THE WAR IN UKRAINE AND ITS EXPANSION IN THE BALKANS: GLOBAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR DIPLOMATIC SOLUTIONS

Author(s): Jeton Halimi,Rajmonda KURSHUMLIU / Language(s): English Issue: 21-22/2024

This paper aims to document the actuality of the war between Ukraine and Russia, as well as its global impact. The current event of war/conflict with immediate effect in our region and more widely imposes the evidence of the economic circumstances as well as efforts for solutions! The war in Ukraine is causing a major humanitarian crisis. Ukraine's economy is collapsing and undoubtedly the range of economic consequences will affect the globe given the economic complexity. The trauma suffered by the population will have long-term consequences. The above is the overture and this paper, based on the bibliography and references provided, aims to provide an overview of the chronology of the events surrounding the conflict, the history of the conflict, the consequences and impact of the crisis/war, of an economic, developmental nature, the response of international factors, as well as a perspective on the possibilities for a diplomatic solution. The researched topic explains and provides data about the global implications and impacts, reflects on the economic effects, the effects to the food crisis and argues that carefully calibrated policies and diplomatic channels will be decisive in the unforeseen solution. Ominously, due to the pressure of higher prices for food and other essentials, governments may be tempted to implement price control and subsidy policies, but these may prove counterproductive in the global economy. However, the last chapter underlines that what should not be neglected is the possibility of a diplomatic solution and that it should be based on the mutual acceptance of the parties to give hope for long-term peace. We are limited about predictions, where it will end and what the situation will look like in the medium term, though, this should not stop us from the possibility of recording and evidence that will serve as a comparison for the future, and about the situation and global connections, in the world we live today. The world has changed, and it is a fact that crises wherever they are, bring obstacles in communication and connections of a socio-economic nature, in other parts of the globe.

Převorové bez konventu. Duchovní správci johanitského kostela Matky Boží Konec Mostu na Menším Městě pražském v letech 1442-1732

Author(s): Pavel Trnka / Language(s): Czech Issue: 2/2024

At the beginning of the Hussite Wars, the Johanniter Order left Prague for Strakonice.The local commandery was burned down. When the situation in Praguecalmed down, only one priest of the order returned in the first half of the 1440s.He held the prior title and came from the Strakonice convent. The priest oversawthe administration of the parish and the order’s jurisdiction in the Lesser Town ofPrague. Moreover, the first priors had three key tasks: to repair, at least partially,the damaged order’s buildings (Church of Our Lady, Church of St Procopius, andthe convent), restore the desolate houses subjected to extraterritorial law, and regainthe pledged and confiscated property of the Prague convent. Jan (John) of Duband Řehoř (Gregory) of Frýdek were the most prominent priors in the second half ofthe 15th century. But the consolidation efforts were strongly affected by the LesserTown fire in 1503. Furthermore, the stature of the Prague priors decreased at thebeginning of the 16th century. They changed rather frequently and in 1512 lost theright to use pontificals in favour of the Strakonice priors. In the 16th century, thePrague priors focused on increasing the density of the housing development basedon extraterritorial law. They had to defend the order’s rights and privileges as wellwhich was reflected in disputes with the towns of Prague. The present Kampa Islandwas one of the main sticking points. The priors Mikuláš (Nicholas) of Kłodzko, Petr(Peter) of Strakonice, Petr (Peter) of Březnice, and Václav (Wenceslas) Podloubskýof Týnec aka Podvinský of Doubravičany stood out among the 16th and early 17thcentury priors.The period 1618–1648 caused many difficulties for the Prague priory because ofthe war. In addition, the dying out of the Bohemian priory related to the dissolutionof the Strakonice convent brought about changes in the occupation of the Prague prior’soffice. Therefore, the foreigner Pavel Grill of Altdorf, as a commander standingabove his predecessors in the order’s hierarchy, assumed the prior’s position in 1621. Heinitiated the restoration efforts of the Prague priors of the Lesser Town of Prague’s convent.Yet, the year 1631 marked a definitive turnabout when a secular priest was appointedan administrator of the Prague priory. Secular (or diocesan) priests were of nobleorigin and first worked as chaplains at the Church of Our Lady beneath the Chain.After some time, the second administrator Bernard Witte took oaths and became theprior. Accordingly, the order’s Grand Master in Malta granted him the privilege ofwearing a gold cross. This procedure was repeated for his two successors. Witte madehis mark not only by the Baroque reconstruction of the priory church but also by hisincessant disputes with the extraterritorial law inhabitants and later also with grandpriors. It was his fault that the grand prior deprived the Prague priors of the BřeziněvesHomestead. The fourth administrator or the last prior without a convent FrantišekPřevorové bez konventu. Duchovní správci johanitského kostela Matky Boží…56(Franz) Adam Tauffer of Roviny, who unlike his predecessors after 1621 came fromBohemia, eventually succeeded in renovating the convent in the first half of the 1730sby building an edifice (1728–1731) and accepting the first members in 1732.

