The paper seeks to outline the overall framework for the reception of St. Clement’s tradition in Slavic literacy in northern, Serb-populated areas; the paper also analyzes major Serbian literary monuments, both Glagolitic and Cyrillic, which may be brought into a close relationship with the literacy tradition of St. Clement. They are presented individually, also taking into account an earlier linguistic background from which they stemmed. These older linguistic traits which are Old Slavonic as well as some later characteristics are generally possible to arrange in an ideal chronological sequence. This makes it possible to suggest a relative chronology of the formation of some Serbian literary monuments. There are also some local linguistic traits and other parameters that allow one to date Serbian literary monuments more precisely and, sometimes, even to delimit their territory of origin. This series begins with the Codex Marianus and continues with Miroslav’s Gospel, the Mihanovic Fragment, the Grskovic Fragment, Bratko’s Menaion, the Jerusalem Palimpsest, and the Belgrade Prophetologion, ending with the Serbian Prophetologion from St. Petersburg and Kiev. One must keep in mind that the Serbian language, which underlies the spoken background of the Serbian redaction of the Church Slavonic language, was, shortly after its formation (up to the end of the 11th century), still dialectically undiversified (regardless of the potentially heterogeneous situation before the 9th century); thus, based on the current body of knowledge, it is not possible to identify dialectical traits that would provide more specific information about individual writings. However, traces of the general logic of the developmental dynamics of the folk language can be identified in the language of the only 11th-century source presented in this paper: the Codex Marianus . This literary monument is temporally and spatially located in the third quarter of the 11th century and the southeastern boundary of Raska (roughly in Poibarje), near the fortress of Zvecan and the early medieval settlement of Cecan. Miroslav’s Gospel is dated to the period between 1161 and 1170 (ca. 1165) and is linguistically associated with the territory of the Bishopric of Raska because its scribes were the bearers of a dialect typical of this region: the manuscript either originates from Raska or it was written by Rascian scribes in some other area. Based on a rather large number of literary monuments, it is possible to get insight into the third stage in the life of this form of literacy in Polimlje, where the hereditary estates of the Nemanjics and their relatives were located. From the early Middle Ages this area witnessed lively ecclesiastical activities, though they were based on the Roman Rite. One of the cultural centers must have been located around the trefoil church of St. John at Zaton (9th–11th centuries). In this wider area, a more conservative Serbian literary tradition, which can be traced in the Mihanovic Fragment, could have persisted slightly longer. The Mihanovic Fragment was the purest representative of the Serbian redaction, without secondary shadings typical of the innovative southern Slavic areas in the 11th century (with the mildest divergence from the vernacular variety when pronouncing the literary language), and it was still based on the linguistic background shaped by St. Clement. The linguistic picture of this literary monument indicates that it could have originated from an area where an ancient linguistic redaction dating back to the early 10th century, or perhaps an even older variety of a literary language from the 9th century (associated with the Roman Rite) combined with a later South Slavic layer of undetermined age (10th–11th centuries), persisted.

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The Serbian Redaction of the Church Slavonic Language: From St. Clement, the Bishop of the Slavs, to St. Sava, the Serbian Archbishop

