Medieval Heritage of the Balkans

Medieval heritage of the Balkans

Project Director: Valentina Živković, PhD, senior research associate

 

The research topic Medieval Heritage of the Balkans includes comparative and interdisciplinary research on society, culture and religion in the Balkans in the late Middle Ages and early modern times (XIV-XVIII centuries). The phenomena, processes and ideas that have formed spiritual, social, intellectual and cultural models are analyzed in a broader historical context and geographical framework. Special attention is paid to the following problems: artistic circumstances and cultural history of the Catholic Littoral, the relationship of mental and visual images, Cyrillic scriptoriums in the Balkans and South Slavic scribes, the formation of new and renewal of old cults of saints in the late Middle and Early Modern, historiographical writings of the late Middle and Early new century, socio-economic and cultural history of the Orthodox Church, its monasteries and believers under Ottoman rule. Collaborators on the topic of Medieval Heritage of the Balkans participate in several domestic and foreign projects.

 

Project members:

 

Valentina Živković, PhD, senior research associate, fields of research: Roman Catholic art, religiosity, cults of saints and the worship of relics in the late Middle Ages and early modern times in the Bay of Kotor; cultural ties between the two Adriatic coasts; testamentary legacies for the salvation of the soul (pro anima); the Dominican Observant and Post-Tridentine Reforms in Dubrovnik and Kotor; formation of the cult of the local Santa Viva, Blessed Ozana from Kotor.

Marija Vasiljević, PhD, research associate, fields of research: Orthodox cults of saints and the worship of relics during the Ottoman conquests in the central Balkans; historiographical writings of the late Middle Ages and early modern period; the ruling ideology of Serbian dynasties; collective memory in the late Middle Ages.

Nebojša Šuletić, PhD, research associate, fields of research: religious and ethnic identities in the early modern century; migration movements, demographic and economic structures in the Ottoman Balkans of the 16th-18th centuries; The Serbian Orthodox Church and models of religious tolerance in the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburg Monarchy of the 16th-18th centuries.

Ognjen Krešić, PhD, research associate, fields of research: social and cultural life and legal status of the Orthodox population in the Ottoman Balkans in the XVIII century; Orthodox monasticism in the Ottoman Empire; history of the Hilandar monastery in the 18th century.

Milena Davidović, PhD, research associate, fields of research: the study of medieval scriptoriums and libraries in the Balkans; research of connections, reciprocity and influence among the Balkan peoples in the field of Slavic, Cyrillic literacy; poetic studies of medieval literary texts; editing editions of medieval Serbian manuscripts; examining new possibilities of publishing text in relation to digital palaeography.