We kindly inform you that, as long as the subject affiliation of our 300.000+ articles is in progress, you might get unsufficient or no results on your third level or second level search. In this case, please broaden your search criteria.
Although English law tried to restrict infants’ ability to prosecute, they played a significant role in the private prosecution (appeals) of crime. According to common law, an infant is a person under the age of twenty-one years, which is termed his full age. This article analyzes the model of proceedings in private prosecutions brought by infant appellants between the 13th and 18th centuries.
More...
John Donne’s Devotions upon Emergent Occasions is a very difficult work to translate because it is abundant in alchemical terms and imagery the contemporary reader may hardly understand as alchemy is long a dead language code. Unfortunately, that imagery often refers to a specific theological background and it should be elucidated either by means of clever translation or by virtue of footnotes or commentary. Otherwise, grasping the proper meaning of the entire Donne’s work may be impossible. Russian translation of Donne’s Devotions by Anton Nesterov is perhaps the best existing attempt to render the original text with all its intricacy into language other than English. However, there are some treacherous and fascinating passages in Devotions upon Emergent Occasions Niestierow mistranslated because he did not fully understand the alchemical background they refer to.
More...
In this study the author examines the development and the impact of the strong sexual repression which settled in the heart of the Western Civilization around the middle of the XVI century and which really loosened only starting from the 1960’s. Within the founding tension between the libido of the person and the collective ideals, this process constantly developed during this long period, creating a strong effort of sublimation, under the different successive cultural expressions in relation to the religion, Enlightenment, medicine of the XIX century and the capitalist market. From 1960 to our days, a new approach to the Western sexuality has been developed, testifying about the profound cultural and societal movements.
More...
The present paper deals with the ways in which Jewish communities in the Ottoman Empire handled cases of extramarital relations (fornication) among Jewish men (married or unmarried) and unmarried women. The present study covers a wide range of Jewish legal sources from the beginning of the 16th century to the last decade of the 19th century. As we have seen, the occurrence of sexual relations out of wedlock for married men, or unmarried men and unmarried women, was an extant feature of Jewish society; it was almost certainly much more widespread than adultery. Particularly common were relations between the betrothed, usually leading to marriage. Similarly, cases were common of unmarried women, often maidservants in Jewish homes, who had sexual liaisons with different men. Most of the surviving sources deal with women’s pregnancy and their demands that the men marry them, or at least acknowledge their paternity and pay child support for the babies. Jewish society stood guard over its sexual morality, deliberating about cases of extramarital pregnancy within the confines of the local legal court. The communities’ supervision of sexual morality led to the enactment of new decrees in some places and in rare cases, the offenders involved would be punished by lashes. We learn that Jewish society attempted to conceal sexual offenses from the eyes of the Muslim rulers.
More...
The Western and Central European travelers visiting the Balkan Peninsula from the 16th until the 19th century provide very important sources for the history of time in the region. Their time-sensitive and “outsider” position enables them to offer valuable information pertaining to time-keeping practices in the region, the “spread” of clock towers and the diffusion of watches, or the pace and geography of the use of the European timekeeping system. However, alongside their informative function, the writings of the European travelers contribute crucially to the construction of the region’s temporal “otherness” vis-à-vis “civilized” Europe. They create and convey to their ever expanding reader public a multitude of visual and acoustic representations which underpin and re-enact “the non-simultaneity” of the region and its culture. The purpose of the paper is to highlight, through the use of several examples drawn out from a large body of data, the main time related topics present in Western travelogues about the Balkans and inquire into the discursive processes and mechanisms employed in the construction of the region’s temporal “otherness”.
More...
