Charitable hospitality and medical care in Byzantium

As its most important achievement Byzantine medicine developed the first generally accessible hospitals. Such institutions originated in the Christian philanthropic foundations for the poor, the sick, strangers and orphans from the 4th century onwards, culminating in the highly specialised "Xenones" of the Comnenian era (12th c.). In the past this process has been well documented based upon the evidence of the written sources. The proposed project will supplement our knowlegde in two related fields of research. The first part examines excavations and extant remains of early Byzantine charitable foundations in Egypt and Syria, which until the present have received little attention in the context of the history of hospitals. Like the ancient legionary hospitals, these institutions may provide us with information on the material realities of the medical service. Furthermore, the function of local hostels and hospitals will be analysed in the context of the growing importance of pilgrimage to biblical sites and to places connected with miraculous cures. The abundance of original evidence from the late Byzantine period (13th - 15th c.) has led to a scholarly concentration on particular but isolated aspects of medical topics, while a broad synthesis is missing. Based on the study of hospitals, the medical profession and the diseases to be confronted, the second part of the project illustrates the role of medicine in late Byzantine society for the first time in a comprehensive manner. The investigation will also include the influence of epidemics, especially the plague, on socio-economic processes. These areas of research shall improve our knowledge of charitable hospitality and medicine especially with regard to material culture and everyday life. The results will illuminate the continuous evolution of the institutional care for the sick and its impact on other cultures throughout the Byzantine millennium.