The wall painting on the facades of St. Nicholas in Ljuboten near Skopje, the endowment of 'Lady Danica', a noblewoman in the time of King Dusan, was destroyed in 1928, during the restoration of the church. Evidence of the appearance of the hitherto unnoticed decoration on the western facade and the southern entrance can be seen on glass plates in the Photograph Collection of the National Museum in Belgrade. When the photographs Nos. 1438, 1444 and 1567 were taken, the painting on the Ljuboten church facades, although damaged or washed away, was still partly visible. On the western facade it extended in three zones (the socle, the standing figures and the busts) across the entire facade and from the ground to the porch, the roof of which stood at the foot of the western wall archivolt, while the ornamentation of the southern facade covered the lunette above the entrance and its archivolt. Although in 1925, the painting did not contain a single legible signature or physiognomy, thematically, the outer ornamentation of Ljuboten is essentially clear. The bust of the Mother of God with the infant Christ, facing south, was in the centre of the compositional focus of the western facade. Three figures stood on the left and on the right sides of the portal, one on each of the pilasters, and one monumental figure in each of two niches. From the south, a church hierarch, with short, curly beard, was moving in a stooping position towards the Mother of God. He, certainly, could be identified as the patron of the church, St. Nicholas. The saint raises his right hand in a gesture of exhortation. Behind him, a figure in monastic habit was painted. This person holds a model of the church in the left hand, with the right hand in a gesture of prayer. Undoubtedly, it was the donatrix of the church painted here. As opposed to the figures in the southern part of the western facade, those in the northern part were facing forward. We recognized a saint on the pilaster beside the entrance, by the traces of his robes, but this was insufficient for establishing what category of saints he belongs; there was a standing image of a holy warrior in a niche, clad in a tunic and cloak, while the outermost northern pilaster was occupied by the image of a holy martyr. Evidence of the zone of the busts (between the figures and the roof) is to be seen only fragmentarily (above the figure of the patron) with the traces of clothing that was typical for martyrs. The depictions in the lunette and in the niches were framed by ornamental bands but it is not known what the socle looked like. Above the southern entrance there was a bust of St. Nicholas, recognizable by the remains of presentations of Christ and the Mother of God, who, on the images of this saint, were holding out a Gospel and an omophorion to this courageous hierarch. The painting of external facades was a widely cultivated feature in the region of Macedonia, from the twelfth century at the very latest. According to the volume of facade surfaces covered with frescoes, Ljuboten belongs to the churches in which ornamentation of this kind occupied a significant place. In keeping with a practice that had been cultivated for centuries, the painter chose the facades that had an entrance and portals as the basis for his painting, and as the starting point for the gradation of themes according to their importance. The frescoes on the west facade, where it concerns the position of the details in the whole, follow a program topology that is typical of the external ornamentation of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. The entrance to the church was already reserved in the time of Constantine the Great, for the visualization of the religious and legal aspects of the donor's undertaking. The general features of the art of this epoch included also the donor's portrait supraporta. Positioned in such a way for the merits of the founder already to be visible on entering the churchyard, the portrait of Lady Danica, both in terms of its structure and its place in the whole - thanks to the symbolism of the entrance - placed the eschatological meaning of φιλοκτeσια in the foreground. Owing to the condition in which it existed before its destruction, the fresco painting on the western facade does not offer much material for an iconographical analysis. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to note that, in conceptualizing the composition of the donor, the painter decided on a formula of modesty and praesentatio, less frequently practiced in the fourteenth century, and that in depicting the donatrix, he opted for a symbiosis of the motive of supplication and guiding by the hand, retaining from the previous model, the position of the model of the endowment, and finally, in writing out the inscription, he used 'cartouches', combining, like some contemporaries, tabulae and circular 'shields'. In terms of style, the facade frescoes (the shallow volume, broad forms, soft, languid lines and the mild contrast) are linked with the younger layer of fresco paintings of the Ljuboten interior (1343-1345), attributed to the fresco painters of Mateic and Dradnja. The article systematically explains the dating of the younger paintings of the church of St. Nicholas, and suggests a more precise time frame for its creation, in the years 1343-1344, expressing the conviction that the facade was painted during the same campaign, just before the task was completed in the naos. As for the history of Ljuboten, the fresco painting on the west facade is the only proper addition to the data offered by the inscription carved on the lintel of the western portal. The fact that the credit for building the church is attributed only to one member of the donor's family in the time of decorating the lower zones of the naos with frescoes, most clearly supports the conclusion that the portrait of the Lady Danica stood in the southern niche. A detail of importance for prosopographic research is provided by the robes of the prudent donatrix. Lady Danica took the veil at some time between 1336/1337, when the inscription was carved above the entrance, and the painting of the western facade (1343-1345). Today, unfortunately, we do not know whether the founders of the church building also financed the painting of her endowment. In searching for the reasons why the work on the decoration of the church was suspended, the author considers that the reasons for the interruption must have been serious. He believes that the work was suspended due to events in the donatrix's life, perhaps as a result of her death (already in her mature years at the time when the church was built), which would mean, consequently, that the noblewoman Danica only financed the first phase of the church's painting works. Who - if this were so - would be the donor of the younger part of paintings? In the absence of proof that would provide the right answer, the author returns to the thesis of I. M. Djordjevic, according to which the monogram Dmitar, carved into the lower side of the lintel on the western entrance, reveals in fact the name of the younger son of Lady Danica, the co-donor of his mother at the time when the building was erected. This name is concealed on the inscription from the face of the mentioned lintel ('other son'). For Dmitar, the care taken to complete the task of painting the frescoes would be the resumption of an endeavour that had been undertaken much earlier. In support of this would be the fact that a holy warrior was painted in the northern niche, as the counterpart of the donatrix. The appearance of a saint of this type in such an important place in the fresco decoration of the noblewoman's endowment would primarily reflect the social status of the donor's family, but - due to the frequent coincidence of the name of the client and his protector - one cannot neglect the possibility, either, that it was connected with the person from the monogram, i.e. that St. Demetrius was standing opposite the donatrix. It would also indicate that this choice of saint in the northern niche served as testimony of the participation of the 'other son' in the decoration of his mother's endowment. .

