Paul of Aegina (7th century), physician
• Callinicus of Heliopolis (7th century), architect; invented the Greek fire
• Stephen of Alexandria (7th century), mathematician and astronomer
• Theophilus Protospatharius (7th century), physician

The Macedonian Renaissance

The Macedonian Renaissance occurred in the period of the Macedonian dynasty from 867 to 1056.

• Leo the Mathematician^[3] (c. 790–after 869)
• Georgios Monachos (9th century)
• Photius I of Constantinople (c. 810–c. 893), Greek philosophy
• Saint Cyril the Philosopher (826 or 827–869)
• Constantine VII (reigned 913–959)
• Michael Psellus (1018–1078)
• Michael Attaliates (11th century)
• Symeon Seth (11th century)
• Leo VI (reigned 886–912)
• Arethas of Caesarea (c. 860-aft. 932), Archbishop, theologian and Greek commentator

The Komnenian period and after

The Komnenian period ranged from 1081 to about 1185.

• Anna Comnena (1083–1153)
• Theodore Prodromos (c. 1100–c. 1165/70), author of prose and poetry
• Eustathius of Thessalonica (c. 1115–1195/6)
• Michael of Ephesus (early or mid-12th century), philosopher, physics
• Michael Glykas (12th century), mathematician and astronomer
• Joannes Zonaras (12th century), historian
• John Kinnamos (12th century), historian
• Niketas Choniates (c. 1155–1215 or 1216), historian
• Nikephoros Blemmydes (1197–1272)

The Palaiologian Renaissance

The Palaiologian Renaissance was mostly contemporary with the Renaissance of the 12th century. The Palaiologos dynasty ruled from c. 1260 to 1453. A number of Greek scholars contributed to the establishment of this renaissance also in Western Europe.

• Demetrios Pepagomenos (1200–1300), zoologist, botanologist and pharmacist
• George Akropolites (1220–1282), astronomer
• Gregory Chioniades (died 1302), mathematician and astronomer
• Manuel Holobolos (1230–1305), scholar, teacher
• George Pachymeres (1242–1310)
• Manuel Moschopoulos (13th–beginning of the 14th century) grammarian
• Constantinos Lykites (13th–14th century), astronomer
• John Pediasimos (13th–14th century), mathematician
• Nikephoros Choumnos (c. 1250/55–1327), scholar, meteorologist and physicist
• Maximus Planudes (1260–c. 1305), grammarian and theologian,
• Theodore Metochites (1270–1332), physician and mathematician
• Barlaam of Seminara (c. 1290–1348), mathematician and astronomer
• Nicephorus Gregoras (1295–1359/60), mathematician and astronomer
• Demetrius Triclinius (before c. 1300), grammarian with knowledge of astronomy,
• Thomas Magister (14th century), grammarian
• Theodore of Melitene (1320–1393), astronomer
• Isaac Argyros (1310–1372), mathematician and astronomer
• John VI Kantakouzenos (reigned 1347–1355), historian
• Manuel Chrysoloras (c. 1355–1415), translator, philosopher
• Joannes Chortasmenos (1370–1437), scholar, mathematician and astronomer

See also

• Byzantine science
• Byzantine scholars in Renaissance

Notes and References

1. Book: Boyer, Carl B.. Carl Benjamin Boyer. 1991. Revival and Decline of Greek Mathematics. 193. A History of Mathematics . 2nd . New York . Wiley . 1989 . 978-0-471-54397-8 . "The commentary by Eutocius on the Conics of Apollonius was dedicated to Anthemius of Tralles (t534), an able mathematician and architect of St. Sophia of Constantinople, who described the string construction of the ellipse and wrote a work On Burning-mirrors in which the focal properties of the parabola are described."
   Although Anthemius died not 534 but before 558, cf. Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, p. 109.
2. Book: Bassus . Cassianus . Geōponika . 1781 . sumtu Caspari Fritsch . el.
3. Marcus Louis Rautman (2006), Daily Life in the Byzantine Empire (Greenwood Publishing Group,), 294 - 95.