Zbornik Radova Vizantološkog Instituta

: The Byzantine historiography on the state of Serbian despots; The four Byzantine historians of 'the Fall' of the Byzantine Empire, Doucas Chalcocondyles, Sphrantzes and Critobulos, as well as the Byzantine short chronicles, bring many news concerning Serbian history of the first half of the XV century. Although almost all of them refer to the Serbian political history of the period, they also imply that Serbia was a state, having its own territory, ethnicity, government, diplomacy, army and economic resources.

: The Byzantine processional cross from Župa dubrovačka; A Byzantine processional cross is preserved in the church of St. Nicholas in Žakula in Župa dubrovačka. Past research has dated the cross between the 6th and 10th centuries. This artifact was found at the archeological site of St. George’s church, which was most likely constructed between the 10th-12th centuries. The cross is of a tear-shaped type and bears inscriptions that invoke the name of Archistrategos Michael and refer to his Miracle at Chonae. This paper aims to give a new, more precise date for the cross, as well as determining its possible origin and function. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 177032: Tradicija, inovacija i identitet u vizantijskom svetu]

: The Byzantine titles of Jovan Oliver; The inscription by the portrait of Jovan Oliver, the founder, in the main church of monastery Lesnovo, contains the earliest data on high Byzantine court dignities he held. The founder is portrayed invested as a sebastokrator, the inscription is written over an older one which it partially repeats and gives the information on the two Byzantine titles of Jovan Oliver: in the first part of the inscription there is reference on his title of sebastokrator “in Serbs”, while in the second part he is mentioned with the title of despotes “of all Serbian and maritime regions and učestnik (sc. particeps) of Greeks”. In the inscription both of the dignities are connected with the king Stefan Dušan. The analysis of the data of the founder’s inscription, when put into the context of the civil war that lasted in Byzantium from 1341 to 1347, enables the conclusions on the exact Byzantine origin of his titles and approximate chronology of his investment. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 177032: Tradicija, inovacija i identitet u vizantijskom svetu

: The Chadenos affair; The author offers an interpretation of a passage from the history of George Pachymeres involving the fate of the highlanders of Asia Minor under Michael VIII Palaiologos during the 1260s. Contrary to the opinion of numerous scholars, these men were not transformed into pronoia soldiers but into mercenaries. .

: The Genoese citizenship of Carlo I Tocco of December 2, 1389; The Genoese citizenship, granted to Carlo I Tocco and his regent mother Magdalene by the authorities of the Republic of Genova (December 2, 1389) is a document the existence of which is widely accepted in the scholarly circles despite the fact that the details of its contents have still remained largely unknown. Attempting to contribute to a better understanding of the circumstances under which the grant was issued, the first part of this paper brings the transcription of the entire document, as well as an analysis of its political and legal context. The paper's second part deals with the document's palaeographic, diplomatic, and sigillographie features as well as with its prosopographic and topographic details.

: The Greek charter of the Hungarian King Stephen I; The first Hungarian Christian ruler, King Stephen I (997-1038) issued several charters that have survived to this day. One of them is the charter issued on behalf of the nuns from the Monastery of the Holy Theotokos in Veszprémvölgy. The charter was written in the Greek language, and has been the subject of many studies. The original has not been preserved; what remains is a copy from the time of King Coloman, dated to 1109. The charter has not been published in a critical edition in any language other than Hungarian and even though it has been examined by numerous Hungarian scholars, many questions remain open. The aim of the author is to provide a critical edition and an English translation of the charter, but also to clarify some remaining doubts about the charter and its contents. Furthermore, some comparisons will be made with the Byzantine charters issued at the beginning of the 11th and during the 12th century.

: The Greek emperor Alexios in the first vitae of St Simeon Nemanja; In the wider context of references to the "Greek" i.e. Byzantine Emperors in the first saints’ lives of the Nemanjic dynasty, we turn our attention here to the nature and historical background of references to the Byzantine Emperor Alexios III Angelos in the founder’s Vita of the Venerable Simeon Nemanja by St Sava (written as a prologue of the Typikon for Studenica monastery), and the reasons for the omission of any such reference from the Vita of St Simeon Nemanja written by Stefan the First Crowned, both viewed in the context of the impact of current political circumstances on the historiographical criteria applied by the two writers as they assembled these official texts of celebrative, but also of historical and commemorative nature. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 177032: Tradicija, inovacija i identitet u vizantijskom svetu]

