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The article refers to the depictions of Greek myths on the sculptural monuments found in Lower Moesia and Thrace. The reliefs with the representation of the first of the Herakles Labours, the fight with the Nemean lion, are used as examples. The iconography of these sculptural pieces is studied in the context of similar images in Greek and Roman art. These votive reliefs are dedicated to Herakles by men of Thracian origin, which gives us the additional information on the recognition of the Greek myths and the classical iconography by the Thracian population in the Roman period.
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This article aims to pose some questions on the formation of the Christian value system: when did the attitude towards the dead changed, when did the attitude towards life and the saintly dead undergo a major alteration? This attitude is not only the very formation basis of a certain saint’s cults but it also has a powerful impact on the structuring of the urban as well as the extra-urban and church spaces. Ejnar Dуggve calls the commencement of the process of intrusion of the city of the dead into the city of the living, a problem of the cultural history. The short review of the development of the Christian necropoles, located in the vicinity of the fortified cities, is based on archaeological evidences. Isolated cases of urban burials are not left unmentioned. Another symptom of the undergoing change is the emergence of the practice of depositio ad santos, relating the intention of the faithful to find blissful rest next to the saintly relics. The burials under the church floors form yet another aspect of the general problem. The formation of the church crypts is analysed as well as the deposition of reliquaries there as late as the mid-fifth century. Some cases are commented showing examples of varying disposition ratio between grave, relics, martyrium and church.
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St Georgе the New Martyr of Sofia/Kratovo was one of the first Balkan new martyrs after the Ottoman conquest whose cult was strongly developed and achieved wide dissemination. George was born in Kratovo in 1496–1497. When he was orphaned, left Kratovo and he went to Sofia. The local Muslims tried to draw the young man towards their faith, but he maintained his Christian beliefs. For this reason he was taken to court, condemned to death and burnt at the stake. The clergy and Christians buried them in the cathedral church of St Marina on the 11th February, 1515. From the very outset favourable conditions existed for the creation of a cult to the young mar- tyr. Priest Peio wrote an extensive life, service and prologue about the new martyr. The brief life of St Georgе the New Martyr tells how the relics of the saint were removed from the grave, later they were gradually scattered. There are references to a whole series of caskets containing relics of St George the New Martyr: in the Kremikovski Monastery, in the church of St George in Sofia; in Rila Monastery has five caskets containing parts of the bones of the saint; in the Hilandar Monastery. References to the relics of the Sofia martyr have also been found in the Serbian mon- asteries of Dechani, Studenitsa and Velika Remeta. Initially the cult of St George the New Martyr was local but not limited to Sofia. The service to the saint refers to believers from the surrounding area, who made pilgrim- ages to worship his relics. The earliest image of St George the New Martyr close to the centre of the cult can be found in the narthex of the church at the Bilinsky Monastery, which in my opinion dates from the 16th century. Soon after the establishment of the cult of the newly martyred saint in Sofia, the cult spread to the Hilandar Monastery on Holy Mount Athos. All the main elements required for a cult can be observed here – the presence of relics, texts and images. At the same time St George the New Martyr also became celebrated in his home village of Kratovo. In 1536–1537, Prince Dimitar Pepic of Kra- tovo became a patron of the Toplicki Monastery, in Demir Hisar region, and he paid for the murals in which St George the New Martyr is depicted. In the 17th century, images of the newly martyred saint continued to appear in the Demir Hisar and Kichevo region. The image of St George the New Martyr in the diocese of the Serbi- an Patriarchate of Pech became unusually popular after its restoration in 1557. Over the next decades and into the 17th century, dozens of churches over a large territory brought the image of the newly martyred saint of Sofia to the lay people and clergy. It can be stated with certainty that during the first century after the death of the saint, the majority of his images were created within the territory of the Serbian church. It is usually emphasised that the image of the newly martyred saint is an example to believers and protects them from abandoning the Christian faith. However, this is probably only a part of the truth. Of the large number of newly martyred saints, only this one can be found in Serbian churches and the reason for his choice must be connected with his Serbian nationality. The adherence to the cult of Serbian saints of all categories was an important element of the policy of the Patriarchate of Pech during the Ottoman Empire. The period between the 18th and 19th centuries marked a new stage in the devel-opment of the cult and its territorial spread. During these two centuries the cult underwent a real renaissance in the Bulgarian lands. In Sofia, where the cult had been maintained without interruption during the 19th and the 20th centuries, other traditional folk forms of reverence had developed. The guild of goldsmiths in Sofia, like those in Kratovo, Skopje and Pirot, accepted the newly martyred saint as their patron. From the second half of the 18th century to the end of the 19th century, a large num- ber of murals and icons of St George the New Martyr appeared in Sofia, frequently accompanied of St Nickola the New Martyr of Sofia. However, during this period in the Bulgarian lands the reputation of the martyr of Sofia went beyond the local boundaries of fame and reverence. He was included in the pantheon of those nation- al saints who played an important role in the leading processes of Bulgarian society– for national self-awareness and the struggle for the independence of the Bulgarian church. For a long time in the saint’s birthplace of Kratovo and the region, there was no mention of his worship. This was renewed or activated during the second half of the 19th century.
