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Instead of a short abstract, please, refer to the PDF-files of the introduction to the book, its table of content and the sample-PDF which, each of them, you can download for free from here. We hope you'll get through this files a more comprehensive impression about the book than would be provided by just a few lines of an abstract / summary.
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Instead of a short abstract, please, refer to the PDF-files of the introduction to the book, its table of content and the sample-PDF which, each of them, you can download for free from here. We hope you'll get through this files a more comprehensive impression about the book than would be provided by just a few lines of an abstract / summary.
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This paper considers the data on the military, civil and ecclesiastical organisation, which Byzantium set up in the Balkans after 1018/1019. It presents the view that the development of military and ecclesiastical organisation can be followed in satisfactory continuity and that the system of military and church authority coincided territorially with each other to a high degree. In establishing authority in the Balkans, Byzantium largely relied on conditions linked with the epoch of Samuel and his successors. The aforesaid was reflected in the military system of power, although after 1018/1019, Byzantium adjusted it to its own needs, in particular the organisation of the Church. The Archbishopric of Ohrid preserved to a great extent the episcopal structure of the Bulgarian Church from the period of Samuel and his successors in the territorial sense, until some time around the middle of the 11th century. The insistence of Basil II on continuity with the previous, Bulgarian epoch (visible on the basis of the bishoprics that were assigned to it, its autocephalous position, the choice of a “domestic” archbishop) represents one of the consequences of the significance that the Bulgarian Church had, as an institution in the process of Byzantium's taking control of the region in the interior ofthe Balkans. Also the assumption is presented that the church organisation set upin 1018/1019, was a substitute for the poorly developed civil system of authority in certain Balkan regions. Although the Archbishopric of Ohrid represented the most enduring Byzantine achievement in the Balkans, the system that had been established under Basil II underwent many changes in the course of the second half of the 11th century. The most striking testimony of the advanced process of Rhomaization was visible in the creation of a tradition regarding the origin of the Ohrid Archbishopric, according to which it was connected with Justinian I. Importance was already attached to that theory in the time of the Ohrid Archbishop Leo (middle of the 11th century). Just before the mid–12th century, this theory led to overlooking the Bulgarian origin of the Ohrid Church, which was finally confirmed by the official acceptance of the title of the head of the Ohrid Church — the Archbishop “of the First Justinian and All Bulgaria” in the time after 1261.
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The notion Bulgaria in historical sources survived the end of the First Bulgarian State in 1018. The use of this term in the sources of the 11th and 12th centuries is not related to the adminstrative unit of the theme of Bulgaria, because it exceeds this unit both geographically and chronologically. This term was used by Byzantine, Latin (predominantly crusader) and Slavonic writers of the time to name the territory that stretched from the Rivers Sava and Danube in the North to the northern ranges of the Pindus Mountains in the South, and from the mountains between Ohrid and Durazzo in the West to the mountain gorges east of Sofia, in the East. It also covered a narrow strip of coastline around Valona, on the Ionian Sea. The term was applied consistantly to this same territory, in order to distigiush it from the rest of the Byzantine territory in the Balkans, which was called Romania, or Greece. This territory coincides with the jurisdictional area of the Archbishopric of Ohrid, the official name of which was the Archbishopric of Bulgaria. It preserved the name of the old Bulgarian Empire, with its traditions, for the land and the people under its jurisdiction. This Bulgaria should be treated by historians as a separete geographical and historical entity. It was divided between Serbia and the new Bulgarian state of Trnovo at the end of the 12th century.