Muzeele universitare ca instituții educaționale

Author(s): Claudia Popescu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2024

The modernisation of Romanian museums depends to a large extent on the modernisation of Romanian education. How do Romanian museums relate to the ideas of interpretation and participation? Museum education is the beginning of a journey, it is not just a delivery of information, it is the triggering of a process of questioning, experimentation and selfconstruction. Museum education needs to contain emotional elements and be tailored to the needs of visitors, especially the disadvantaged (from rural or low-income communities). Reflections on museum education in the School of Architecture Museum: guided tours for school children participating in the „De-a arhitectura” exhibition, a project for the education of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds around Sibiu, funded by CNFIS and the summer school in Dealu Frumos for architecture students.

XVI-wieczny tekst kalendarzowy Nauka krotka, cokolwiek kto ma począć po<d> każdym znamieniem niebieskim. Między katedrą astrologii a klasztornym poradnikiem

Author(s): Matylda Paszkiewicz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2022

The article discusses a chapter from an early sixteenth-century collection – “Conservatio sanitatis” (BOZ 69, fol. 93v-96r). “Nauka krótka…” is a collection of medical, caregiving, and household instructions most likely transcribed from an informational calendar supplement. Astrological knowledge was used to create “Nauka krótka…”, subjected to a process of popularization that can be observed in the linguistic and content structure of the text. This popularization provides a contribution to considerations on the beginnings of scientific and popular scientific Polish language variants. The provenance of “Nauka krótka…” places this text in the circle of prognostic works developed at the Krakow Academy, which constitute both evidence of the development of astrological science at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, and a series of transformations that the results of research and observations underwent to reach a literate audience through content conveyed by scientific authorities.

Urbanization in Bulgarian lands under Ottoman rule in the 19th century: Pan-European dimensions and specifics

Author(s): Ventsislav Muchinov / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2024

The article aims to establish what the trend was in the dynamics of urbanization in the Bulgarian lands under Ottoman rule during the period from the beginning of the 19th century to the Liberation of Bulgaria in 1878, revealing the Balkan and pan-European dimensions of the studied process. This makes it possible to correct the thesis imposed in Bulgarian science that, in relation to Bulgaria, urbanization is a process characteristic of the post-liberation era and especially of the period after the World War Two. The present study proves that for the modern territory of the country, urbanization is a process that started to emerge even before the Liberation under the influence of a complex of factors of political-administrative, socio-economic, demographic, etc., character. This is how the Bulgarian lands gradually came into sync with the general European trend for a significant increase in the levels of urbanization in the 19th century, as a result of which the modern urban system of the European countries was formed.

Rodni aspekt medijskog diskursa u socijalističkoj Jugoslaviji – reprezentacija roda u časopisu za žene „Bazar”

Author(s): Bojana Bogdanović / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 2/2024

