Montinaro, Federico

For over a millennium, the Byzantine community was at the crossroads of medieval societies in the wider Mediterranean region – from France and Italy to the Islamic empires and Armenia to Kievan Rus'. Modern Byzantine studies have increasingly set themselves the task of understanding its complex history and culture beyond the simplistic paradigm of a mere imperial legacy of Rome.

In this sense, my research combines traditional focal points and methods of Byzantine studies – such as historiography, administration and diplomacy, as well as numismatics, sigillography and philology – with questions of cultural history, particularly those relating to religious conflicts. I have a particular interest in minorities and actors in physical and intellectual interstices whose impact is significantly shaped by mobility, such as Orthodox Christian communities in the medieval Middle East.
 

• Byzantine history and historiography
• History of the medieval Middle East, Eastern Christian communities and Byzantine-Islamic relations
• History of Armenia and southern Italy in the Middle Ages
• Byzantine numismatics and sigillography
• Historical theology, history of councils and history of the Western Schism

• 2000–2005 Studied classical literature with a focus on Roman history at the University of Lecce, now the University of Salento (Italy)
• 2003 Study visit to the Oriental Institute at the Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium)
• 2005–2007 Master's degree in Medieval History, Byzantium and Islam at the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, now Université PSL (France)
• 2007–2013 Doctorate in Byzantine Studies at the École Pratique des Hautes Études – Sorbonne, now Université PSL (France)
• 2009 Study visit to the University of Cologne (Germany)
• 2011 Byzantine Coins and Seals Summer Programme, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C. (USA)
• 2013 Albert Reunion Fellow, University of Cologne (Germany)
• 2014 Fritz Thyssen Foundation scholarship holder (postdoc) at the University of Cologne (Germany)
• 2015–2019 Research assistant (postdoc) at the University of Tübingen, Collaborative Research Centre 923 and Department of Ancient History (Germany)
• 2020 Acting Professor at the Department of Ancient History at the University of Tübingen (Germany)
• 2021–2026 Junior Research Group Leader in the Emmy Noether Programme of the German Research Foundation, University of Tübingen (Germany)
• since March 2026 Professor of Byzantine Studies at the Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies at the University of Vienna