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During 2010, on the eastern slope of the fortress of Ras, a lead seal of the emperor Alexios I Komnenos was discovered beneath the stone fort. The obverse of the seal bears image of a bearded Christ, facing forwards and seated on a throne with a high back. Around the head of Christ is a nimbus. He wears a tunic and a colobion, and is giving a blessing with his right hand, while in his left, he holds the Gospel. The feet of Christ are resting on a circular pedestal. The inscription is not preserved but according to analogies with identical seals, it is certain that it contained the abbreviation IC — XC. The reverse shows the image of the emperor Alexios I facing forwards, standing on a pedestal. The emperor has a beard, is wearing a crown with prependoulia and is dressed in a divetesion, a maniakon and a loros, which is draped over his left shoulder. In his right hand he holds a labarum, which rests on the ground, and in his left hand holds a globus cruciger. One can distinguish only some of the letters in the inscription which formed a frame around the presentation. In the process of being pressed, the lead blank was not well-positioned in relation to the boulloterion, so that the imprint of the obverse and reverse were shifted in relation to the lead blank. The upper parts of the images, the head of Christ on the obverse and the upper part of the emperor's head on the reverse, are missing. Apart from that, the blank was narrower than the boulloterion itself, so that the inscriptions in the field on the obverse and along the rim of the reverse were not clearly imprinted. The seal itself has a diameter of 30 mm and weighs 20.5 g. Despite the fact that the inscription is poorly preserved and practically illegible, the identification of the seal does not present a particular problem. Based on the iconographic and stylistic features, it can be attributed to the emperor Alexios I Komnenos, whose seals are distinguished by a specific iconographic scheme with the presentation of Christ enthroned on the obverse and the standing figure of the ruler, facing forwards, who is holding a labarum and a globus cruciger on the reverse. According to the classification of the seals, proposed by G. Zacos and A. Veglery, in their corpus “Byzantine Lead Seals” our specimen would belong to the first variant of lead seals, subcategory two — n¿ 102b. For the consideration of our find, certainly the most important discovery in the area of Sirmium, Ma~vanska Mitrovica, to be more exact, is the seal of the sebastos and megas domestikos Alexios Komnenos, the future emperor, which Bo`idar Ferjan~i} dated to between the end of 1078 / beginning of 1079 and the month of March in 1081. This find, according to B. Ferjan~i}, represents an important testimony about the duration of Byzantine rule during the seventies and the beginning of the eighties of the 11th century. The discovery of the seal of the emperor Alexios I Komnenos in the fortress of Ras indicates the presence of Byzantine rule in this important stronghold in the region that bears the same name, and the find itself belongs to the time of the Byzantine take-over of the castle and the construction of the first fortification with an earthen palissade. The seal of the emperor Alexios I Komnenos points to the importance of fortifying the exposed Byzantine strongholds that were under constant threat from the Serbs, and his care for the Empire's western border. The importance which that border had for Byzantium is clearly testified in the reports by Anna Komnenos about the fact that the emperor Alexios visited the mountain passes between Dalmatia and Byzantium — at the border facing Serbia. He personally dealt with the fortification by constructing valli: trenches, palisades, observation towers, and wooden towers, as well as the construction of forts — towers made of brick and stone. Part of the policy of the emperor Alexios I was certainly the fortification of large military strongholds for the purpose of defending the Byzantine borders.
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In scientific treatise so well as in readings held by occasion on feasts it was considered as most probable, by now even regarded as a proved fact, the Monasterium Bani (Banov Manastir) had its site in area of contemporary village Banoštor. Recently granted statements about history and archeology of this part countryside of Srem the possibility to discuss those opinion again. In this article the author points some remarkable mistakes out. As main one seems to be related to the origin of the name for contemporary village Banoštor. Its name, as it was helden with, derives not from the name of the Benedictine abbey founded by Ban Beloš mentioned in Hungarian historical sources as Monasterium Bani. In fact its name comes from notion, economic one, willa monasterii Bani, i.e. the village with man contributed to the Monasterium Bani. One other misleading mistake was about the