Nicholas Melvani

Nicholas Melvani is a Research Fellow at the Department of Eastern European History at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, working within the Leibniz ScienceCampus "Byzantium between Orient and Occident" since November 2019. His research focuses on Byzantine history, art, and architecture, particularly the history and topography of Constantinople.

Dr. Melvani earned his BA in History and Archaeology (majoring in Archaeology and Art History) from the University of Athens (1993-1997), followed by an MA in Byzantine Art and Archaeology (1997-2001), and completed his PhD with a dissertation on "Late Byzantine Sculpture (1204-1453): Iconographic Remarks, Stylistic Issues, and Social Context" in 2008.

His primary research interests include Byzantine sculpture, the history and monuments of Constantinople, and Byzantine epigraphy. His current project, "Constantinople and Central Europe in the 16th Century," examines the monumental topography of Byzantine Constantinople as recorded by 16th-century German visitors and scholars during the early Ottoman period, combining textual analysis with visual evidence to reconstruct the city's transformation.

Dr. Melvani has published extensively on Byzantine topics, including the monograph "Late Byzantine Sculpture" (2013) and numerous scholarly articles focusing on Byzantine art, architecture, and history. His publications demonstrate expertise in the Palaiologan period and the cultural interactions between Byzantine and post-Byzantine worlds.

Previously, he served as a Research Associate at the Institute for Historical Research in Athens, Fellow at Koç University in Istanbul, and Visiting Lecturer at Boğaziçi University. His work bridges Byzantine studies with Eastern European history through the examination of cultural transmission routes between Constantinople and Central Europe.