On the basis of one voynuk register from 1529, as well as of three lists of timars and waqfs from 1516, 1530 and 1570, new data about the voynuk and rayah population of eleven settlements situated south of today’s town of Pazardzhik at the foot of the Western Rhodopes, is presented in the article. Most of these voynuk villages were within the borders of the Chepino nahiya, which in different times was part of the Samokov or Tatar Pazardzhik kazas. The data from the voynuk register of 1529 and from one waqf list from 1570 gives reasons to disprove the legendary knowledge about the presence of a big group of voynuks in the Chepino region, who according to the published by Stefan Zahariev “chronicle story” of Priest Metodi Draginov, became the main reason for the allegedly violent imposing of Islam among the local population. There was the opinion that this part of the “chronicle story” is fictional interpretation by Stefan Zahariev himself. The obvious contradiction between the historical reality and the “chronicle” of Metodi Draginov consists of the fact that in the first half of ХVІ century no big group of voynuks, except for three voynuk families from the village of Rakitovo, lived in the villages in the Chepino region. In ХVІІ century, when according to the “chronicle note”, the dramatic events of islamization of the voynuks from the Chepino region allegedly happened, this population category had long before disappeared from the historic scenery of this region of Bulgaria, as around 1570 the last voynuks from Rakitovo were recorded as ordinary rayah from the waqf of Sultan Suleiman I Kanuni.
More...
The study examines the organizational structure of the falconers’ institution in the Ottoman Empire, the numerical composition and geographic distribution of the falconers in the Central Balkans in the 15th and 16th centuries. Firstly, the article presents the hierarchical structure of the upper and middle command line in the main subdivisions of the metropolitan Palace Falconry Centre - the internal service (enderun) and the external service (birun), as well as the three falconer groups from the external falconry centre - şahinciyan, cakırcıan, atmacacıyan. These three groups differ in the fact that each of them is responsible for catching, raising and training various falcons and hawks for the hunting needs of the Sultan and his environs acting as the ruling class in the Empire. Based on published and unpublished Ottoman documents, mainly two unpublished 1560 registers of the falconers of the shahinciyan and cakırcıyan categories, the originals of which being kept in Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivi in Istanbul; data are presented on the numerical composition and geographic distribution of the falconers in the Central Balkans. They are named in the Ottoman documents with the generalized terms doğancıyan and bazdaran. The geographic scope of the study includes Northwestern Thrace (the Philibe/Plovdiv and Pazardzhik kazas, as well as the Chepino nahiye) and the sanjaks Sofia, Nikopol and Silistra (Sofia, Pirotsko, Berkovsko, all Central northern and north-eastern Bulgaria). Greater attention is paid to those falconers who, for their service, are exempt only from some taxes and are in possession of official Falconry patrimonies and farmhouses. These provincial falconers are also divided into the three main falconer groups (shahinciyan, cakırcıyan and atmacacıyan). But, furthermore, according to the nature of their service they are called uvacıyan and kayacıyan when they observe the nests of the raptors and take the small falcons from them at certain times of the year; Tuzakcıyan, who catch adult birds of prey with traps; Gorenciyan, raising and training already captured falcons and hawks and goturucuan who supplied the birds to the metropolitan Falconry centre. Most gorenciyan and goturucuyan, however, were Muslims, the owners of Timars, while the Christian falconers, owners of official patrimonies, with some exceptions, usually served as uvacıyan and kayacıyan. By1560, not only the titular owners of falconry patrimonies, but most of their sons and brothers, as well as some newly registered falconers, usually haimanes – people with an undetermined place of residence, also perform falconry service, but only for exemption from state extraordinary taxes. Only a relatively small group of youngest unmarried sons and brothers of falconers, or once again haimanes with undetermined place of residence (95 Christians and 97 Muslims) are not recorded as falconers, but play the role of a sort of reserve in the Falconry institution. The Ottoman registers used show that in 1560 only in the Nikopol and Silistra sanjaks and in the Philibe and Pazardzhik kazas there are over 200 Christian and Muslim settlements in which there are 963 falconers, sons and brothers of falconers from the groups of shahinciyan and cakırcıyan. In the Sofia, Shekhirkoy (Pirot) and Berkovitsa kazas of the Sofia Sanjak in the middle of the 16th century there are 9 Muslims and 89 Christians performing Falconer Service. The total number of those serving in the two major falconer groups (şahinciyan and cakırcıyan) in the Central and Northeastern Balkans in the 1540s and 1560s amounts to 1 767 people (along with the falconers from the Vidin Sanjak). Of these, 1,310 are Christians (74%) and 457 are Muslims (26%). This probably reflects the most significant rise of the number of falconers in Rumelia during the so-called “classical period” of the Ottoman Empire when hunting with raptors was most popular in the Ottoman court.
