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A stereoscopic view on a particular historical event, in which contemporary assessments are combined with mental stereotypes of a medieval man, allows a slightly different assessment of the chronicle plot about the posthumous “baptism of bones” of Oleg and Yaropolk, Princes of Kyivan Rus, in 1044. While from theological positions it is perceived as an absurdity and a direct violation of the rules of the church, in the Middle Ages this act did not contradict the mass religious beliefs. From an ethical point of view, the action of Yaroslav the Wise was regarded as concern for the souls of the ancestors who died pagans and therefore did not claim for the salvation. The soteriological optimism that prevailed in the eleventh century in countries of the late Christianization, including Kyivan Rus, gave hope that living people were able to influence the fate of the souls of the dead. From a political point of view, the baptism of the ashes of the ancestors and their reburial in the family tomb of the Princes of Kyiv in the Church of the Tithes was aimed at expanding the circle of heavenly patrons and protectors of the princely dynasty, expanding the period of the Christian history of Kyivan Rus, and, as a result, legitimizing the power of Yaroslav the Wise.
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This study looks at bells and bell ringing in the medieval Balkans byfocusing on historical Serbia and Bulgaria. It provides a comprehensive view of the use of bells for religious purposes from the thirteenth century until the early Ottoman period. The evidence examined is organised in two parts; the first one deals with written sources while the second is a catalogue of church bells preserved in the region under study. Dated to the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth century, some of these instruments are recent discoveries while others are not well known among scholars. This is the first time that most extant bells from the region are analysed together, offering the opportunity to trace the development of these artefacts in the Balkans. In a third section the information from written sources and actual bells is discussed in conjunction.
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The periods of crisis that certain societies go through change the already established order. They provoke a rethinking of existence and the need to seek protection from above against what cannot be driven away by any means known to man. The late medieval post-Byzantine Balkan churches fully illustrate this. Some of them, especially those in the places directly affected by a certain epidemic, appear after such critical moments, and in their collection of images, the disease itself finds its own place, acquiring at the same time a set of anthropomorphic features. The protection of God or some of His saints is sought after when it comes to acting against the plague. The article tries in an interdisciplinary way (combining history, culturology and theory of art) to emphasize on the image of the plague in the Orthodox Christian image system. The motif of the Dance of Death (Danse Macabre), in which rulers,clergy and peasants are involved, was influenced by the “procession” of the infection throughout Europe and has been repeatedly discussed in the scientific literature.Within the Balkan Orthodox Christian folklore, the plague appears as a strange girl who is constantly scratching herself, or as an old crone - in most cases presented as a witch. People turn to St. Charalambos to be their intercessor before God and to relieve them from the trouble that befell them. The vernacular idea of St. Charalambos as a victor over the plague, which he captured and chained, is reflected in the church’s visual tradition.
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The emergence of the first Catholic parishes in the territory of Kosovo and Metohija is related to the development of mining, mainly in the settlements of German miners Saxons and the colony of traders from the coastal parts of the Serbian medieval state (Cattaro, Dubrovnik, etc.). The significance and influence of these trading colonies has experienced its climax at the time of the Serbian despots, while the question of the spiritual and administrative authority over these parishes reflects the pretensions of certain Catholic ecclesiastical centers to protect the interests and rights in the exercise of their obligations.
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The stated purpose of this article is to sensitize the specialists and responsible institutions on some conservation interventions that are required in the current situation, years after the first emergency interventions started in 1980 at Voroneț.
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The funerary chapel of the Bachkovo monastery stands out among other Byzantine sanctuaries especially for the specific symbolic meaning of its iconographical programme. Conceived in accordance with the liturgical use of the building, its frescoes served as visual support to the celebration of commemorative and funerary services for salvation of the souls of departed monks of the monastery. By introducing a selection of rare representations from the Bachkovo ossuary, I will exemplify the interaction between performed rituals and painted iconography, based on written liturgical sources. Furthermore I will discuss the role of figurative liturgical objects in the definition of sacred space in Byzantine culture.
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The text presents various publications and records of the song of the King Ivan Shishman in an attempt to contextualize it as origination and use. A possible hypothesis is the dating of the song in time immediately after the fall of Bulgaria under Ottoman rule as a reflection of real historical events. However, the song was especially popular during the Renaissance with urban melody and most probably it was the time that the name of the last Bulgarian king was added to the text in the context of constructing our national identity in the second half of the 19th century.
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The article traces the transformation of black color in clothing as a sign of high ethical standards. And fashion itself began to operate as an axiological and ideological form, expressing and setting certain values. Thus, clothing as a color, on the one hand, becomes a sign of public indication and recognition, and on the other – an instrument of social segregation.