archeological site Gradina in Novi Rakovac, correctly recognized as refuge Dombo but quite wrongly identified with abbey of St. George of Dombo (St.Georgius de Dombo). The name Dombo for this small refuge for local peasants, proofed by documents and geographical maps, came in fact after its builders, inhabitants of nearest village Dombovo being obligated to erect it in hurry. After elimination of this two cardinal misunderstandings in interpretation of Hungarian documents author pays attention to well known historical sources of Turkish Empire serving to show that the oldest findings on the site Gradina were remains of abbey of Archdeacon Stephan founded by Ban Beloš. Revised reading of Hungarian sources dictates the necessity for making a clear difference of old term Monasterium Bani (1309.) from the Hungarian toponym Banmonostra (1476). Shoves that in historical note in proprio fondo suo, qui appellatur Keu (1198) so well as in Civitas de Ku que alio modo Monasterium Bani nominatur (1309) the name Ke (Keu, Ku) is to be understood as name of a region. Not as the name for a place within that region. This area Ke (Petrik) extended somewhere from Sremska Kamenica to Banoštor or Koruška on the very bank of Danube, right one. The kind of rough mistakes, recognized in papers, required an exact proof of significance of few single terms of mediaeval Latin language. It was necessary, as the first, to grasp real meaning of the phrase in proprio fondo suo as well as the fundo suo, written down by the very end of 12. century. Then, it was necessary too, to understand in a correct way the words civitas, castrum and villa. An acceptable and trustworthy explication of them will result with better explanation of since long times used historical sources. More than one century ago, Hungarian scholar D. Csanky extracted some twenty sentences or parts of them in order to testify the old existence of contemporary village Banoštor. His understanding of the terms villa and civitas in sense of classical Latin as denotation for village and town was due to many mistakes. The term civitas was written down in a document at the year 1309. The exact meaning of both terms offers Glossarium ad Scriptores Mediae et Infimae Latinitatis, Auctore Carolo Dufresne, Domino Du Cang. Correct acceptance of mediaeval phrases containing the word civitas was explained with: “Civitas, Urbs Episcopalis, cum cåterå Castra vel oppida dicerentur…”. In this explanation some difficulties can be caused by understanding of phrase Urbs Episcopalis, if the notion urbs is accepted in other way than as centrum, seat, residence (of episcope, episcopate) as Csanky did. Another phrase brought by Csanky in his capital work about Hungarian mediaeval topography is Villa monasterii Bani, from a document dated in the year 1309 too. In Glossarium of Du Cange one can find a correct explanation for the mediaeval Latin word villa. After quoted examples for older meanings of word he adds a citation: “Villas, hodie, non quomodo Latini praedia rustica; sed complurium in agris mansionum vel ådium collectionem appellamus”.
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The church of Saint Sophia in Ohrid was built by Archbishop Leo (1037–1056), “the first of the Greek” since the founding of the Archbishopric of Ohrid (1019), on the site of an older church. On the model of the cathedral church of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, he dedicated the church to St. Sophia, and its chapels to the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, Saint John the Baptist and the Holy Apostles, whose relics are kept in their Constantinople church. No doubt, the painters were brought from the capital, as well; certain scenes distinctive of Constantinople art were also painted in St. Sophia, again probably by the intervention of Archbishop Leo. His imprint is most perceptible in the decoration of the sanctuary. Certain dogmatic-liturgical themes are presented there, whose iconography coincides for the most part with Leo’s viewpoints expressed between 1052 and 1054 in his epistles addressed to Bishop John of Trani, and also the entire Western clergy including the Pope. In his polemic with the West, the Archbishop of Ohrid drew mostly from the Pauline epistles and argued that leavened bread was the only true body of Christ, and as such needed to be used in the Eucharist. There is, therefore, very little doubt why the Eucharist should be painted in the apse of the church in Ohrid instead of the Communion of Apostles. This image contains subtle iconographic meanings, very closely related to the theological discussions of the time. Two scenes from the north wall are also connected to the Communion of Apostles: the Vision and the First Service of Saint Basil, depicting the origin of Byzantine liturgy. It stems from Christ and the Apostles, for it was Christ who inspired St. Basil to compose his Liturgy, which Basil himself served in the sanctuary immediately thereafter. It was probably Leo