More...
Herodotus can be counted among the most important ancient historians. Indeed, his Histories represent the main source for the Graeco–Persian wars. However, the reception of his work has undergone many changes since the time it was written. The following study deals with Herodotus’ reception in the time of the Renaissance. The author tries to answer and explain two basic questions that are narrowly connected with his name. The first problem relates to his veracity. The study addresses the question of how he was accepted by humanists — was he considered a faithful historian or a less trustworthy storyteller? The second problem relates to him as a pagan author being accepted by Christians. The author focuses on the mechanism which enabled this unusual combination.
More...
This article examines the collection of Slavic Cyrillic manuscripts XIII-XVIII centuries which are kept at St. Panteleimon Monastery on Mount Athos. The characteristics of common and distinctive features manuscripts are distinguished by their national differences. The collection is divided into three types of membership books. Research results revealed chronological, geographical and genre differences manuscripts which finally confirmed their belonging to certain national traditions and the role of the collection – the treasury of Slavic national culture.Addressing the problems of Ukrainian Greek bonds XVII-XVIII centuries and overlapping themes, features of the spiritual culture of Ukraine and Greece of said period, manuscript heritage of both countries certainly attract great attention. The present research is Slavonic (Cyrillic) manuscripts Saint Panteleimon Monastery St. Mount Athos. The first information about the availability of Slavic Cyrillic manuscripts on Athos reaches 1142 years. Athos is closed to outside view and interventions territory. That’s why exactly in the monasteries of St. Mount manuscript treasures should be looked for. Perhaps it’s is unique in its content, as well as the Greek and Slavic origin. A Panteleimon Monastery is considered to be "rus" monastery. His second name is Rusyk. Therefore Slavonic (Cyrillic) Manuscripts should be looked for exactly here.The survey showed that 44 of the 10 reviewed manuscripts belong to the sacred-church books, 13-to church and prayer books, 21-to other books. At the same time this manuscript is distributed by chronology and geography in a very interesting way. According to the chronology of the whole entire collection spans the period from the XIII to the XVIII century.The sacred- religious manuscripts date from XIII to XVII., Liturgical church – from XIY to XVII., and other books– from the end of XV to the end of XVIII century. As already mentioned above, a collection has 75 codes which chronologically apply until XIX century. However, for this research the deadline is XVIII century. So, the gradation is clearly visible in kind of "aging" of sacred- church manuscripts after XVII century. In this collection manuscripts have not been updated. Situation is slightly better with the church and liturgical manuscripts. But at the same time, in the XVIII and XIX centuries they weren’t updated. Other books on the contrary appear in collection much later than the other (2 centuries), but at the same time have a privilege over the other and only retreat in the XIII century. This can be explained by the fact that other books on various topics, besides worship, began to appear on Mount Athos from the time when there was a relaxation of the strict statutory orders. Lack of updated books of the first two groups , is explained that the old monasteries had enough of old codes, or there was no need to update the Slavic manuscripts for liturgical practice. Because worship were done in Greek with Greek books, with the Greek ordinance.Yet it remains unclear why, since the XVIII century. Changed dramatically genre filled collection? Really, at least in the form of gifts or brought books, clergymen and church liturgical Church Slavonic (Cyrillic) literature did not get to the monastery? The impression is that the practical liturgical Slavic literature or intentionally destroyed (sold, granted), or