The paper revises the gender aspect of media discourse in socialist Yugoslavia on the example of one of the oldest and most popular Yugoslav women's magazine "Bazar." An analysis of the textual and visual content of the 1973 edition (issues 208–233) reaffirmed the assumption that the mass media – including The Women's Press – actively participate in the construction and reproduction of both "femininity" and "masculinity", and in the depiction of desirable/expected gender relations in a certain socio-historical moment (Yugoslav socialism). In addition to the main female character – a beautiful, young, modern and well-groomed woman who is successful in all fields (at work, at home, as a wife, mother, sister, friend, worker...) – there is also an equally caring and dedicated husband and father, a modern man, successful in his field of expertise. In other words, of all the roles that Yugoslav society has assigned to women/men, the following seem to be dominant: She is primarily 1) a wife, mother and housewife, 2) a hard worker, and 3) a woman who is clearly positioned in the new consumer society, while He is 1) Pater Familias, 2) a successful businessman, and 3) a modern man who keeps up with the times. The research has shown that these (and such) "Bazar" images of a woman / man are highly harmonized with the official representation of gender in the socialist Yugoslav society – She is the embodiment of the socialist "super-woman", while He is depicted as part of the hegemonic model of masculinity. The female-male relationship is presented in the experimental media discourse in two ways. The first (socialist) model of gender polarity – the one that is in the central media plan / easily observable / clearly legible – is placed in the official narrative framework of socialism as an ideology that follows the principle of equality as the dominant matrix in social/gender/economic/family relations. In the second narrative plan, there is a traditional model of gender polarity, which is based on binary oppositions – weak-strong, gentle-rough, subordinate-dominant, dependent-independent, right-wrong – performed by the female-male couple. By analyzing the media discourse of the experimental socialist periodical, it has also been established that the narrative of one of the most popular Yugoslav women's magazines contains all three key terms (for gender reading or in the media text) – these are power, gender (in)equality and representation of meaning. Interpreting textual and visual content as a system of representation (and not presentation) of reality, it becomes obvious that despite the change in social paradigm in the years after World War II, the policy of gender representation in the context of power relations (man over woman) continued, which Yugoslav socialism – as a doctrine of equality – clearly could not (or did not want to) eradicate in practice.

“Anyway, We Delivered the Bomb”: Dredging the Disaster of the USS Indianapolis from History to Hollywood

Author(s): SEBASTIAN CROFT / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2024

“Anyway, we delivered the bomb” is an analysis of the significance of the inclusion of the critically acclaimed “Indianapolis speech” within Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, whereby the shark hunter Quint delivers a chilling first-hand recollection of the disaster of the USS during the Second World War. As Quint tells it, after transporting components of the atomic bomb to the United States air base at Tinian Island, the USS Indianapolis was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine whilst on route to the island of Leyte, leaving Quint and his surviving shipmates to fend for themselves in shark-infested waters. Contextualizing the speech within the confidence crises and “disaster” film genre cycle of 1970s America, I shall analyze how Jaws’s representation of the Indianapolis disaster posits a direct challenge to the orthodox Hiroshima narrative (that the bombing was morally justifiable on the basis that it saved American lives) by foregrounding the suffering endured by the crew of the Indianapolis at the expense of delivering it, preying upon audience fears that an America reeling from the Watergate scandal and military defeat in Vietnam was now susceptible to moral ‒ and nuclear ‒ retribution for Hiroshima thirty years later.

Nowa perspektywa. Leksykograficzne badania nad afektem w operze przełomu XVIII i XIX w.

Author(s): Kamil Falentin / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2024

BRACTWA CHARYTATYWNO-OPIEKUŃCZE W PRZEDROZBIOROWEJ POLSCE

Author(s): Marian Surdacki / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2024

The synthetic article presents the charitable activities of church brotherhoods in the Middle Ages and modern times. It can be said that basically all of them undertook this form of activity to some extent. However, due to the scope and intensity of such activities, three groups can be distinguished. The first are brotherhoods, with a universal, nationwide reach, which, at the time of their creation and in the intention of their creators, had as their main, or even only, goal comprehensive charitable work addressed to all people requiring support, coming either in hospitals, private homes or anywhere else. These include hospital brotherhoods, brotherhoods of the poor and brotherhoods of mercy. The second group also includes charitable confraternities, but quantitatively less popular, limited to certain areas, focusing on selected aspects of charitable activities (e.g. supporting the dying), providing care only to certain groups of people in need, sometimes serving single hospitals. In this case, it concerns, among others: about the following brotherhoods: priestly, good death, German, funeral, prison, St. Martin, St. Roch, St. Benon, Saint Lazarus. And finally, the third group of brotherhoods are devotional brotherhoods aimed at completely different goals, in which charitable activity, usually sideline, little exposed, sometimes even marginal, was always present. In many brotherhoods, it was limited to the obligation to organize burials, participate in funeral ceremonies of confreres and pray for their souls.

Јесмо ли сазрели као култура?

