Inicijal. Časopis za srednjovekovne studije
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Initial is a multidisciplinary review of medieval studies intended for publishing contributions from all academic fields pertaining to the area of Southeastern Europe and the Mediterranean in the Middle Ages. This includes not only papers discussing new theoretical approaches in medieval studies or interpreting so-called „major issues“, but also those focusing on narrower, more specialized fields of research. However, with regard to the character of the review authors should craft their material to appeal to a wider audience of medievalists, providing the necessary context to readers who may not be so well-versed in the particular subject. Editions and translations of medieval sources may also be submitted for publication, especially if they are an essential component of a wider study.
Initial is open for publication of academic critiques and reviews of all medievalist monographs, periodical publications, and individual articles, as well as editions of medieval sources. Keeping track of academic life through reports on various gatherings, meetings, lectures, and field research is also an important segment of this journal’s profile.
Publisher: The Centre for Advanced Medieval Studies
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ISSN: 2334-8003
Pages
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- Политички положај Конавала у IX и X веку
- In addition to the Serbs, Croats, Zachlumi, Terbouniotes, Diocletians and Arentani (Pagani), the works of Byzantine emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (913–959) De administrando imperio and Vita Basilii also mention among the independent South Slavic communities the Kanalites, inhabitants of Kanali (Konavli), a tiny maritime region between Ragusa and the Bay of Kotor. The emperor usually mentions them and treats them as equal to all the above-mentioned tribes. However, unlike all the other tribes, De administrando imperio has no separate chapter for them. Instead, Kanalites are mentioned in the chapter dedicated to the Terbouniotes, as connected to them. Since much of the other information concerning the Kanalites deals with events of the 9th century, it was assumed that the Kanalites existed as a separate South Slav entity during the 9th century, but that they had lost their independence and had become part of Terbounia by the time Porphyrogenitus wrote De administrando imperio. However, the so-called “List of addresses” to foreign rulers, composed at the court of Constantine VII and his son and co-emperor Romanus II in 946 and preserved in the Book of ceremonies (Chapter II, 48), contains an address to the “prince of Kanali”, which testifies that there was an independent principality of the Kanalites at the very time of the composition of De administrando imperio. When we analyse some of the information on the Kanalites in De administrando imperio in that light, we are drawn to the conclusion that for Porphyrogenitus the existence of the Kanalites was indeed a reality of his own time, and not just a memory of the past. Thus, it could be possible that the reference to the Kanalites in connection to events of the 9th century was actualy an anachronism, meaning that data provided by the emperor should be used only with great caution and after thorough analysis.
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- Помени предака у повељама Немањића и легитимизација власти
- Mentions of ancestors in the charters of Serbian medieval rulers from the Nemanjić dynasty often bear an ideological note illustrating one of the key requirements of medieval government – the need to legitimize a ruler’s hold on power or, in other words, to recognize newly acquired ruling authority as legal. Analysis of these ideological mentions of ancestors has uncovered three patterns of their usage, based on the manner in which the ancestral motif is used and the degree of legitimization it achieves. The first pattern consists of mentions found in autobiographical excerpts placed in the preambles (arengae) of solemn charters recording donations to ecclesiastical institutions. In situations when his right to power is disputable, the current ruler speaks of his accession to the throne, creating a context in which he can be represented as a legitimate heir. This pattern was present in the documents of rulers whose right to the throne was questioned since the beginning of their reign – Stefan the Firstcrowned, Stefan Dečanski and Stefan Dušan. The second pattern concentrates on the mentions of ancestors as saints. This pattern’s potential for legitimization is most notably exploited in the rulers’ intitulations. Mentions of this type are often followed by the beata stirps motif which was initially linked to the metaphor of the tree of Jesse. This pattern is present in the documents of Nemanjić rulers since the time of the canonization of the dynasty’s founder, Stefan Nemanja, and its frequency testifies to the suitability of such mentions for legitimization of power. The last pattern comprises participation of the holy ancestors in government. At first, the ancestors participate in government through their mention in the sanctions of royal charters as protectors of the current ruler’s donations along with God, the Virgin, and some of the greatest Christian saints. Later, they are shown as helping the ruler in conquests or succession to the throne through their prayers. This pattern was developed during the reign of king Мilutin, at a time of severe internal conflicts. Widespread presence and constant innovation of ancestral mentions indicate that they had an important role presenting the rulers to the readers and users of their documents. Additionally, the variety of the types of mentions implies that the diplomatic image of the ruler was adjusted to the current political situation. It was of crucial importance in the tumult of frequent dynastic confrontations, which strongly encouraged the use of every available instrument to demonstrate a ruler’s legitimacy.