stored in other collections. No less interesting is the geography of Slavic manuscripts in this collection. Referring to the table. Only 44 of the manuscript. With 10 sacred – Church books – only one has and one Bulgarian – Macedonian ( Skopje) origin. Nine manuscripts – Serbian. With 13 codes church – religious literature – eleven manuscripts have rural origins – one – Bulgarian , and most interestingly – one Ukrainian origin. And the Ukrainian book belong to Typicon VII. – liturgical charter church. It turns out that was not indifferent to the monks of St. Panteleimon Monastery in Slavonic liturgical practice . And the reason for the disappearance of religious literature of the late time of collection must be sought in other situations.Geography of other books is more diverse than theological literature. With 21 manuscripts represented in the collection of 6 -. Serbian, and it again early manuscripts chronologically completed in XV, Bulgaria is traditionally presented by one manuscript.Among other books are collections of two manuscripts, representing Ukrainian tradition. This collection of XVIII century, which included the works of the Holy Fathers and the Church Chronicle Exclusionary Dmitry of Rostov (Tuptalo) 1706.In addition to these two distinct Ukrainian manuscripts in the collection contains 6 more manuscripts, may belong to either Ukrainian or Belarusian or Russian tradition. These books were written in the modern form of the Church Slavonic letters, adapted (Russified) letters of XVIII century. In addition to these 6 manuscripts in the collection are five manuscripts written in Russian.Hence and by geographical and chronological description of the collection is clearly divided into two parts: Until the XVII century. It’s mainly Serbian manuscript. Since the XVII century. They are codes in Ukrainian-Belarusian-Russian traditions. Bulgarian tradition in all three types of books presented in a single code for each type.Now, as a genre filled collection. Among the sacred religious books-no Psalter, although no church cannot do without this book in practice. A Church of theological literature there are no systematization. There were presented rare examples of a particular literature, and no complex liturgical books. This suggests that the Slavic manuscripts in this collection do not provide for the liturgical practice, and saved as monuments, exponents of certain cultural traditions, language, church philosophy, art Slavic countries: Serbia, modern Macedonia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and possibly Cyrillic Romania. Clear evidence of this hypothesis is the Bulgarian tradition, as mentioned above, is represented by one code for each of the three books.For Ukrainian culture opening a salient three Ukrainian manuscripts: Typicon XVII., Collection of the XVIII century. And Chronicle Exclusionary Dmitry of Rostov (Tuptalo) 1706 Presence in the collection of these three books for the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage is a godsend, and confirming the presence of Ukrainian books, and hence the tradition of Mount Athos in Greece.
More...
The status of the patriarch of Constantinople during the Ottoman era has been widely and passionately discussed over many decades. Without being as intensely probed, the institution of the ecumenical patriarchate deserves an equal attention since recently published historical sources may help us to better understand its norms and practices. Such sources were left behind by the visit in the Romanian lands of patriarch Jeremy II Tranos on his way to Moscow. These texts shed new light on his pastoral strategy with respect to the Christians he considered of his fold and on political attitude towards the Romanian princes at the end of the 16th century. Alongside well known sources, the paper brings into discussion five original grammata signed by patriarch Jeremy II, of which three are available in later copies. The acts regard the collection of subsidies for the churches in the Balkans and the welfare of the monasteries Sozopolis and Chalki, to which the princes of Moldavia dedicated the monastery St Nicholas of Jassy.
More...