again who had the eminent Greek hierarchs gathered around St. Basil and St. John Chrysostom painted in the apse, along with several scenes from the Old Testament prefiguring the Incarnation and the New Testament service. There is no doubt that Archbishop Leo is to be further accredited with the representations of the great number of holy bishops and with their order. They served to assert the primacy of the Patriarchate of Constantinople which constituted the center of all the local Orthodox churches. This ideal image of Christian ecumenism also included the Western Church, which was represented by the images of Roman Popes honored by the Byzantine world. Furthermore, Leo accounted for the origin of his Archbishopric by the portraits of the popes Innocent and Vigilius who recognized the autocephaly of the Vicariate of Thessaloniki and Justiniana Prima, Church organisations preceding first the Bulgarian, and then the Archbishopric of Ohrid. The Bulgarian Church — the second component which led to the creation of the autocephaly of the Archbishopric of Ohrid — was presented in the Ohrid fresco-painting by the images of SS. Cyril and Clement, whereas the constitution of the Archbishopric of Ohrid was represented by the portrait of Patriarch Eusthatius (1019–1025), during whose time the Archbishopric was established. Taking all of this into account, one should regard Archbishop Leo as the real creator of the fresco programme in St. Sophia in Ohrid: he authorized it, but also propagated certain themes which he found particularly important. Those were associated with liturgy, the issue of communion bread, the relationship between the Patriarchate of Constantinople and Rome, as well as with the autocephaly of the Archbishopric of Ohrid. The frescoes are permeated with references to the events at the time of the Great Schism, in which Archbishop Leo played one of the most important roles. Today, without the historical context it would be hard to understand the frescoes in Ohrid and their iconography. Therefore, the frescoes should be dated between the years 1052, the start of the polemic with Rome and 1056, the passing of Archbishop Leo. In his cathedral church, he not only created a first-rate work of art, but also an artwork which marks the threshold of a new era in Byzantine art after 1054.
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Images of St. Kliment of Ohrid seem to have already appeared in the monumental art of medieval Serbia from the first decade of the 14th century. There are more of them than it was thought earlier and they were represented in the churches of the old lands of Rascia as well as in Macedonia. Probably the earliest presentation of St. Kliment of Ohrid in Serbian wall-painting is preserved in the altar of the Church of the Ascension in Žiča. The wall-painting in that part of the church in Žiča, which is marked by certain archaic features of style, should be dated to the time of the Archbishop Jevstatije II, or more precisely, a little before 1309. St. Kliment of Ohrid was also depicted in some of King Milutin's endowments, which were decorated with frescoes by the zographs from his “royal workshop”. It is highly probable that the portrait of the said saint was represented in the programs of our Lady of Ljeviša in Prizren (1309–1313), the King's Church in Studenica, in Gračanica (around 1320) and in Hilandar (1320–1321). In all those churches, presentations were painted of the saintly bishop bearing the name Kliment, with the facial features of the patron of Ohrid. The presentation of St. Kliment in Staro Nagoričane (1316) was painted next to the presentations of St. Constantine Kabasilas and the Serbian archbishop Sava, within the framework of the composition with Officiating bishops. This presentation of Kliment, like those in Žiča, is inscribed with the definition “of Ohrid”. It is much less certain that the holy patron of Ohrid was represented in St. Nicholas ton Orphanon in Thessaloniki. The topographical definition “of Ohrid” also accompanies the images of St. Kliment in some churches of the Serbian donors from the period of the king and emperor Dušan, such as the Bela Crkva (White Church) of Karan (1332–1337), the Virgin Hodegitria in Pe} (until 1337), and Mateič (around 1350). A little later in Psača, the Markov Manastir near Skoplje and Andreaš (St. Andrew's church) on the River Treska, St. Kliment was painted without a topographical definition in the inscription but with all the essential physiognomical features of the patron of Ohrid. It is likely that St. Kliment of Ohrid was also depicted in the Church of St. George in Rečane near Prizren (around 1370), as well as in some other Serbian churches dating from the 14th century. Where 15th century Serbian painting is concerned, it was possible to reliably identify his portrait only in the recently destroyed church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin in Dolac near Klina (Metohija), dated to around 1450, and in Poganovo (1499).