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- Попис нахије Петрово поље из 1574. године
- This paper offers a critical edition (including text, translation and facsimile) of the census of the Petrovo polje nahiye from 1574. After the Turkish conquest (c. 1522), this nahiye was originally part of the vilayet of Croatia (Vilâyet-i Hırvat) in the Sanjak of Bosnia, but since the 1540s it belonged to the Sanjak of Klis. The census is an extract from the 1574 Extensive defter of the Sanjak of Klis, in which, for the first time since the fall of these areas under Ottoman rule, complete data on all settlements, including the fortresses and towns, was accumulated. Unfortunately, the data on the fortress and town of Drniš located in Petrovo polje is missing. The edition also provides identification of toponyms, a guide to terminology, comparison with the data from other defters covering the same region, and additional notes where they were needed. Until the end of the 16th century, Petrovo polje was inhabited almost exclusively by people of vlach status, and population density was relatively good. Christian population was dominant in this nahiye, although the process of islamization can be noted in most of its villages.
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- Почетак рецепције Теодосијевог Житија Светог Саве и Похвале Светим Симеону и Сави у руској књижевности
- The Life of St Sava of Serbia penned by Theodosius and his Encomium on Sts Symeon and Sava reached Russia around 1420 at the latest since it is from that date on that they began to be included in Russian literary works. Both texts were contained in a manuscript which was closest to the type exemplified by the 1643 Chilandar codex no. 509, which suggests that it was brought to Russia from Mount Athos. The Encomium it contained was of the short type, albeit somewhat more complete than the one in Cod. Chil. 509. The manuscript has not survived, nor is there any known copy of it, but there is no doubt that it was much read, as evidenced by its reception in Russian literature. The earliest known use of Theodosius’s Encomium on Sts Symeon and Sava has been dated around to 1420, when the monk Epiphanius the Wise of the Trinity monastery near Moscow included a portion of it in his Encomium on Venerable Sergius. This fact allows us to make the cautious assumption that it was to this Russian monastery that Theodosius’s Life and Encomium was originally brought. The other texts whose authors made use of Theodosius might have also been written there: the prologue to the Life of St Sabbas the Sanctified and the Encomium on Sts Euthymius the Great and Sabbas the Sanctified written between 1420 and 1480. These texts made borrowings from two works of the Byzantine writer Cyril of Scythopolis and two works of the Serbian writer Theodosius, which suggests that they were written at a centre which possessed a well-equipped library. Epiphanius made use of the introductory passages of Theodosius’s Encomium in a fair manner and, with a few minor interventions, put them in the proper place in his Encomium on St Sergius. Similar was the approach of the first author of the prologue to the Life of St Sabbas the Sanctified, who borrowed almost the entire prologue from Theodosius’s Life of St Sava of Serbia, whereas a subsequent redactor of the Russian prologue made much more alterations in the texts borrowed both from Theodosius and from Cyril of Scythopolis. The redactor of the Encomium on Sts Euthymius and Sabbas the Sanctified went the farthest in changing Theodosius’s Encomium to Sts Symeon and Sava by shortening, supplementing and in other ways altering his text. A turning point in the reception of Theodosius’s work occured in the first decades of the 16th century, when the cult of St Sava of Serbia took root in Russia. Theodosius’s Life with full Encomium, which had been brought to Grand Prince Basil III from Mount Athos in 1517, began to be copied frequently, and so was his Service to St Sava which had already been known in Russia. In parallel with new transcriptions of the Life and Encomium from the 1517 protograph and their new reception in the 16th century, Russian compositions based on the manuscript of Theodosius’s Life of St Sava and Encomium on Sts Symeon and Sava which had arrived in Russia earlier (before 1420) were also copied.
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- Прикази и критике
- Identity and Alterity in Hagiography and the Cult of Saints, eds. Ana Marinković – Trpimir Vedriš (Bibliotheca Hagiotheca – Series Colloquia I), Hagiotheca, Zagreb 2010. (Александар З. Савић); Saintly Bishops and Bishops’ Saints, eds. John S. Ott – Trpimir Vedriš (Bibliotheca Hagiotheca – Series Colloquia II), Hagiotheca, Zagreb 2012. (Александар З. Савић); Cuius Patrocinio Tota Gaudet Regio. Saints’ Cults and the Dynamics ofRegional Cohesion, eds. Stanislava Kuzmová – Ana Marinković – Trpmir Vedriš (Bibliotheca Hagiotheca – Series Colloquia III), Hagiotheca, Zagreb 2014. (Александар З. Савић); Daniel E. O’Sullivan (ed.), Chess in the Middle Ages and EarlyModern Age. A Fundamental Thought Paradigm of the Premodern World, De Gruyter, Berlin – Boston 2012. (Dženan Dautović); Esad Kurtović, Konj u srednjovjekovnoj Bosni, Univerzitet u Sarajevu, Sarajevo 2014. (Neven Isailović); Аранђел Смиљанић, Људи из сјенке – дипломати обласних господара у Босни, Филозофски факултет у Бањој Луци, Бања Лука 2015. (Neven Isailović).