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The icon has a strange history, marked by a number of unknown facts and is a sad example of the attitude towards Christian values and commemorations in Sofia following the Liberation of the Ottomans. The icon belongs to the collection of the National Institute of Archaeology with Museum, NAIM (Inv. No 924). It features jointly Saint Nicholas the New Martyr of Sofia, the Holy Archangel Michael (C) and St George the New Martyr of Sofia. The icon is dated to the late eighteenth or the early nineteenth century. According to this publication, the icon was commissioned by the Church of The Holy Archangel Michael in Sofia, which was the centre of the cult of Saint Nicholas the New Martyr of Sofia. It was placed over a reliquary holding the relics of both saints or on the iconostasis. Its origin from the Church of The Holy Archangel Michael explains the unusual composition of the figures of the two new martyrs of Sofia coupled with Archangel Michael. In all likelihood, later representations of St Saint Nicholas the New Martyr of Sofia were iconographically modelled on the image of the saint on this icon. The icon was painted at a workshop, working for the churches in Sofia in the early nineteenth century and probably, in the late eighteenth century. The icon-painters were highly skilled, using seventeenth- century models and most numerous and admirably rendered were their icons representing mounted warrior saints.
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Saint Theodore the Studite is undoubtedly one of the most prominent representatives of Orthodox monasticism. He is known primarily as an abbot of the famous Studion monastery in Constantinople, as a monastic reformer, theologian and ardent enemy of heretical iconoclastic policies in the Byzantine Empire. The sources about him emphasize above all his adamant character, his brilliant abilities as a preacher and his willingness to champion the rights of the church, even at the price of deep personal sacrifice. As a writer he is pointed out mainly with his polemic against Iconoclasme, but he is also the author of other sermons, letters and hymns. He is credited for the creation of important works of Byzantine hymnography. We especially highlight this aspect of the work of Theodore the Studite, because it turned out to be particularly essential in the representation of the saint in monumental painting. Our task here is to present the images of St Theodore the Studite in the monuments in Bulgaria as compared to similar images (mainly unpublished) from other churches in the Balkans from the period XII–XVIII c., as we add to the presented material in the study of Doula Mouriki. We have discussed the images of the saint in the Boyana church (1259), in the church of “St Stephan” (a New metropolis) in Nessebar (1599), “St Athanasius” in Arbanassi (XVII c.) and the church “The Nativity of the Virgin” of the Rozhen monastery from 1732. We pay special attention to the texts of the scrolls held by the saint. The texts inscribed on the scrolls held by St Theodore vary. This fact indicates that the image of this saint often was associated with a particular aspect of the iconographic program in which his portrait was incorporated. According to the findings of Doula Mouriki, which are confirmed by the reviewed by us monuments and texts written on the scrolls held by the saint “in so far as church decoration is concerned, Theodore appears in his role of great doctrinal personality in the icon controversy, the preacher of ideal life within monastic communities, and the composer of pertinent ecclesiastical hymns.” In addition to many new examples of frescoes in Bulgaria and other Balkan countries we should point out the especially included image of St Theodore the Studite with the corresponding hymn in the composition of the “Tree of Jesse” from XIII c. on.
