KRUMBACHER, KARL. - Eminent promoter of Byzantine studies, b. 23 Sept. 1856 at Kürnach (near Kempten in Bavaria), d. 12 Dec. 1909 at Munich, at whose university he had taught from 1884 until his death. K. was the pioneer of modern Byzantine and Modern Greek studies; his masterpiece is the Geschichte der byzantinischen Literatur (Munich 1891), whose publication gave occasion for the founding of the chair of Byzantine sciences at Munich, an innovation later imitated by other countries. In 1892 K. founded the journal Byzantinische Zeitschrift, of which he was director until his death. Great was the influence exercised by K. in his Byzantine seminar, which had, as indeed did his journal as well, a universal character encompassing the whole field of Byzantine culture (philology, edition of texts, ecclesiastical history, hagiography, liturgy, ecclesiastical poetry), all with the criteria of a sound modernity united to an esteem for tradition. Conscious of the importance of theological studies, K. entrusted the preparation of the first part of the second edition of his masterpiece (Munich 1897) to the Catholic theologian Albert Ehrhard (v.), while H. Gelzer added to it a sketch on Byzantine history.
Among K.'s other scholarly writings, whose list is found in the Byzantinische Zeitschrift, 19 (1910), pp. 700-708, there stand out various studies on the poet Romanos and on other themes of Greek ecclesiastical poetry (kasia, kyriakos, the acrostic in Greek ecclesiastical poetry), articles on Byzantine historians (Theophanes, Michael Glykas), on hagiography (Theodosios, George the martyr), on proverbs and folk songs, on themes of philology. For the love of science K. preferred the celibate life; he was always faithful to the doctrine of the Catholic Church.
Bibliography3 works
Giorgio Hofmann