Author(s): Zorana Simić / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 14/2024

Review of : Magdalena Koh, Magdalena Koh, Majstorice mišljenja: srpski feministički esej (XIX–XXI veka). Prevela s poljskog Jelena Jović. Beograd: Službeni glasnik, 2023

Завръщане към европейската конституционна традиция след 1989 г.

Author(s): Iskra Baeva / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 1/2012

The Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria adopted by the Grand National Assembly on July 12, 1991, is the fourth in line Bulgarian constitution. The question whether four constitutions are not enough or they are too many for a country with 130 years of modern existence is scholastic and unhistorical, as the level of constitutionalism is determined not by the number of constitutions (the U.S. have still only one constitution, while Britain has no written constitution at all), but rather by their successful functioning in the specifi c socio-political conditions of the country. In the Bulgarian case, in les s than a century and a half the country underwent deep transformations which changed several times its geopolitical position and role, and that actually necessitated also the search for constitutional legitimacy of the new social situation.

Јан Н. Бремер, Иницијација у мистерије античког света

Author(s): Isidora Tolić / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 2/2024

Review of:Јан Н. Бремер Иницијација у мистерије античког света. Превео с енглеског Урош Рајчевић, Федон, Београд 2023, стр. 399

Uwagi na temat starożytnych źródeł i przesłanek teorii Mikołaja Kopernika

Author(s): Konrad Dydak Rycyk / Language(s): Polish Issue: 23/2024

De revolutionibus [orbium coelestium] by Nicolaus Copernicus was a groundbreaking work for 16th-century Europe. Copernicus’s cosmological thesis was in some opposition to Ptolemy’s thesis and therefore opinio communis, not without some error, called it the heliocentric theory. It seems that the cosmological thesis should not be understood only as a simple negation of the earlier theory and Copernicus’s good knowledge of Greek metaphysics and cosmology also played its part. So, what were the grounds upon which Copernicus’s philosophy was founded? Can these premises be found in the analyses of the Pythagoreans and Greek mathematicians Aristarchus and Eudoxus? Are such premises provided only by Plato and Aristotle? Is it possible to indicate other Greek sources of Copernicus’s theory? If so, do they really support the claim that the Copernican theory is in fact a forgotten ancient theory?An attempt to answer these questions is as follows: after a brief presentation of the historical background of the appearance of Copernicus’s theory and its main early theses (Commentariolus), geocentric positions and views in the Middle Ages and their Greek sources will be presented. Next, going back in history, views and positions which underlie the non-geocentric cosmology will be presented, also those that were recalled and recorded by Copernicus in his treatises. Finally, there will be presented and analyzed — though probably unknown to Copernicus — philosophical and cosmological positions and views, which in Greek thinking, even at its beginnings, may constitute loci philosophici, the premises and sources of non-geocentric cosmology.

An Introduction to the Topic ‘Copernicus and Astrology’. A Commentary on the Theses of Robert S. Westman

Author(s): Michał Kokowski / Language(s): English Issue: 23/2024

This article is an introduction to the subject of Copernicus and astrology. It presents an overview of a set of facts and positions of researchers exploring the relevant ideas of Copernicus, as well as the author’s own perspective. A key role is played by a critique of R.S. Westman’s theses.

Wprowadzenie do tematyki ‘Kopernik a astrologia’. Komentarz do tez Roberta S. Westmana

Author(s): Michał Kokowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 23/2024

The article is an introduction to the subject of “Copernicus and astrology”. An overview of the set of facts and positions of researchers of Copernicus’s thought related to this topic is presented, as well as the author’s position. A key role is played by the criticism of R.S. Westman’s theses.

Was Copernicus an Astrologer?

