Examining the significance and uses of written documents in medieval Serbian society, for the very first time the manifestations of everyday literacy are revealed in the area where the East and the West intersect in southeastern Europe. The interweaving of Latin and Byzantine influences shaped the culture of literacy in medieval Serbia. Unprecedented in the field, this study aims to show that, even if only about 1000 Serbian medieval documents are preserved, this does not mean that little had been written. An exploration of the use of written documents in commercial, legal, and private relations in late medieval Serbia constitutes the basic scope of the research. It focuses on the documents fate and on their social roles from the moment they were issued or submitted to their beneficiaries. The making of charters-by rulers, the Church, the aristocracy, towns, and public notaries-is analysed, as are the main fields of the use of the written word-evidentiary procedure, diplomacy, and correspondence. The citation of individual examples of pragmatic literacy allows us to give an approximate idea of how widespread the belief in the power of the written word really was. Even though the ways in which documentary literacy manifested itself in late medieval Serbia display certain idiosyncrasies, the growth in the use and reputation of written documents suggests that the Serbian case was not all that unlike the written customs and practices elsewhere in medieval Europe.
Author(s): Ðorđe Bubalo
Series: Utrecht Studies in Medieval Literacy, 29
Publisher: Brepols
Year: 2014
Language: English
Pages: 456
City: Turnhout
Foreword ix
Acknowledgements xiii
Abbreviations xv
List of Illustrations xix
Maps xxv
Chapter 1. Introduction: Medieval Serbia (Land, Ruler, People) 1
Part One: Written Records in Medieval Serbia
Chapter 2. Several Observations on Sources 27
Laws 28
Documents 32
Literary Sources 33
Other Sources 36
Chapter 3. Characteristics of This Research 37
Chapter 4. Basic Characteristics of the Documentary Legacy of the Serbian Middle Ages 45
Materials 45
Writing and Language 50
The Names of Documents 55
The Fate and Preservation of Medieval Documents 64
Chapter 5. Social and Material Prerequisites of Written Communication 87
The Development of Literacy 87
The Pre-Nemanjiæ Period: Examples of Documentary Literacy 93
Serbia in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries: Causes of the Surge in Documentary Literacy 103
Peculiarities of the Bosnian State 117
Part Two: Agents of Literacy
Chapter 6. The Ruler 123
The Rulers’ Ideology and the Written Document 123
The Reputation of Rulers’ Documents (Public Faith and Permanence) 132
The Ruler and State Administration 139
Chapter 7. The Church 151
Written Basis of the Privileged Status of the Church 152
Documents of Bishops, Written Administration under the Auspices of the Church 154
Monasteries 163
Chapter 8. The Nobility 177
“Written Patrimony” 177
The Use of Documents as a Reflection of Social Status 184
Chapter 9. The Towns 191
Town Privileges 192
Administration 195
The Mining Business 199
Trade (Coastal Merchants in the Hinterland) 206
Chapter 10. Public Notaries and Private Legal Relations 217
Written Documents in Private Legal Relations: The Word of Law 218
Nomiks and Nomik Documents 223
Private Documents and Notes 231
Part Three: Domains of the Use of the Written Word
Chapter 11. Diplomacy 241
Diplomatic Correspondence 242
Diplomatic Missions 262
Concluding Treaties and Issuing Charters 276
Chapter 12. Correspondence 285
Hagiographies, Epistolaries, Drafts of Beginnings of Letters, Short Messages (Several Notes on Sources) 286
Private Correspondence of the Ruler’s Family 296
The Ruler and the Church: A Symphony in Correspondence 300
Church, Nobles, Citizens, Private Persons... 304
Chapter 13. The Probative Force of Documents and Their Role in Judicial Proceedings 315
Means of Evidence: The Basic Purpose 316
The Role of the Written Word in Legal Procedures 323
Probative Force and the Use of Serbian Documents in the Maritime Communes and in Venice 336
Forgeries 352