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The Sticherarion No. 53 from the National Museum in Ohrid is one of a few notated neumed monuments that belong to the Paleobyzantine period of musical literacy. It is dated at the end of the 11th — beginning of the 12th century, completely written in Greek. Originally, it was not exclusively intended for chanters. The neumes were added later, above the stichera automela. Concerning the notation type, Ohrid No. 53 belongs to the Coislin codex group. The most frequent neume signs suggest developed Coislin symiography. The analogy with the manuscripts dated later is also striking. Namely, there are apparent similarities between Ohrid No. 53 and Vindobonensis theol. gr. 136, which was written during the first half of the 12th century. The elements of so-called Round or Middle Byzantine notation are characteristic for both of the codices. Some of the great — or hyaeronomic signs are also present in the Sticherarion No. 53. The Ohrid neumed collection deserves its place among the family of codices from the second half of the 11th and first decades of the 12th century also for its liturgical text structure. Of special interest are those services indicating the possible Constantinopolitan origin of the collection. By indicating the typical paleographic features of Ohrid No. 53, its approximate position in the written musical tradition of Byzantium is determined.
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Within the process of the reorganization of the Byzantine Empire, after the defeat of the Bulgarians in 1014, the Archbishopric of Ohrid, with 33 dioceses, was established in 1025. Christianizing missions on the Balkans, originating from Constantinople, which started in the second half of the 9th century, could be traced through the literary sources, changes in the funeral character and through the remains of church architecture. Also, after the archbishopric was founded, the massive use of items of personal religiosity began. Those items can be divided into encolpia, cross-pendants, small icons, medallions, ampoules and rings. So far, from the territory of the Archbishopric of Ohrid, more than 600 items of personal religiosity have been published. Since the original archbishopric covered the territories of several modern countries, these types of finds were not published. Although their number is not final, it can be said that this is a small amount of items of personal religiosity, used by the relatively numerous Christian population on the broad territory during the two centuries. The items of personal religiosity, which had an apothropaic use, represented also a sign of belonging to a new social group. According to the available data, the most numerous are finds of encolpia and cross-pendants, certain types of which are characteristic just for some parts of the Archbishopric of Ohrid, while the other groups of items of personal religiosity are much less represented. Most of the finds with a certain archaeological background were discovered in the rural cemeteries, where inhumation according to the Christian funeral ritual was practiced. In most of the cases those finds were sporadic, with the exclusion of the necropolis near the Church of St. Panteleimon in Niš, where a large amount of finds was found. The quantitative analysis of the items of personal religiosity indicates that, most probably, for the use of those finds, the level of the urbanization of a certain town and religious centre, such as Ohrid, Prilep, Niš, Braničevo and Durostorum, had great importance. The Archbishopric of Ohrid played a significant role in the process of the Christianization of the Balkans, since during the first two centuries of its existance the new religion was firmly established. The completely Christian funerary practice, the development of the church architecture and the use of the items of personal religiosity testify to this. However, relicts of pagan customs were also registered. Those were explained mainly as the consequence of the low level of the Christianization, although it could also be explained by the necessity of the people to reach out for all the available assistance of “higher forces” during hard times.
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The analysis of sources Constantine Porphyrogenitus used for his text De Administrando Imperio has shown, on the example of chapters 43–46, and 50, that the emperor used first-rate documents: orders to Byzantine district commanders and officials, and their reports from the field, instructions to diplomatic missions in foreign countries, diplomatic letters sent to the rulers of foreign nations and their replies, the payroll of imperial officials, last wills, chrysobulls, orders on promotions to the high ranks of patrician, proconsul, protospatarios and various reports of the “ministries” for foreign affairs and for finance. The abundance of archive material which the emperor used and the consistent methodology which he implemented throughout the writing, lead to the conclusion that he could not have deviated much from this methodology even in chapter 32, dedicated to the Serbs. And while the first part of the presentation about the Serbs was written on the basis of a source that covered the history of the Serbs from the time of their settlement in Dalmatia to around 856 AD, for the period from 890 to 933 AD, Constantine Porphyrogenitus used the same type of sources he used for chapters 43–46, and 50 — primarily diplomatic letters exchanged between the emperors in Constantinople and the Serbian archontes. The relative chronology that appears in chapter 32 was most probably established on the basis of an indiction which these letters were dated by — because diplomatic letters in Byzantium were dated solely by indictions until the 13th century, without absolute chronology. This excludes the possibility that, for this part of the presentation about the Serbs, Constantine Porphyrogenitus used the so-called Chronicle of Serbian Rulers, as it has been believed in historiography so far.
