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Review of the book "Srpska pravoslavna crkva i tajna Dahaua / Serbian Orthodox Church and Secret of Dahau" by Predrag Ilic.
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Review of the book "Razgovori s Adžijom / Conversations With Adzija" by Srdjan Jovic.
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The Ottoman conquest of Serbia in 1459 was the crucial event in the history of the Serb people, but in the area of social relations, changes in many aspects occurred slowly and gradually. Accepting into their governing system many local specificities and institutions, from Christian spahiyas, through particular social classes like the Vlachs, elements of military organization (like voynuks, šajkaši), mining legislature, local customs and measurement systems, to regulating of the status of the Serb Orthodox Church and occasionally rather loose application of the strict Shari'a Law to Christian population, the Ottoman state facilitated the adjustment of the local population into the new order, thus strengthening its authority. Therefore, this paper aims to, using the example of Braničevo, and combining local and Ottoman sources, show currents, relations and changes that occurred immediately following the Ottoman rule, as well as in the following several decades.
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Hrvoje Vukčić Hrvatinić acquired the house in Dubrovnik in 1399, after King Ostoja sold to Dubrovnik citizens the Slano region. As a sign of gratitude for the role that he has played in the process, citizens of Dubrovnik decided to admit both Hrvoje and the King himself in the rank of Dubrovnik nobles, and to present him the house that was apud ecclesiam sancti Blasii in Ragusio ad Luzarizan. The house remained his property until 1412, when Hrvoje presented is payment of the debt to his wife Jelena. Problems arise following his death in 1416, as Dubrovnik citizens refused to hand over the house to Herzeg's widow and to the new Bosnian Queen. Even though they gave it by the Charter of 1419, they still made the taking over of the house incredibly difficult. After Jelena died in 1423, Dubrovnik citizens gave to Herzeg's granddaughters, Katarina and Doroteja, half of the income from the house. At the beginning of the 16th century, the Duke Petar Pavlović from the Vlatković family and his mother Jelena are beneficiaries of the one quarter of the income from the house. The last bit of information that we have that mentions the house formerly belonging to the Herzeg Hrvoje is from 1521.
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This paper attempts to extend what was previously known about the business dealings of Catalans in Dubrovnik, based on the data previously ignored. These are trade records of the Caboga brothers (1426-1433) from the Dubrovnik Archive, the oldest preserved copy of double accounting in the area inhabited by South Slavs. From the trade records of the Caboga brothers, who dealt in precious metals from Serbia and Bosnia, we find out that Catalans from Dubrovnik, as well as the ones from Venice, played an important role in their business. Trade between the citizens of Dubrovnik and Catalans in Dubrovnik and Venice, including trade in precious metals from Serbia and Bosnia, was undoubtedly more developed than previously assumed. From the Caboga brothers trade records, we also find out about the financial transactions that took place in Venice, as well as about the names of the banks in Venice (in bancho di ser Goane Horsini; in bancho di Priuli), where the Dubrovnik and Venice Catalans had their business.
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The article covers the turbulent career of Mihailo Kabužić (Michael de Caboga), one of the few nobles of Dubrovnik who were convicted of betrayal of the Republic while being in the service of a foreign ruler or magnate. This paper is the first that gathers and reinterprets all known facts concering his political activity. As a descendant of an influential noble family, he could expect to participate in the government of his hometown but, instead of that, after getting heavily into debt, he entered the service of a mighty Bosnian magnate, great duke Hrvoje Vukčić Hrvatinić. In the period between 1410 and 1416 he held many offices in Hrvoje’s structure of power – he was the count of Omiš, Brač, Hvar and Korčula, the governer of the strategically important fortress of Bistrica, the protovestiarius (the highest financial official). However, Kabužić earned his place in historical textbooks after he had, by the orders of his lord, gone to Turkey and, together with the Ottoman sultan, organized the attack of Turkish marcher wardens on Bosnia, in the spring of 1414. The attack aimed at relieving the pressure that Hrvoje’s territories were suffering from the Hungarian king and the rival magnates but, in fact, the Turks became a lasting factor in the region which led to the fall of the medieval Bosnian state in 1463. Hrvoje also intended to give away his house and estates in Dubrovnik to Kabužić, which prompted a swift reaction of the authorities of the Republic – the prohibition of involvement of domestic nobles in the matters of the estates which had been given to foreign kings or nobles. The feud concerning Hrvoje’s house, organization of Turkish assault and his activities against the interests of Dubrovnik in Central Dalmatia led to Kabužić’s fall out of favour of his hometown which he had already come to dislike.