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The Presentation of the Forty Martyrs of Sebasteia in medallions is typical for the monumental programs of Postbyzantine churches in the Balkans. In Bulgaria their images were especially concentrated in the church murals dated from 17th century located near old metropolis Turnovo, mainly in the village of Arbanassi. In St Demetrius church (1621) 9 images were remained and partly identified, in St Athanasius (1667) – 8, in the church of the Virgin monastery (between 1684 and 1692) – 17, in the old chapel of Kilifarevo monastery (second part of 17th century) – 24; probably in the Nativity church also some of the Forty Martyrs were depicted in medallions but without forming any detached rows. Functions of the presentations. There are three general types of functions of the painted images of the Forty Martyrs of Sebasteia in the monumental programs: 1. Liturgical; 2. Preventive; both of them are universal in the all Orthodox area; 3. Historical – it is peculiar to the mural decoration of the churches in Arbanassi, connected with the royal cult to the Forty Martyrs of Sebasteia in Turnovo dated from 1230 when in their holly day tsar Ivan Asen II won the battle of Klokotnitsa and ordered a temple dedicated to his celestial patrons to be built in his capital. Iconography and identification of the martyrs. There are a great many discrepancies of the names of the Forty Martyrs in all the Greek and Slavonic aghiographical and panegyric literature dated from the time preceding our depictions in Arbanassi up till now. Indications of the iconography of their images in the old Ermineias (16th – 18th cc.) are not in unity also. So the works of the painters in 17th century are full of contaminations and incorrect inscriptions. A brief attempt for identification of every personal image presented in medallion on the south wall of St Demetrius church in Arbanassi may be an illustration of the problems.
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The frescoes on the northern wall of the nave of Saint George’s Church in Veliko Tarnovo date from 1616. In the topmost register, a frieze of the images of thirteen bishops in full length has been preserved. Previous publications on the frescoes differ with regards to the saints’ identity; in the current text we aim to add to or correct these previous identifications. At the same time we offer a possible explanation for the presence of such a great number of saint hierarchs’ images outside the altar, in the nave of the temple. This is a rare feature, typical for a limited number of mural monuments that were created within three decades. Together with the frescoes at Saint George’s six examples in total exist: the frescoes in the Kurilo Monastery (1596); Seslavtsi Monastery (1616); the second layer of frescoes in the Dragalevtsi Monastery (the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century); besides the frieze in Dobarsko (1614), a similar frieze can be found in the monastery church in the village of Zhurche, Demir Hissar region (1617). Even more rarely such lines of bishops are positioned in the narthex of some monasteries: Holy Trinity Monastery near Plevlya (1592), Podgumer Monastery (1596), Ilientsi Monastery (end of 16th and the beginning of 17th century), as well as in the narthex of the Saint George’s Church in Veliko Tarnovo (first half of the 17th century).
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The article discusses the possibility of the existence of images of St Parascheva of Epivates (St Petka) with wings. The question came up in connection with an image from St Petka Church (1636) in the city of Vidin, Bulgaria, which has been previously wrong identified by the author as winged St Parascheva. In order to clarify the problem, a brief survey of the development of the saint’s imagery is made with special attention to 15th and 16th century examples kept today in Polish and Ukrainian museums. Some details concerning the earlier stages of the visual aspect of St Parascheva’s cult are examined and a correction is made concerning the image from the church in Vidin and another image from St Petka Church (1580) in Trnava, Serbia, which was indicated in the literature as an image of St Parascheva with wings. As a result of the research it is established that to represent St Petka with wings has not been a common practice in Orthodox art. The one and only instance of the winged St Parascheva, known to the author, comes from a much later epoch, being represented in the 19th-century paintings of St Constantine and Helena Church (1865) in the city of Plovdiv, Bulgaria, but it remains an exotic exception even in the practice of those times. The hypothetic image of St Parascheva with wings is juxtaposed to the image of the winged St John the Baptist, which became something habitual in Orthodox art, on the basis of some common connotations of their images revealed in hagiography and hymnography. In addition, the text includes some considerations on the factors that trigger the emergence of a certain iconographic type and on the mechanisms of visualization of hymnographic motifs in medieval art.