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Michael Psellos’ Chronographia is renowned as one of the masterpieces of Byzantine historiography and literature in general, but it is only in the last few decades that his subjectivity is not condemned by modern historians. Nowadays it is regarded as valuable for revealing the author’s attitudes and objectives in writing the history, especially if one considers that from the eleventh century onwards historians tend to figure in their works, starting with Psellos himself. He is, with Anna Comnene, the most prominent author in this regard, and his autobiographical “insertions” are so numerous and scattered through the text at many levels, that it can be said that he himself is the central character of his historical work. Psellos’ descriptions of characters are exceptional, and no other Byzantine historian can compare with him in this regard. Since he considered that emperors were key figures in creating history and major political changes, the Byzantine eleventh-century rulers were, at least on the surface, central figures in his historical work as well. Therefore, this paper deals specifically with their descriptions as presented by Psellos via their physical appearance and specifically one aspect of their illnesses. The descriptions of the emperors’ illnesses in the Chronographia are the means of characterizing them in a more candid and subtle manner, namely showing whether or not they were worthy of the imperial position they occupied. Therefore, we do not find any in the portraits of idealized emperors — Basil II, Constantine and Michael Doukas — nor in those of the emperors who were disqualified in other ways — Romanos Diogenes, Michael V, and Michael VI. In the strongly negative portraits of Constantine VIII, Romanos Argyros and Constantine Monomachos, the descriptions of illnesses are very detailed and brutal, and their physical appearance is otherwise disregarded (or, as in the case of Monomachos, his malady is placed in stark contrast to his beauty at the very beginning of his reign), thus showing their unworthiness of the throne. Not even the emperors whom Psellos observed as mainly positive — Michael Paphlagon and Isaac Komnenos — are spared these descriptions, which are carefully and intentionally placed so that they are connected with their misdeeds and thus indicate the punishment for their behavior. The true meaning of the emperors’ illnesses in the Chronographia is further revealed with the metaphor of the illness of the Empire, which is placed near the end of the first part of the history. Psellos here presents the decline of Byzantium in the period he deals with in the Chronographia by using medical terminology and indicating that the emperors after the death of Basil II led “the body of the state” (to swma thj politeiaj) into a state of utter decline and sickness, although Isaac Comnenus tried to cure it, but he used the wrong measures that were too abrupt. In this way, Psellos gives us guidance on how to read his long passages on the maladies of the emperors.
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The paper deals with the autobiographical impulse in the Alexiad of Anna Comnene. We tried to analyze certain passages in order to show in which way Anna’s personal views influenced her description and presentation of certain personages. We will show how her elaborate portrayal is not a mere rhetorical exercise, but is intended by the author as both praise and a critique of the people who influenced her life, and encouraged or suppressed her ambitions. Apart from a physical description, which she used for the evaluation of moral character, and personal judgment, the important thing is the role she ascribed to certain personages. The most beautifully depicted and praised characters were, quite intentionally, the key figures in her struggle to defend her imperial right, of which she was deprived after the birth of John Comnenus. We also analyzed two extensive passages that openly show Anna’s never surpassed imperial ambition and malice toward her younger brother John. Those are narratives about her birth, followed by the birth of Princess Maria and Prince John, and about Alexios’ final days. In both stories, Ana Comnene depicts herself as the central figure of family love, emphasizing the emotional connection she established with her parents, especially Alexios, while still in her mother’s womb. At her father’s deathbed she represents herself as the child most committed to her dying father, without forgetting to give us a sarcastic hint about the emperor’s successor who had left the palace, in order to seize the throne. We have also discussed her silence about certain events, or personages, stressing in the first place, that she rarely mentions her brother John, and even when she does, she often juxtaposes him with the overwhelmingly praised Constantine Doukas, or Nicephoros Bryennios. We found some stylistic features that show in how many different ways theauthor appeared in her own text. We have considered just the possessive pronoun “emos” which she used extensively mentioning her father, mother, husband, and her beloved siblings (i.e. Maria and Andronicus). By using this pronoun, she put herself into the story, where she appears almost always, constantly stressing her connection with the protagonists, and especially the hero, which she mentions as “emos pater” in all cases, 92 times. In the end, we are still left with many more questions than answers. It is certain that Ana’s presence in her own story has to be examined much more deeply, and that quite often, passages and notes that appear in the first place as non-autobiographical reveal a great deal about her and slightly change the perception of the final aims of her work. Therefore, we openly ask what the aim was of such an endeavor as the Alexiad? Was it aimed to be a heroization of Alexios and the construction of an ideal ruler in a new imperial ideology, or was it the self-praise of his first-born child, that even in the days of the third Comnenian ruler refused to admit the ultimate downfall of all her ambitions?