In this article we aim to explain the historical and cultural conditions in which were developed in Lower Albania, the language, education and even the Albanian national idea. These developments in this area encountered supplementary difficulties even compared with other Albanian territories. The presence of a strong Catholic community in the north attracted the attention and protection of the Papacy and the Catholic powers of Europe, which was reflected in the establishment since the Middle Ages, of a cultural inspiration of national character. Rather, in the south of the country simply dominated the concept of the Sublime Porte, that was also adopted from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople itself and even from the European political and cultural circles, that considered that the Muslims were Turks, and the Orthodox were Greeks. Such a bias conditioned the policies and approaches of the Sublime Porte and of the European circuits, creating difficult conditions for the Albanian national idea. Consequently, in southern Albania, the Greek language continued in the post-Byzantine period to be the language used in cultural and diplomatic circles. It was used for communicational purposes not only by the Orthodox clerical circles, but also by secular circles. Sometimes even some Ottoman dignitaries used to communicate in Greek in their correspondence with Western chancelleries. In many cases, the use of the Greek language in these correspondences was determined by the fact that the profession of the writer and of the emissaries was an attribute of the clergy, for whom the Greek language was the language of faith but also a language of culture. The second reason lay in the broad privileges given to the Patriarchate of Constantinople after 1453 from the Ottoman sultans in the areas of civil administration and education. In this way, with the support of the Sultan, the Constantinopolitan Patriarchy and its network of clerics intended to guide the Orthodox populations on the road of Hellenization. Such a trend was reinforced when to the Patriarchy was granted the right to open Greek schools among Albanian Orthodox populations, and when after 1821, to the Hellenization action of the Constantinopolitan Patriarchy and of the Greek clergy in Albania, was added the organized action of the Greek state. Eighteenth and nineteenth century chronicles are full of examples of this combined action of the church and the Greek state to eradicate the language, culture and national idea among the southern Orthodox Albanians. Despite these unfavorable circumstances, even in the Lower Albania there were efforts for the development of the Albanian language and culture. A famous example is that of schools and publications in Albanian promoted by the Basilian missionaries in the region of Himara, during the 17th and 18th centuries. Also, the efforts to draft Albanian original alphabets, different from the Greek, Slavic and Latin alphabets, testify the development of a national consciousness by the most progressive layers of the Albanian society. It is not without significance, too, that during the 16th-18th centuries, individuals or entire Albanian communities of different cultural and religious backgrounds, considered as an important reference of their identity, well-known figures in the history of Albania, starting from Pyrrhus of Epirus, Alexander the Great of Macedonia and especially Georg Kastriot Scanderbeg
More...
The aim of this article is to elaborate on the family environment of Cracovian Norbetines from Zwierzyniec. An obituary from 1719, which was found in convent, has been analysed. An essential question that has been an inspiration for the consideration taken in this article is the issue of the nuns' social background. Studies of the obituary from Zwierzyniec have shown, that candidates were recruited from noble families and their fathers held high offices, distinguishing themsvelves by their foundational and charitable activity in favour of ecclesial organisations. The analysis also shows that despite the obituary's concise form, it is a substantial source in the study of composition of nuns' family circles.
More...
The proposed catalog of European coins of 15th — turn of 18th—19th centuries, found in the Central Caucasus, is the first step in creating a complete set of the relevant finds from the whole territory of the Northern Caucasus. It is important to study political and economic relations between indigenous peoples with traders and travelers from different European countries, as well as involvement of Ciscaucasian population in the national Russian market in the 18th — early 19th century. Study of Western and Eastern European coins (German, Polish, Riga and others) found in the central part of Northern Caucasus minted by different rulers of European states and cities helps us significantly enrich our knowledge of evolution of international political and economic relations in the Northern Caucasus in the Middle Ages and Modern Time. The finds of coins minted in the region, in the cities of Tsardom of Muscovy, and later in the Russian Empire, allows us tracing the process of rapprochement of the Ciscaucasian peoples with the Russian lands and their subsequent integration with Russia.
More...
The centre of this study is the topic of the melting in the Ottoman “cauldron” of those captive aliens who, after their enslavement, filled the ranks of the so-called domestic slaves. In the development of this issue, a more special approach was chosen, with emphasis not on the role of the Ottoman state as a regulator of integration-assimilation processes, but on the slave integration “from below”. The aim is to reveal those specific relationships and interactions between the two sides of the “master-slave” dyad which contributed most to the effective incorporation of the enslaved in the Ottoman society. Regarding the territories included, the study covers the Central Balkan region. It is based on diverse sources, including unpublished Ottoman documents from the Sijiles of the cities of Sofia, Russe and Vidin from the middle of the 16th to the beginning of the 18th century. In the course of her work, the author analyses, in a Central Balkan context, some well-known mechanisms for slave integration (such as Islamization, for example) and a number of others that have been either undeservedly underestimated or completely neglected in specialized studies such as: labour and linguistic integration, marriage, assimilation of the Ottoman style and way of living, creation of a network of contacts in the host society, etc. The socialization of slaves is outlined as a process not only gradual but also lengthy. Starting in the first days of the slave’s stay in Ottoman territory, this process continued to evolve with varying degrees of intensity, defined by a number of factors, including the formal legal status of each individual slave (e.g. mazun, mucatib, mudebber, „ordinary” slave, etc.) The process of socialization was far from ending neither with the Islamization of the slave nor with their emancipation. The article emphasizes the active participation of the slave-owner and his family in all stages of the slave socialization, especially in the post-emancipatory phase when, under Islamic law, the relationship between a former slave and a former master grew into a patron-client relationship. The practical dimensions of these patron-client relationships are revealed through several “case studies”, made on the basis of hereditary inventories of six freed women slaves, died in Sofia in the 1670s.
