TRI LETRA TË PIKOLOMINIT GJATË FUSHATËS USHTARAKE HABSBURGASE NË KOSOVË (1689)
THREE LETTERS OF PICCOLOMINI DURING THE HABSBURG MILITARY CAMPAIGN IN KOSOVO (1689)

Summary/Abstract: The unfolding of the short Habsbourg campaign in Kosovo in the fall of 1689, for most historians, was observed through the lenses of some early mostly second-hand chronicles that describe this event. A main source for most of them, the manuscript known as Annotationes und Reflexiones..., has recently been proven to be a secondary source, and not the work of a participant in this campaign. Primary sources, from protagonists who witnessed these events, though in some cases were known before, have not been used enough in works related to these fragments of history. This article aims to identify some of these primary sources of time that are mainly letters, relations, and reports. Through them, and by publishing some of them in Albanian, it will seek to create an updated overview of the historical events of this campaign in Kosovo. The main set of these documents are the three letters written by Picolomini himself during the days of his stay in Kosovo. Others are letters and reports coming from the war camps in Kosovo. Most letters and reports utilized in this article, mainly published in the media of the time, belong to the protagonists who directly participated in the events described. Also, they come from the time when the events were still unfolding, or a few days or weeks later (the period October 1689 to January 1690). The data presented in some cases is completely unknown for this segment of history. Additionally, to an extent the article confirms that the early chronicles, mainly compiled from the middle of 1690 and after, themselves are based on early letters and relations, such as the ones we have used here. A continued exploration of similar accounts, kept in archives, or published in periodicals of the time may bring other important data about this campaign. The materials used here are only some of those that survived and were found during this campaign, others (such as Picolomini's letter from Prokuplja from 15th of October), may surface in the future, and will further help to clarify the details of this campaign.

• Details
• Contents