Архиљевичка хрисовуља цара Стефана Душана
The Arhiljevica Chrysobull of Emperor Stephen Dušan

Summary/Abstract: The church of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary in the former village of Arhiljevica on the slopes of Skopska Crna Gora was founded by sebastokrator Dejan, a prominent noble of Serbian emperor Dušan, who granted Dejan a chrysobull in which the manorial boundaries of the foundation were defined. Since possession of the Arhiljevica manor (metochion) was transferred to the Serbian Athonite monastery of Hilandar by the charter of Eudokia and Constantine Dragaš from the year 1378/79, Dušan’s chrysobull to Dejan is preserved in the archives of Hilandar in the form of two documents: the elder one marked Hil. 36, and the more recent Hil. 150/152. Both are transcripts made in Hilandar – the elder one was copied from the original and later served as the model for the more recent copy. The first document, whose first full publication is offered in this paper, was made at the time when the church of Arhiljevica was donated to Hilandar. In the bottom of the document two later entries recording legal transactions can be found: the first is from the late 14th and the second probably from the early 15th century. In terms of diplomatic status, Hil. 36 is an authentic transcript, but its dating (Skoplje, 10 August 1354) is questionable, because it contradicts historical circumstances known from other reliable sources (e.g. the mention of Sava as patriarch before he was elevated to that position, the fact that the emperor was far away from Skoplje at the time in question). Therefore, the date when the lost original of Dušanʼs chrysobull for the church of Arhiljevica was issued can only be approximated as 1354 or 1355, based on examination of the diplomatic elements of Hil. 36 and the historical and legal context of its contents. Hil. 150/152 differs from its predecessor in the dispositional section, containing two previously unmentioned villages that do not appear even in the Dragaš charter of 1378/79. This doctored transcript, which is of secondary importance for the reconstruction of the original, was made in the 15th century or later with the intent of obtaining or confirming the enlargement of Hilandar’s Arhiljevica metochion.

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