About Vuk Stefanovic Karadzic’s Historical Manuscripts, “The Serbian Dictionary” And magazines “Danica” (essay On Legal History) Cover Image

Nad istorijskim spisima, “Srpskim rječnikom” i “Danicama” Vuka StefanoviĆa Karadžića (pravnoistorijski Esej)
About Vuk Stefanovic Karadzic’s Historical Manuscripts, “The Serbian Dictionary” And magazines “Danica” (essay On Legal History)

Author(s): Dragan Nikolić
Subject(s): Law, Constitution, Jurisprudence
Published by: Универзитет у Нишу
Keywords: Vuk Stefanovic Karadzic; Serbia; the First Serbian Uprising; Prince Milos Obrenovic; a State; Law

Summary/Abstract: This paper has originated from the author’s long–standing study of all histori- cal manuscripts and records that belonged to Vuk Stefanovic Karadzic (1787–1864) and that were published either as separate publications or as supplements to the maga- zine called “Danica” which he edited and published from 1826 to 1829 and in 1834, or as entries in “The Serbian Dictionary” from 1818 and from 1853. Vuk’s histo- riographic articles on the First Serbian Uprising from 1804 to 1813 which deal with the growth and organization of the new, domestic state power of the rebellious coun- try are the most voluminous and the most thorough according to the subject matter. As a contemporary, witness and historian, Vuk noticed all the developmental phases of the Uprising and tried to encompass all the important facts from that unstable period of the Serbian history. He did not miss the contradictions that were demonstrated in the fight of the two political conceptions about the structure of the supreme authority. He was very concerned about people and events from the ensuing, so–called period of the factual autonomy of Serbia under the rule of Prince Milos from 1815 to 1830 (till the formal recognition of Serbia as an autonomous principality). He left significant notes about people, events and institutions from that period, for instance about the or- ganization of the domestic judiciary system, about the organization of local authorities and about the attempts to create the first written laws. Vuk was not just a mere chroni- cler of the events, but rather a man who thought about them and drew conclusions from them. This is evident in almost all his historical documents which are exactly because of this more significant than simple memoirs or historiographic literature.

  • Issue Year: 2009
  • Issue No: 03
  • Page Range: 1065-1072
  • Page Count: 8
  • Language: Serbian