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The town of Cherven was one of the important administrative, cultural and ecclesiastical centers during the Second Bulgarian Kingdom. The written information, which is very scarce, and the archeological studies show that the conditions created during the early centuries of Ottoman domination, a chiefly the destructive consequences of the aggressive campaign of Ali Pasha in 1388 caused the decline of Cherven. Despite the attempts to preserve some of its basic functions, the new realities affected the vitality of the town. The development and rise of the nearby town of Rousse which Cherven could not oppose, had a devastating effect. Thus in the 17th c. the town of Cherven turned into a small village. Notwithstanding the irreversible decline of the town of Cherven, it contributed to preserving the chiefly Bulgarian character of the majority of the settlements in the valley of the Roussenski Lom river.
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The peculiar interpretation in French literature of the subject of the “Crusades”, made by politicians and men of letters after the formation of the Ottoman Empire, is examined. Born in the Middle Ages, the so-called “crusades idea” was transformed in time according to the actual political situations. It retained its external form, went through internal metamorphoses and in the 18th c. grew into the so-called “Eastern Question”. On the other hand, at the same time French historiography of the 16th – 18th c., written by armchair men of letters, reflected a bygone age – a dream which the thinking of the Enlightenment fully destroyed. In the 19th c. the deposits of the two currents led to the publication of series of mediaeval French and other chronicles the interpretation of which rested at the foundation of positivism in science.
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The purpose of this article is to bring evidence that Old Byzantine Chant – like other music genres and according to a general metric principle observed by the majority of music theorists (up to the beginning of the 20th century) – is metrically structured, usually in cycling phrases of four Common Time measures. This metrical principle could be a key for understanding and deciphering the old neumatic notation.
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Since its discovery in 1965, the 14th-century Kastoria 8 Asmatikon has attracted scholarly attention. Distinguished by its two rows of neumes: a row of Middle Byzantine signs overlaid by a system of great hyperstases, its existence suggests that it bridges stages of notational development and chanting practices from an earlier period. Particularly noteworthy, its system of large signs could also provide a key to the Palaeoslavonic kondakarian musical notation which disappeared earlier in the 13th century.
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The dönüm was one of the surface units of measure most widely used by the Ottoman administration. It was used in settling various agrarian relations, in the registration of lands and sale-trade of estates, as well as in connection with the tax and financial systems of the Empire. Hence, the frequent use of the dönüm in the timar registers and financial documents dealing with tax revenuer. The dönüm was most widely used in the land certificates (tapus). In certain parts of the Empire local units of measure were permitted to be used in this type of documents, especially in the tapus issued for inconsiderable amount of land. Great differences occur when we try to define more accurately the dönüm into metric units of measure. Most often the specialized literature equals the dönüm to 919,3 square metres. That, however, was the value accepted for it as late as the second half of the 19 c., and it is wrong to accept this value for the previous centuries. The article proves that until the end of the first half of the 19 c. the dönüm was equal to 1200 sq. metres. Since the 80’s of the 19 c. the term “new dönüm” has been used in the certificates of land ownership. The value of this dönüm is shown to be 2500 sq. metres. Nowadays the dönüm continues to be used as a unit of measure in Turkey and some Arab countries.
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The study examines several categories of the Christian population with military assistance and police security duties during the early centuries of Ottoman rule. Their obligations and socio-economic status are compared. The study shows that very often it seems that the service of martolos, jebelyu voinuks, akanji Christians, Vlachs and derbentjias overlapped and there were many points of contact. Much more specific were the duties of the voynuks than the imperial stables and doganjias (falconers). What all the military aid groups studied had in common was that they were exempt from extraordinary taxes and duties. However, they were at different levels in the social hierarchy of Ottoman society, depending on the conditions under which they performed their official duties and their sources of income. An important criterion for determining the place in the social hierarchy was also the tax status under Ottoman law – whether people of a certain category with special obligations cultivated Mirian land within timars, zeamets, hass and waqfs, owing land taxes to their owners (which was characteristic of the raya), or were exempt from tax. The martoloses and falconers, owners of timars, as well as those who received a salary for their regular military service were identified as representatives of the askers. Voynuk commanders of lower rank – lagators, and Wallachian elders - princes, who in the 15th century owed timars can also be classified as military class. One step lower in the hierarchy were the representatives of those military aid groups which, in return for their service, were exempt from all land and personal taxes within the official farms they owned. These people were an intermediate category between the raya and the askers. Voinuks, part of the akandjias, the Falconers and the martoloses, had a similar status. This group also includes the Vlachs, who made a living from cattle breeding, and few settled in the villages, engaged in agriculture, but did not pay land taxes. The lowest in this categorization are some of the falconers, akandjias and martoloses, as well as all derbentjias. These groups were exempted only from state extraordinary taxes and duties, but paid all other raiyat taxes along with the ordinary raya. Therefore, we can say that these people best fit the concept of privileged raya.
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