WHAT IS PROSOPOGRAPHY?

One famous definition holds that:
"Prosopography is the investigation of the common background characteristics of a group of actors in history by means of a collective study of their lives".
[L.Stone]

More economically: "prosopography is a means of profiling any group of recorded persons linked by any common factor".
[P. Magadalino]

"Lives", in the first definition should be understood as referring to such biographical detail as survives relating to individual actors in the group.

Prosopography is based on structured biographical data; it should not be confused with biography.