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- Прикази и критике
- onja Kjusopulu, Car ili upravitelј: Politička vlast i ideologija pred pad Carigrada 1453. godine, prevela s grčkog Maja Nikolić, Clio / edicija Πόλις, Beograd 2014, 190 str. (Amer Maslo) Secular Power and Sacral Authority in Medieval East-Central Europe, eds. Kosana Jovanović – Suzana Miljan, Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2018, 186 pp. (Dženan Dautović)
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- Прикази и критике
- Das Taktikon des Nikon vom Schwarzen Berge. Griechischer Text und kirchenslavische Übersetzung des 14. Jahrhunderts, ediert von Christian Hannick in Zusammenarbeit mit Peter Plank, Carolina Lutzka und Tat’jana I. Afanas’eva unter Heranziehung der Vorarbeiten von Irénée Doens, I–II, Monumenta Linguae Slavicae. Dialecti veteris, Tom. LXII, Weiher, Freiburg im Breisgau 2014, LXXIV+VIII+1276 (Stanoje Bojanin); Nebojša Porčić, Documents of Serbian Medieval Rulers in Dubrovnik Collections. The Nemanjić Period, Institute for Balkan Studies of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (Special Editions 137), Belgrade 2017, 362 pp. + 92 plates (Neven Isailović); Miloš Ivanović, “Good Men” in the Medieval Serbian State, Institute of History, Belgrade 2017, 175 pp. (Benjamin Hekić); Esad Kurtović, Izvori za historiju srednjovjekovne Bosne I/1–2 (Ispisi iz knjiga zaduženja Državnog arhiva u Dubrovniku 1365–1521), Akademija nauka i umjetnosti Bosne i Hercegovine, Građa, knjiga XXXI, Centar za balkanološka ispitivanja, knjiga 2, ur. Dubravko Lovrenović, Sarajevo 2017, XII + 969 pp. (Neven Isailović); Srednji vek u srpskoj nauci, istoriji, književnosti i umetnosti VIII, Naučni skup Despotovac – Manasija, 20–21. avgust 2016, glavni urednik Gordana Jovanović, Dani srpskoga duhovnog preobraženja XXIV, Narodna biblioteka “Resavska škola” Despotovac i Institut za srpski jezik SANU, Despotovac 2017, 237 str. (Aleksandar Krstić).
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- Прикази и критике
- Dubravko Lovrenović, Bosanska kvadratura kruga, Dobra knjiga, Sarajevo – Synopsis, Zagreb 2012. (E. Kurtović); Collection of Medieval Cyrillic Charters and Letters of Serbia, Bosnia and Dubrovnik. Volume 1: 1186–1321 (eds. V. Mošin – S. Ćirković – D. Sindik), Institute of History, Belgrade 2011, pp. 652. (N. Porčić); Gedächtnisschrift für Sima Ćirković, Institut für Geschichte, Sammelband, Heft 25, Herausgegeben von SRĐAN RUDIĆ, Belgrad 2011, 463 S. (D. M. Živojinović - Ž. Vujošević); ГЕОРГИ Н. НИКОЛОВ, Самостоятелни и полусамостоятелни владения във възобновеното Българско царство (края на XII – средата на XIII в.), ИК „Гутенберг“, София 2011, 255 стр. (D. M. Živojinović).
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- Прикази и критике
- Zbornik radova Vizantološkog instituta 50/1-2 (2013) 1084+47 str. (T. Matović, B. Pavlović, M. Živković); Predrag Komatina, Crkvena politika Vizantije od kraja ikonoborstva do smrti cara Vasilija I, Vizantološki institut SANU, Beograd 2014, 382 str. (D. Živojinović); Diplomatarium comitum terrestrium Crisiensium (1274-1439), eds. Eva B. Halasz - Suzana Miljan, MTA-HIM-SZTE-MOL, Budapest - Zagreb 2014, 261 str. (N. Isailović); Nada Zečević, The Tocco of the Greek Realm: Nobility, Power and Migration in Latin Greece (14th-15th Century), Makart, Belgrade 2014, xii+224 pp. (N. Porčić); Paola Pinelli, Tra argento, granno e panni. Pierro Pantella, un operatore italino nella Ragusa del primo Quattrocento, Firenze University Press, Firenze 2013, LVIII+115 pp. (N. Isailović); Diplome privind istoria comitatului Timiş şi a oraşului Timişoara, eds. Livia Magina - Adrian Magina, Editura Mega, Cluj-Napoca 2014, 478 pp. (A. Krstić); Mihailo St. Popović, Mara Branković: žena između hrišćanskog i islamskog kulturnog kruga u XV veku, Akademska knjiga, Novi Sad 2014, 366 str. (A. Krstić); Stjepan Tomašević (1461.-1463.) - slom srednjovjekovnoga Bosanskog Kraljevstva. Zbornik radova sa Znanstvenog skupa, Hrvatski institut za povijest - KBF Sarajevo, Zagreb - Sarajevo 2013, 296 str. (Dž. Dautović).