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According to the available data, the term ekklesiastikos was unknown on the Mount Athos in the tenth and eleventh century. The earliest mention of cr’kovnik is in the Typikon of Chilandar. However, the practice of having rich and famous monasteries sending one klerikos to the church of Protaton in Karyes had been mentioned in the year of 1089. Well established and known monasteries, such as Great Laura, Vatopedi, Iviron, and Chilandar, each gave one ekklesiastikos, while remaining monasteries provided the total of eight. Protaton provided the kellion in Karyes for the ekklesiastikos, as well as the vineyard in the vicinity, which became the property of the monastery that sent him and had the responsibility to support him. In the fourteenth century kellia of ekklesiastikoi were getting destroyed, either during the times of Turkish incursions or as a result of monastery’s own financial hardships. When those unfortunate events took place, the monastery was not able to send an ekklesiastikos in Karyes, who were needed for the church of Protaton to normally function. Protaton ensured that ekklesiastikoi’s cells got repaired, in order for monasteries to send ekklesiastikoi to Karyes. The order of ekklesiastikoi in the church of Protaton corresponded to the seating arrangement of their hegoumenoi in the Council of the protos. This order of precedence had to be respected. When this order was not respected, arguments occurred. One such argument took place in the fourteenth century between the monks of monasteries of Docheiariou and Xenophon. Ekklesiastikoi (cr’kovnici) of St. Panteleimon and Chilandar monasteries were noted in the decisions of the Brothers’ Assemblies, usually in front of the hegoumenarches, paraekklesiarches, trapezarios, paradocheiares, and related officers. Ekklesiastikoi of the church of Protaton had the same responsibilities as those in other monasteries. The two of the most important were to take part in processions and to maintain the order during the services. The ekklesiastikos jurisdiction resembled that of ekklesiarches, as noted by the mention of the latter as ekklesiastikos in the Typikon of Chilandar. In addition, it appears that ekklesiastikoi and epiteretai have taken over from epistemonarches. Lastly, ekklesiastikoi’s signatures on the acts of protos and his Council (1316, 1366, 1375, 1377), show that this officer, along with others from the Protaton church and representatives of smaller monasteries, especially the ones from Karyes and its surroundings, witnessed property transactions within Karyes, and participated in the creation of legal acts in the Protaton office. The ekklesiastikos who took part in making the decisions of protos and his Council in the fourteenth century, advanced in the hierarchy of Mount Athos, and took place right after the ekklesiarches and epiteretes.
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Based on mostly published and unpublished sources from the Kotor and Dubrovnik archives, the paper presents a noble family through four generations in Medieval Kotor. Members of the Mekša family did business in Kotor, Dubrovnik, and Serbia. They formed mixed trading societies with people from Kotor, traders from Zeta seaside towns, people from Dubrovnik, Venetians, and Serbs. Some of them were successful merchants, acquired wealth and reputation, and performed important social functions in Kotor. A particular biographical note is about the family's most prominent member, Marin Mekša, who was not matched by his heirs. He was a great and capable merchant. He traded in metals, primarily silver, salt, textile, and other goods. Marin Mekša earned large capital, which he invested in other business and in real estate (houses and land) in Kotor, Serbia, and Dubrovnik. Due to his trading skills, Marin Mekša acquired great reputation, and performed important diplomatic missions for the Serb state and for his native Kotor. He was King Dušan's emissary in Venice in 1332, where he negotiated on settling Kotor excessive debts with Venice merchants, and about repaying these debts in time. When not busy with trade and diplomacy, he resided in Kotor, and performed important social duties in the native city. Marin Mekša frequently served as a judge and as an auditor in Kotor.
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Science is aware of numerous crosses listed in the system of village boundaries in many Medieval charters, and they are mostly seen in the context of marking the boundary. However, just like in the cases of churches, roads, vineyards, and other anthropo-geographical entities, their primary role was not in the function of boundary. It is obvious from the charters themselves that boundary stones were placed «in front» or «lower» of the already existing crosses. The purpose of this paper is to present the multiplicity of meanings of these crosses, perceived as objects of social and religious significance for a local community, presented in a village and in a parish. That is why information from the charters is compared to other sources, where free standing crosses are mentioned. One of the most important sources is the penitential text (dated in the 13th-14th centuries) that forbids liturgies near crosses erected by the roads, as dogs and pigs make it dirty. Their religious and social use is recognized in Domentian's Life of St. Sabbas of Serbia, where pastoral eagerness of St. Sabbas, early 13th century Archbishop of Serbia, is praised by mentioning that he erected churches and crosses all over the countryside. In similar context, erecting crosses by roads is mentioned in the 16th century Ottoman kanun-nama, Hans Dernschwam's travels, or in a mid-17th century marginalia mentioning renewal of a more than one hundred years old cross. In any case, the sources mentionedconfirm the one-sidedness of the information of the charter as a source for this topic, especially as they do not provide the micro-toponymy of the village area in general, but only on its borders.