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In 1149, the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos had left Pelagonia, heading the campaign against the Grand Prince Uroš II, who had been attacking the Byzantine territories. The aim of the campaign was the town of Ras, soon conquered by the Emperor; afterwards, he devastated the region of Nikava, from where he headed to the Ibar valley; there he besieged and captured the town of Galič. The region of Nikava was encompassing the territory between the today’s region of Rožaje and Štavice. That is the territory through which led the roads between Ras and the region of Polimlje, between Shkoder and Ras, between Ras and Metohia, as well as the road to Pešter and the Ibar valley. Since the antique times, this region was well guarded; the remnants of more than 25 fortresses dated 4th to 6th century had been preserved. The region of Rožaje and Štavice is identical to Kinnamos`s description, and its position is in concordance with the military logic of the campaign. Also, the name of the river Makva, situated near the source of the Ibar River, indicates etymologically to Nikava.
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The book presents the results of studies on the history of women in Poland as well as in other countries and regions of the world. The authors analyse the relations of women and power from antiquity to the end of the 20th century – from court rivalry in the times of Artaxerxes II, through images of female rulers from the Piast and Jagiellonian dynasties, to women’s history in the 19th and 20th century.
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The book examines the problem of death, burials and commemoration of male and female rulers (not only Polish ones) since the late Middle Ages until the beginnings of the 20th century. The articles concern, on the one hand, the private sphere of monarchs’ lives, their religiousness and attitude to death and, on the other, the organisational, political and symbolic aspects of their deaths and funerals.
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The book includes texts devoted to medieval and modern loca scribendi - places and environments that played an important role in the creation and development of the culture of writing in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from the 15th to the 18th century. The authors analyze the origins, definitions, circumstances, limitations and effects of the development of the culture of writing through the prism of specific issues, which include: beginnings, organization and products of court, city and church offices: the beginnings of the Krakow city office, functioning of the court office, church and city offices in Old and New Warsaw, activities of a small-town municipal office on the example of Radziejów, organization of a municipal office in Gdańsk in terms of accounting and tax; correspondence of monarchs: correspondence between Elżbieta Habsburżanka and Zygmunt August as a manifestation of the functioning of the court locus scribendi; activities of consistory, as well as notaries and writers employed by them: writing activity of the general consistory in Poznań, the work of notaries and writers in the vicinity of the bishop of Poznań, Andrzej Bniński; preparing documents in parish Protestant churches in the Polish Republic and the German Reich.
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The book is devoted to the culture of memory of the political elites of Kraków in the middle ages and early modern times (until the end of 18th century). The author concentrates on the workings of the city’s “vehicles of memory”: political practices aimed at the making, shaping and institutionalizing of the official memory of the city, whose chief medium were copies of privileges guarded in the city hall. This sui generis politics of memory on the part of Kraków authorities served above all to legitimize the autonomy of the city’s legal and political system. The centre coordinating the work of Kraków’s “vehicles of memory” was the chancellery run by the city council.
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The book presents the history of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation in the Middle Ages.
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