History is never complete. The survival of individual fragments depends on a combination of chance and deliberate selection. This holds true also for the Byzantine Empire, which dominated the eastern Mediterranean region in the Middle Ages. This special exhibition at the Papyrus Museum of the Austrian National Library presents the fragment as both an opportunity for and a challenge to our understanding of past cultures with a focus on Byzantine history. How have fragments of older books survived? How have text excerpts been placed in new contexts? How do individual documents help us reconstruct a complex society?
This special exhibition is a collaboration with the University of Vienna’s Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies and is curated by Dr Krystina Kubina and Dr Giulia Rossetto. It has been organised to mark the 25th International Congress of Byzantine Studies, which will take place at the University of Vienna from 24 to 29 August 2026.