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In Medieval states, marital and family relations were under constant social scrutiny, firm control, and even surveillance. Morality and way of behaving were not considered as personal rights. From the time of the Leo III's Ekloga dating from 726, the Church attitude that each sexual intercourse outside marriage conducted by the Church ritual was sinful and should be punished, was accepted in Byzantium. The state and the Church attempted to completely regulate marriage and family, so they also received attention on the legal codes of Medieval Serbia. That is why abducting women and girls for marriage, even with the approval of the abducted person, was considered to be a socially dangerous thing and was marked as a criminal act. In Medieval Serbia, abducting women and girls was considered a serious offence, for which severe punishments were determined. In the legal sources mentioned, the social position of victims or perpetrators is irrelevant. The only difference concerns the severity of the offence, to be determined in the investigation. The more severe offence exists if the crime has been committed with the use of weapons, so, therefore, the punishment was more severe. The less severe form was defined as the abduction without the use, or even without having any, arms. Abduction of one's own fiancée, or the acceptance of the abducted person or her family, were not considered as mitigating factors. Depending on the severity of the case, death penalty was prescribed, or several corporal and shaming punishments, as well as exile. Essentially, the crime of abducting women or girls was the crime against one's person, but, in Medieval framework, it was also the crime against morality and, in a wider sense, even against the faith and the security of the population, so it was also in the public interest to prosecute it.
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Studying credit trade of Medieval Dubrovnik based on Dubrovnik archival sources (Drbita notariae in Diversa notariae), the author encountered some new and interesting data on crvac (chermesium), an agent for coloring fabric. Based on this new data, he confirmed the thesis that crvac is a material of organic origin, and that it was acquired through a special technique of collecting and drying lice in Serbia and Bosnia. The paper includes data on determining of prices and their variation. The most information was encountered in sources after the 1540s. Several debtors were processed, particularly from Trgovište and Goražde, as well as some lenders. From several specific examples, it was demonstrated how a trade in crvac went in Dubrovnik, and which transactions took place. It is assumed that lenders gave raw textiles as credit, and accepted crvac as payment. The image of the credit trade is augmented with trade contracts and contracts on trade societies (collegantiae, societas). Crvac was also shipped to Italy, primarily to Florence and Venice.
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After his father's death (in 1466), Herceg Vlatko spent most of his time in Herceg Novi, were he married for the second time, with the granddaughter of the Aragon King Alfonse V, Margarita Marzano (in 1474), and started a family. Together with his son-in-law, Ivan Crnojević, and with Dubrovnik's financial aid, he erected the church of St. Stephen. For the reasons that we do not know, this church was destroyed at the end of September 1475. He did not forget his nobles, the Kostanjić brothers, to whom Herceg Vlatko confirmed (in August 1475) the village of Drvenik with Perun, and admitted them into «the faith of the nobles» as long as they respect their obligations according to the Charter. In the late 1481, after he surrendered a part of the Herceg Novi fort by the sea to Turks, Herceg Vlatko, following some marital discord, left his «residence » in Novi, and until 1486 lived in the part of the Hum lands previously inhabited by the Kosačas and Vlatkovićs. Then he suddenly moved across the Cetina river into Poljice, and found himself in the Venetian territory, where, along with settling the payment of some old debts with Nikola Kamenarić from Šibenik, he spent some gloomy days in the Poljice Župa. Due to indecent behavior of some members of his entourage, Herceg Vlatko was «sent off» from there by the Split Providur, Fantono Coppio. Thus, the last Herceg after St. Sava, facing numerous problems in life, found himself in the island of Rab, which is still witnessed by the name of the Cape Kosača, and, enjoying hospitality of the local Crnota nobles, finally died there. He was survived by his widow Margarita, who soon found herself «in the marital embrace» of the well known Venice captain Marco Loredan, and several male and female children, of whom the youngest son, Jovan, was most likely, after reaching maturity, in 1505, enlisted into the Venice High Council, and continued to live in Venice.
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According to a tombstone inscription in the Cistercian monastery of Zwettl, Lower Austria, and few other charters from the year 1305, a Cistercian monk Roger appeared in Austria in 1305 and acted as a Bosnian bishop, claiming that he had been previously banished from his archbishopric seat of Bar. The documents that testify his existence, the context and the chronollogy of the political events which led to such a development are the subject of this paper.
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L’article est consacré à l’étude des guerres ragusaines depuis la fin du 12ème siècle, jusqu’ au milieu du 15ème siècle. L’auteur distingue trois grandes périodes dans le déroulement des guerres ragusaines. La première entre la fin du 12ème et le début du 14ème siècle, et qui concerne les guerres contre les souverains serbes de la dynastie némanide, la deuxième qui concerne la seconde moitié 14ème siècle, consacrée aux conflits, dans le cadre des grandes coalitions maritimes de Venise et de Gênes, et la troisième qui comprend les guerres contre les rois et seigneurs de Bosnie, au 15ème siècle. Toutes ces guerres ont leurs caractéristiques propres, que l’auteur s’efforce de dégager et d’analyser. Une attention particulière est consacrée au recrutement des mercenaires étrangers, italiens en premier lieu, dans les guerres de Dubrovnik. L’attention est attirée sur le fait que les mercenaires au service de Dubrovnik bénéficient de moins d’autonomie, dans la conduite des opérations militaires, que leurs homologues au service de Venise, et qu’ils sont constamment sous le contrôle des patriciens locaux. Les mercenaires étrangers toutefois s’aperçoivent parfois des compétences plutôt limitées des Ragusains dans la direction des affaires militaires : ceuxci se font d’ailleurs, plusieurs fois écraser au 15ème siècle par leurs ennemis, notamment par les ducs Radoslav Pavlović et Stefan-Vukčić-Kosača.
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