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The paper is aiming to describe individual aspects of life in Rome of Caesars. The unique status of the metropolis of the Roman Empire was reflected in the privileges, but also in hardships of everyday life affecting the majority of inhabitants of Rome. Thanks to generosity of emperors and enormously rich individuals, average Romans were receiving free grain and had access to luxurious spas, to Coliseum – a place of bloody gladiatorial combats and to the largest horse racing track in the Empire. On the other side they must bear discomfort of living in high risers, without running water and canalization and suffer a constant noise of metropolis which never sleeps. In a concise manner the attention is given to the material and spiritual sphere, to the deep differences in the mode of life between rich and average Romans, with the aim to describe, at least episodically, an atmosphere of Rome in the Era of Caesars.
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Article deals with the members of medieval Merchant Guild in Košice. The fi rst mention of this corporation comes from year 1446 when the guild rules originated. They were left in medieval guild book. Records contain names of guild members, aldermen, debtors on membership fees and the supplements of guild rules. The Guild was group of wealthy and influential Košice citizens. Members called themselves Reichin Cromern (rich merchants) to distinguish from poor tradesmen. Some of them were mayors or long-standing aldermen. They paid high taxes and owned houses, gardens and fields. Many members, according to their family names, were not only traders.
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In the following paper the history of the Kraków’s Main Market Square as a stage in the theatre of the town is to be presented. Not only will the author discuss changes of the scenography (the transformation of the structure of the buildings) in the 13th – 15th centuries, but he will also focus on the characteristics of the spectacles played on that scene, in which the entire community of the town participated: meetings of the town councillors with the urban community, public executions, greetings and last tributes to the kings – homages and funeral ceremonies, Corpus Christi processions, the preaching activity of John of Capestrano in the years 1453 – 1454 and miraculous events connected with his visit.
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The author of the paper presents his knowledge and opinions of bilateral political relations between the burghers of Košice and the kings of the Hungarian Kingdom by the mid-14th century. It has been accrued in the ongoing research into the history of burghers and towns in Slovakia and former Kingdom of Hungary in the Middle Ages. The author has explored this theme for over an half of century. The author´s recent findings can be broadly summarized as follows.
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KONFERENCIA BITKA PRI ROZHANOVCIACH V KONTEXTE SLOVENSKÝCH A UHORSKÝCH DEJÍN. KONFERENCIA SLOVENSKO V ROKOCH NESLOBODY 1938 – 1989 II. OSOBNOSTI ZNÁME – NEZNÁME. PÄŤ MESIACOV AUTONÓMIE. (VÝCHODNÉ) SLOVENSKO MEDZI 6. OKTÓBROM A 14. MARCOM. DISKUSNÝ VEČER ÚSTAVU PAMÄTI NÁRODA. ZASADNUTIE NEMECKO-ČESKEJ A NEMECKO-SLOVENSKEJ KOMISIE HISTORIKOV – DOKTORANDSKÝ WORKSHOP. KOŠICE – INŠTITUCIONÁLNA ZÁKLADŇA KULTÚRY, ŠKOLSTVA A VEDY (K 140. VÝROČIU ZALOŽENIA VÝCHODOSLOVENSKÉHO MÚZEA V KOŠICIACH). PREZENTÁCIE MEDZINÁRODNÉHO PROJEKTU ALTERNATÍVNY SPRIEVODCA HISTÓRIOU KOŠÍC 2013. STRETNUTIE MLADÝCH HISTORIKOV II. PRIESEČNÍKY SPOLOČNEJ HISTÓRIE ŠTÁTOV V4.