More...
The article deals with the history of the term gosty ('guest') during the whole period of its existence (the 9th—17th centuries). Basing on the information analyzed, the author affirms that contrary to the prevailing historiographical tradition, the term did not change its meaning throughout the considered time period.As early as in the 9th—10th centuries “guests” were business representatives and trade and fiscal agents of the government and high-ranking individuals, as was reflected in the application of the Byzantine term “πραγματευτής” to the term “guest” (Constantini Porphyrogeniti imperatoris. De Ceremoniis aulae Byzantinae).The choice of the sixteenth century as the turning point when the “guests” ceased to be mostly merchants and became fiscal agents of the government seems erroneous. The mistake should be most probably associated with an incorrect translation of sources, when the perception of the synonymous usage of the words “guest” and “merchant” had led to the distorted meaning of the text.
More...
Until the beginning of the 16th century the viniculture of the Small Carpathian region recorded an increasing tendency and an all-round development in various aspects. In this period of a relatively calm development of viniculture and wine market, new institutions and legal rules came to existence, which fundamentally influenced the expansion of viniculture in the following centuries. In the submitted work we attempt to clarify the organization and administration of viniculture in the town of Saint George in the middle of the 17th century when the viniculture and wine market of the town was at its peak. The basic principles of the organization and administration of viniculture in the town of Saint George have been recorded in the vineyard regulation. The oldest preserved vineyard regulation of Saint George dates back to 1650. We attempted to clarify its origin, purpose and point out the content of particular paragraphs which we consider as the legal rules of the so-called vineyard law. The vineyard law was institutionally represented by the Saint George´s vineyard bureau. It was a council with certain characteristics of autonomy. However, according to our findings, there has never developed a completely independent council in Saint George. The development of organization and administration of viniculture in the town of Saint George was naturally connected with the expansion of the town´s city council which we will also briefly mention to help understand the issue better. The normative community in the town of Saint George were the townsmen or more precisely the city council governed by a portreeve and an alderman. The townsmen tried to protect their vineyards, to ensure the highest possible economic yield and moreover to legalize organizational, administrative, economical, but also neighbourhood and social relations related to viniculture and vineyards in their town and vineyard community.
More...
Following the fall of the Byzantine Empire (1453) and the Empire of the Trebizond (1461) the fragmented Georgia made a desperate attempt at participating in European countries’ various efforts aimed at coalitions (political and military alike) against the Islamic Turkey posing a threat to the Christian world. In the 17th century, the captive Bagrationi dynasty managed to build up lasting trade relations with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and intense cultural and religious contacts with the Papacy. The dynamically changing geopolitical system in the Caucasus region ultimately predestined the Russian Empire to become Georgia’s natural ally in the subsequent century as no other country could offer tangible military assistance to Georgia.
More...
The large-scale archaeological excavations of the past years yielded a rapid increase of archaeological finds and observations. This large amount of new evidence enabled the observation of wider environmental archaeological relationships. In the study we reconstruct certain environmental and settlement pattern changes from the 13th to the 18th centuries based on archaeological data from the southern shore of Lake Balaton and the cities of the Danube Bend region. The settlements on the shore of Lake Balaton and along the Danube reacted similarly, but with a temporal lag. Hydroclimatic changes caused a shift in the location and structure of lake- and riverside settlements, which was of a horizontal character in the case of Lake Balaton, and of a vertical character in the case of the Danube Bend region.
More...