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- Прикази и критике
- Jelena Mrgić, Zemlja i ljudi. Iz istorije životne sredine zapadnog Balkana, Equilbrium, Beograd 2013, 158 str. (A. Z. Savić); Matija Vlastar, Sintagma. Sa staroslovenskog prevela T. Subotin Golubović, SANU, Beograd 2013, 435 str. (J. Popović); Đura Hardi, Drugeti: povest o usponu i padu porodice pratilaca anžujskih kraljeva, Novi Sad 2012, 480 str. (A. Krstić); 1445 Tarihli Paşa Livâsı İcmâl Defteri: eds. H. İnalcık - U. Altuğ - E. Radushev, Türk Tarih Kurumu, Ankara 2013, XXIII+518 s. (A. Jakovljević); Tibor Živković - Vladeta Petrović - Aleksandar Uzelac, Anonimov opis istočne Evrope. Kritičko izdanje teksta na latinskom jezikom, prevod i filološka analiza Dragana Kunčer, Istorijski institut, Beograd 2013, 222 str. (D. M. Živojinović).
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- Ранг титуле жупана у средњовјековној Србији и Босни
- The first known title among the Serbs was that of župan, which initially denoted leaders of individual tribes. With the formation of the state, there appeared the title of prince, whose holders suprerseded the župans as rulers. A new change occurred at the end of the 11th century, when župan Vukan became ruler of Raška. With the attribute „grand“, the title of župan came to represent the supreme rulers’ dignity of the Serbian state until 1217. Thereafter, it began to gradually decline, especially as a result of internal reforms implemented by King Uroš I in the middle of the 13th century, as well as the byzantinization of state apparatus performed by King Milutin at the beginning of the 14th century. During this period, part of the former jurisdiction of župans was transferred to the hands of the king’s officials – kephalai. Despite the weakening of the role of župans, in the second half of the 14th century there are still some very powerful persons bearing that title – Altoman, Nikola Altomanović, Andrija Gropa. With the reforms of despot Stefan Lazarević, the title of župan disappears from medieval Serbia. In Bosnia the situation was somewhat different. The title of župan appeared later than in Serbia, but it also endured longer. There were no kephalai to endanger župans, but there were voivodes and comites who were ranked above them. The župans usually performed their vassal obligations as petty noblemen towards the ruler or magnates. An exception in this regard were Sanko Miltenović and Dragiša Dinjičić, who as župans became truly powerful feudal lords and important factors in the Bosnian political arena of their time. In the last period of existence of the medieval Bosnian state, župans became deputies of comites or voivodes when they went to war, and the charters of rulers and magnates placed them below voivodes, comites and castellani, yet above the judges, katunars and globars. Finally, in the early years of Ottoman rule, župans were heads of the herder communities, which would soon disappear as the invaders consolidated their grip of power over Bosnia.
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- Сражение при Синнабре в свете христианских и мусульманских источников
- This article examines the battle of Sinnabra between Mawdud, atabeg of Mosul, and Baldwin I, the king of Jerusalem, on 28 June 1113. According to most modern scholars of the Crusades, near Sinnabra the Franks were lured into an ambush set for them by Mawdud, suffered a defeat and then retreated to Tiberias. This reconstruction is based on reports of western chroniclers and, first of all, on the account of Fulcher of Chartres who was a contemporary. However, Muslim sources, especially Damascus chronicler Ibn al-Qalanisi, a contemporary like Fulcher, report no information on the ambush. The Muslim authors consider the battle of Sinnabra as a chance encounter between Frankish and Muslim armies. A closer examination of the sources has disclosed that the ambush, ostensibly made by the Muslims near Sinnabra, is nothing more that a part of the Latin narrative of the battle. It was accepted by the scholars because they attached too much credence to western sources and because the chronicle of Ibn al-Qalanisi was discovered and published only in the first half of the 20th century, when the ambush near Sinnabra was considered a true episode of the campaign of 1113 (R. Röhricht, W. Stevenson, R. Grousset).