Author(s): George Borski,Ivan Kolkov / Language(s): English Issue: 23/2024

The question ‘Was Copernicus an astrologer’ is prima facie very clear, while in fact being quite ambiguous. This question should rather be regarded as a vast topic covering lots of more concise questions such as ‘Was Copernicus thoroughly educated in astrology?’, ‘Did Copernicus believe in astrology?’ or ‘Did a mature Copernicus practice astrology?’Unfortunately, thus far, consensus has not been achieved among historians on any of them. Accordingly, the topic has been for some time, and still is, a battlefield of the most acrimonious debates in Copernicology, nay, perhaps in the whole history of science.Carefully made distinctions and subsequent analysis of the common pro et contra arguments enabled this paper to arbitrate the different perspectives. None of the arguments has been found to have a decisive force. In general, while the pro lines of reasoning are normally based upon insecure or even faulty inductive logic, their contra counterparts often suffer from ex silentio inferences or even ad ignorantiam fallacy.Two new, subtle arguments have been introduced instead. They can be considered as genuine new evidence allowing for the resolution of some lingering doubts. First, the natal charts of Copernicus that were cast in the middle of the 16th century have been studied. The excessively exact birth hour of Copernicus at 4:48 PM has quite naturally been expected to be a result of a preliminary astrological rectification. However, apparently it was not rectified by the algorithms most popular at the time. The findings suggest the number-symbolic rather than astrological inclinations of Copernicus.Further, a careful analysis of Copernicus’s annotations in the Alfonsine Tables revealed a link between the misprints corrected by him and the ancient observations he included in De Revolutionibus. Consequently, an extensive astrological use of the tables by him can be excluded with a high probability. Moreover, Copernicus likely never used Regiomontanus Tables on a regular basis either.The conclusion integrates all the available arguments pertinent to the relationship of Copernicus with astrology.

Was Copernicus an Astrologer? From the Perspective of a Historian of Astrology

Author(s): Sylwia Konarska-Zimnicka / Language(s): English Issue: 23/2024

Nicolaus Copernicus’s achievements in the field of astronomy are widely known and undisputed, but few people know that he also studied astrology – in his time recognised as a science and a subject of academic lectures. Evidence of this activity, though scarce, is preserved in the margins of one of the popular astrological treatises of the 15th and 16th centuries, which was owned by Nicolaus Copernicus. Thanks to these marginal notes it is possible to undertake a consideration of the scale and reasons for the involvement of the astronomer in the exploration of astrology.

Geohistorical Structural Design Tables for the Building Stones of the Maltese Archipelago

Author(s): Lino Bianco / Language(s): English Issue: 23/2024

The engineering properties of building materials are essential knowledge when it comes to structural design. In 1885, the Crown Agents for the Colonies published a study on the resistance of Malta stone to cracking and crushing, in an attempt to develop stress design tables for local masonry. This article addresses the evolution of geological maps in the nineteenth century and, then, introduces the content of this publication. The geological formations described in the latest map are still used to this day. Finally, it discusses the usefulness of these tables in establishing the mechanical properties that Maltese stone can withstand. To identify the quality of the stone discussed in this publication, a geological map available at the time, namely that published by Andrew Leith Adams in 1870, which proved to be moderately accurate, was used. The testing procedures applied followed the accepted laboratory practice at the time. A retrospective analysis of the contents of this publication reveals that the results contained some mathematical errors.

The Legal Position of the Dubrovnik Republic against Turkey in the 15th and Early 16th Century and Its Efforts to Introduce the So-Called “Dubrovnik Duty” in 1521

Author(s): Piotr Wróbel / Language(s): English Issue: 33/2024

The author’s aim was to analyse the legal situation of the Dubrovnik Republic and Dubrovnik merchants operating in the lands subject to the Sultans in the 15th and early 16th centuries. The conclusion was that in the early period the position was secured individually by obtaining salvus conductus. The imposition of vassal status on the Republic by the Turks (finally in 1458) was linked to the necessity of paying tribute, but at the same time there was a uniform regulation of the status of Dubrovnik merchants. During the reigns of Mehmed II and Selim, attitudes towards the Raguzans were hostile (increasing tribute, increasing customs duties) and merchants suffered oppression. The benevolent attitude of the young Suleiman resulted in the institution of the so-called Dubrovnik customs in 1521, whose favourable arrangements became one of the foundations of Raguzan prosperity under the protection of the sultans in the following century.

Езикова употреба и идентичност при ромите мюсюлмани на Балканите

Author(s): Hristo Kyuchukov,Łukasz Kwadrans / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 1/2024

The paper presents results from a survey with Muslim Roma from North Macedonia and Cyprus. Both language groups are multilingual: the North Macedonian Roma speak 4 languages and the Cypriot Roma – 3 languages in their everyday communication. The aim of the study is to find out which the dominant language among the two groups is and how they identify themselves. The authors’ hypothesis is that there will be a linguicism to the speakers of Romani in both countries, however this hypothesis was not confirmed. Most of the respondents in the study identify as Roma although some of them have Turkish as a mother tongue.