Žarko Vujošević (Insitute for Balkan Studies, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Art, Belgrade) on “Picking up the pieces: Written heritage of medieval South Eastern Europe going online” held on 28.04.2015 at the international conference "Archival Cooperation and Community Building in the Digital Age" within the panel “Building from scratch: written heritage online" at Břevnov Archabbey in Prague (CZ).

1. Zarko Vujosevic, Veljko Gluscevic
Institute for Balkan Studies of the SASA, Belgrade
Picking up the pieces:
Written heritage
of medieval South Eastern Europe
going online
ENArC project
Archival Cooperation and Community Building in the digital age
Prague 2015

2. Dubrovnik 209
Athos 175
(Hilandar 98)
Istanbul 8
Montenegro 17
Serbia 18
Sofia 8
Meteora 7
Ioannina 1
Moscow 4
Bari 1
Milano 2
Debrecen 2
Vienna 2
Zagreb 11
Venice 30
Barcelona 1
Budapest 19
Bratislava 2
Bucharest 1
Rome 3
Paris 1
Prague 1
Lesnovo 1
Pecs 1
Dispersion of Serbian diplomatic material
New York 1
On Monasterium.Net
Photos/scans obtained
Photos/scans partially obtained

3. Currently available collections on Monasterium
Selected Serbian royal documents from the 14th century (Serbische
Herrscherurkunden, 1306-1388)
Serbian Royal Documents at the State Archives in Dubrovnik (1186-1479)
Serbian Charters in Archives of Hungary (1411-1481)
Bulgarian Medieval Documents: The Second Bulgarian Empire (1192-1396)
Serbian Medieval Documents in the State Archives of Venice (1208-1460)

4. Serbische Herrscherurkunden (1306–88)
• A test collection containing 18 documents of several rulers
• Document images of various quality (photos, book scans)
• Different archival provenance (Athos monasteries, Dubrovnik, Belgrade,
Cetinje, Venice, Bari)
• Presentation format:
 document name (yyyymmdd – issuer)
 additional date information (byz, cca, taq/tpq, ?)
 abstract and diplomatic analysis (in German)
 full text of the existing editions (xml, CEI standard); Old Slavonic letters
transcribed pursuant to the Unicode Standard 5.1, Cyrillic

8. Serbian Royal Documents at the
State Archives in Dubrovnik

9. Collection data content
Includes 168 documents with 205 individual copies currently at the
Dubrovnik Archives
Does not include documents originally from the Archives, now preserved at
other locations or lost
Presentation format
Document names as bearers of information
Abstract and diplomatic analysis (in English)
No full text transcriptions (yet)
Images (front, back, seal) as well-readable photos of 72 dpi

12. Serbian charters
in Archives of Hungary
(1411 – 1481)

13. Serbian Medieval Documents in Hungary
• 22 items located (use of MOL online database!)
• 19 in Budapest, Magyar Országos Levéltár
• 2 in Debrecen, Hajdú-Bihar Megyei Levéltár
• 1 in Pécs, Pécsi Püspöki Levéltár
• all documents from the 15th century (1411–1481)
• authors: despot Stefan Lazarevic (8), despot Djuradj Brankovic (12)
and his descendants (2)
• subjects: administration of the estates of Serbian rulers in Hungary;
political issues
• language: Latin

14. Collection on Monasterium.net
Data content
All 22 documents with 23 individual copies
Presentation format
Abstract and diplomatic analysis (in English)
No full text transcriptions (yet)
Images (front, back, seal) as well-readable print screens (MOL database)

17. Bulgarian Medieval Documents:
The Second Bulgarian Empire

18. Dispersion of Bulgarian Diplomatic Material
• Vatican archives: 11 documents
• Mount Athos: 8 documents (Zograf 4, Vatoped 2, Hilandar 2)
• Constantinople: 3 documents
• Venetian archives: 2 documents
• Rila monastery (Bulgaria), St. Petersburg, Dubrovnik, Genoa,
Brashov: one document each

19. Presentation Format of Bulgarian Documents
on Monasterium.net
date and place of issuing
 short abstract
 original date from document
 seal description and seal owner
 material, dimensions, possible damages
 place of keeping
 tradition (original, copy, transumpt, forgery, fragment)
 other copies
 editions
 languague
 images

22. Serbian Medieval Documents
in the State Archives of Venice

23. • cca 30 documents from 13th to 15th century
• issuers: mostly rulers of Serbia and various regional
lordships
• subjects: mostly diplomatic correspondence and treaties;
one royal donation to a Catholic monastery (King Milutin,
1306)
• status: only three originals; the rest authentic copies in
official Venetian registers
• language: mostly Latin/Italian; some Serbian
Serbian documents in the State Archives of Venice

24. • 25 documents located during visit
• 22 authentic copies – metadata limited to abstract, status,
current repository, quote (date formula), editions and
language + textual descriptions of seals
• three originals – metadata includes other text witness
elements (material, dimensions, seal, condition)
• monasterium-standard high resolution images
Collection on monasterium.net

25. Further collections – work in progress
Medieval documents kept in Belgrade
15 items scattered in three institutions: Archives of Serbia, Museum of the
SOC, Archives of the SASA
Documents of Serbian rulers in Mount Athos monasteries
175 documents, of which 98 in Hilandar

26. Diplomatarium Serbicum Digitale (DSD)

27. Thank you for your attention!
www.balkaninstitut.com