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The wall painting on the western façade and the lunette of the southern portal of St. Nicholas in Ljuboten

Овим радом покушавамо расветлити питање о пореклу сигилографских образаца у држави првих Немањића. Упоређивањем са сигилографским материјалом из суседних држава – Византије, Латинске царевине у Константинопољу, државе епирских Анђела, те Бугарске и Угарске – могу се уочити извесне паралеле. За сигилографске обрасце великог жупана Стефана Немање нема сумње да долазе из Византије, али код првих српских краљева – Стефана Првовенчаног, Радослава и Владислава – ситуација је далеко сложенија, јер се директни узори у сигилографској пракси суседних држава не могу пронаћи.

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Печати раних немањића – узори и паралеле у формативном периоду немањићке сигилографске праксе

This volume focuses on the ecclesiastical architecture of 12th-century Nemaniad origins (Mother of God, Saint Nicholas and Saint George) by examining the layout preferences of the client and the workforce of diverse cultural backgrounds. The author discusses the monuments' construction techniques as a primary instrument for shaping space by taking into consideration the visual effects of the domed space of Romanesque architecture as diametrically opposed to architectural elements present in the Byzantine world. The analysis of the different construction phases of the churches considered is carried out based on archival documents, on a survey carried out in the field, and a reconstruction of their realities within a historical context. What emerges in this analysis is that a regional architecture’s selection choices for construction should not be understood as an either-or scenario between Byzantium and the West, but rather as the result of a synthesis of different local architectural traditions that comes to fruition in Medieval Serbia.Questo volume affronta il tema dell’architettura ecclesiastica delle fondazioni nemanidi del XII secolo (Madre di Dio, San Nicola, San Giorgio) studiando le scelte progettuali della committenza e di maestranze di differente provenienza culturale.
Le tecniche costruttive dei monumenti sono viste come strumento capace di plasmare lo spazio, tenendo presente che l’effetto visuale dello spazio cupolato nel mondo romanico e diametralmente opposto rispetto a quello presente nel mondo bizantino. Per realizzare questa ricerca sono state analizzate le diverse fasi costruttive di alcune chiese sulla base di documenti d’archivio e sui rilievi effettuati sul campo, tenendo conto del contesto storico. Ne emerge in conclusione che le manifestazioni costruttive di questa architettura regionale non vanno intese come una contrapposizione fra Bisanzio e l’Occidente, ma rappresentano piuttosto la sintesi originale di diverse tradizioni
architettoniche affermatasi nella Serbia medievale.

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A. Filipović, I Balcani occidentali tra romanico e bizantino. Tradizione e sperimentazione nell’architettura serba della seconda metà del XII secolo

The battle at Pantino at 1168 and the unity of the Serbian state

This research examines the question of the so-called territorial
 power-sharing rulers in Serbia during the reign of the Byzantine emperor
 Manuel I Komnenos (1143-1180) based on the interpretations and
 contextualisation of original data and of terms with the connotation of ruler
 referring to Stefan Nemanja and his relatives.

http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/ft.aspx?id=0584-98881148089P

Manuel i Komnenos, „Carski san“ and „Samodrzci oblasti srpskog prestola“

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Entering of Stefan Dušan into the Empire

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The Greek emperor Alexios in the first vitae of St Simeon Nemanja

/pdf/une-hypothese-sur-l-origine-du-tsar-de-bulgarie-constantin-2uq67ug260.pdf

Srdjan Pirivatric

Papers

Manuel i Komnenos, „Carski san“ and „Samodrzci oblasti srpskog prestola“

Entering of Stefan Dušan into the Empire

The Greek emperor Alexios in the first vitae of St Simeon Nemanja

Une hypothèse sur l'origine du tsar de Bulgarie Constantin Asen 'Tich'