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The paper considers the semantic structure of the concept of light in the Russian medieval world view. The referential, conceptual, figurative, and symbolic meanings of the concept of light in the linguistic view of the world of that period are defined. The dynamics of the perception of this phenomenon in the linguistic consciousness of the medieval person is traced. Its value and historical meaning are specified. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the semantics of the noun light as the core unit of the semantic field of this concept. The main tendencies in the development of its meaning and derivational relationships are revealed. The ideological components of the world view determined by the medieval religious consciousness are taken into account. The functioning of the derivatives with the root свет- (“light”) found in the Tale of Bygone Years is analyzed.
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The paper is focused on some controversial issues of relative and absolute chronology concerning the fall of reduced vowels in the Old Russian dialects, as well as peculiarities of its phonological mechanism. The phonological theory and Old Russian written records of the 12th century support the view on new jat (ѣ) phonologization before the fall of the weak reduced vowel in the next syllable. Based on the contrasting graphemes of е, о and ь, ъ in the manuscripts of the 13th–14th centuries, the idea of rather late (after the change of strong reduced vowels in [e] and [o]) disappearance of reduced vowels as phonemes is developed. The mixed concept of “absolutely weak position”, which is ambiguously estimated in paleo-Russian studies, is discussed in the context of V.M. Markov’s hypothesis of non-etymological reduced vowels as a trigger of their fall.
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The paper deals with the continuity of classical and postmodern literature. The research is based on the works of Sam Savage “Firmin. Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife” (2006), Alex Garland “The Coma” (2004), and Laurence Sterne “Sentimental Journey through France and Italy” (1768). L. Sterne still kindles the reader’s interest in spite of the fact that he was born more than 300 years ago. At the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century, great attention was paid to different aspects of his works. It is proved by the fact that “The Shandean”, an annual journal, was founded in 1989. This journal was devoted to the epoch, life, and novels of L. Sterne. L. Sterne established himself a postmodern writer in the 18th century, i.e., much earlier than the terms were formulated, and that is how we can explain these non-visual relations between him and modern literature. The problem of authorship and its solution in various artistic paradigms is the main aspect of this research. Special attention is paid to intertextuality that helps us to specify the main problem and to elicit types of relations between the works of the writer in the 18th century and those of the postmodern writers.
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This paper focuses on the inspections of local authorities carried out by the Senate. It analyzes the informational potential of the Senate reports, as well as the matrix of instructions given by the Senate and the staffing situation afterwards. Special attention is paid to data on the local differences of Russian administration and the features of regional economic development. The “commercial project” of the governor P.P. Pushchin is provided as an example illustrating the necessity of organizing a trade fair in Kazan. P.P. Pushchin’s argumentation shows his understanding of Kazan as a major commercial region with unique characteristics that help to gain profit if used properly. In addition, the paper considers the source base, e.g., complaints, delations, requests, evidences, inquiries, and reports. All these documents generated by different social groups allow us to look at the people in power from a new perspective. The paper concludes that the Senate reports give a unique chance to reveal differences between local authorities in the Russian Empire during the first quarter of the 19th century.
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The paper is devoted to the problem of centralization and unification of museum affairs in the professional debates during 1917. The main issue is analysis of the archival materials of the counsel on museum affairs and protection of monuments, which was held in the spring – summer of 1917 at the Institute for History of Arts (Petrograd). The author analyzes the main reports on this problem made by such prominent museum figures as A.A. Miller, P.P. Weiner, and N.M. Mogilyansky. A connection is established between their content and the general level of museology at that time. The author establishes a link of these ideas to some initiatives in the cultural politics of the post-October period. During this period, there are two main issues in the framework of this discussion. These ideas are linked to some initiatives in the cultural politics of the post-October period. There are two main issues in the framework of this discussion during the period under consideration. The first question is creation of a government body to manage all museum affairs of the country. A.A. Miller and N.M. Mogilyansky write about the structure of museum management. P.P. Weiner argues for the body of monument protection. The second question is redistribution of museum collections, evaluation of their composition on the basis of subject matter disciplines. On the one hand, these discussions show the high level of development of museology in Russia in the early 20th century. On the other hand, they show that the discourse of museology as an independent academic discipline has not yet received sufficient development. Based on the Russian material here, we can trace the transition from the pre-scientific stage of museology to the empirically descriptive stage.
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