: The Haemus Mountains and the geopolitics of the first Bulgarian empire; The role of the Haemus Mountains (that is Stara Planina and Sredna Gora) as a geographical factor is visible in the fact that between the close of the 7th century and the beginning of the 9th century, the eastern parts of that massif turned naturally into a political border between Bulgaria and Byzantium. Although in later times this border moved further to the south, even for longer periods, still the mountain ridge remained the most lasting demarcation element in the Byzantine-Bulgarian relations and the most certain determinant of the heart of the Bulgarian statehood (the so-called internal area of Bulgaria), which was concentrated in the years 680/681-971, i.e. excluding the period of the reign of the Komitopouloi, in the area between the mountains and the Danube valley. If the Haemus was the political border of Bulgaria for almost a half of the functioning of this state during the period of 7th-11th c., it proves irrefutably that the massif was of great significance for the political history of Bulgaria and its contacts with Byzantium.

: The Hilandar manuscript of the eight parts of speech - translation from Serbian Slavonic and commentaries; The first known Slavonic grammatical treatise The Eight Parts of Speech survives in forty-three manuscripts, the two oldest of which (from the14th and 15th century respectively) belong to the Serbian, while all the others belong to the Russian redaction. Our study seeks to show that the text relies mostly (but not only) on The Art of Grammar by Dionysius Thrax and on his disciples. An analysis of the Slavonic grammatical terms and their Greek basis is followed by the translation of the text from Old Church Slavonic into contemporary Serbian furnished with necessary commentaries.

: The Italian kin of the Tocco despot; This paper deals with a familial strategy of "using" kinsmen in keeping power and prominence as seen from the case of the family of the Tocco, the rulers of the Ionian islands (XIV-XV c). A widely-known family narrative and some less-known documentary evidence reveal details on several Italian Tocco who were close to Carlo I (b. c. 1375-1429) in spatial terms, and who, more importantly, played a considerable role in securing useful political alliances for their mighty kinsman of the "Greek" family branch. In addition, regarding new information about one Italian Tocco (Gioanella, the daughter of Carluccio), the paper suggests some more definite conclusions about her genealogical position and conjugal affiliation.

: The Kotor (Cattaro) Minor council and the Saint Trinity church; The location called Trinity is situated nearby Kotor (Cattaro), and was most probably named after the Saint Trinity Church, built at the same place. The church does not exist any more. Several documents regarding that church have been kept. One of them, written in September 1476, is subject of analysis of this contribution. As it happened, instead of a priest died in May of the same year, the church was taken care by the Minor Council upon the suggestion of the city of Kotor. The election of the same priest was performed in the Minor Council, upon suggestion of the two electors, by secret voting of all members of the Council. It seems the document to be the only one from the Archive of Kotor (today kept in the State Archive of Zadar), in which has been described the voting in the Minor Council, with presences of the two members of Council, who had voted with the golden balls (balotta aurea electionis). As it is possible to see from this case, as well as from the other documents kept in the city archives along the eastern Adriatic Coast, their role was to suggest personalities for important city duties. It is also possible to see from the document that the Minor Council of the Kotor Municipality had separated a book in which the records for the sessions or at least decisions of the Council was registered. The second interesting thing in this document is the name of the deceased priest. His name was don Matej Ćurilica, which should be understood as a nickname, given because of that he had probably served upon the Roman ritual, but in Slavic language, from the books written in Cyrillic or Glagolitic alphabet. The first name for the Glagolitic alphabet was kjurilica. There are strong reasons for presumptions that still in the first half of the 12th century the Glagolitic alphabet was in use in the regions southeast from Dubrovnik.

: The Kotor salt market in the Middle Ages; In this paper, on the basis of some articles of the Statute of Kotor (Cattaro), as well as on the basis of historical documents from the archives in Kotor and Dubrovnik, the author described the Kotor salt market (kumerak solski) as one of the legal markets, where commerce of the salt was authorized. The special attention has been given to the participation of the Kotor municipality in this commerce, on one side, and on the other side, on the participation of the Serbian rulers of the Nemanjić dynasty. After Tvrtko's conquest of Kotor in 1384, he took, as the follower of the Nemanjić dynasty, the corresponding share of the Kotor salt custom. After Tvrtko's death in 1391 and weakening of the central power in Bosnia, a part of the Kotor salt market was used by the Bosnian feudal lords. The citizens of Dubrovnik did not pay great attention to the fact, that it was a legal salt market and they used every opportunity to close it, because it was their main rival. During the whole 14th century, they disabled the salt transportation from the sea. They were also destroying the Kotor salt factories in the field of Grbalj.

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