Master Builders and their Craft

Abstract

The architectural profession and architectural practices changed dramatically during the Transitional Period. Before that time, architectural creation was theory driven, following the Roman model elaborated by Vitruvius in the first century BCE. By the Middle Byzantine period, architecture had become in effect an illiterate profession, conservatively guided by established workshop practices. When innovation appeared, it was usually on a small scale, affecting the details but not the overall design. Even the language changed: the terms mechanikos (engineer) and architekton (architect) are replaced by oikodomos (builder).