Ivan Biliarsky

The overall character of the Black Sea region has been defined over time in various ways. For specialists in economy and trade, it has represented a region at the crossroads of the trade routes between Europe and Asia; for political scientists and historians, it has been a space of confrontation between the great terrestrial and naval powers; for the scholars attentive to its cultural dimensions, it has been a contact zone, a space of interaction between different peoples, religions and cultures. These attempts at a definition all revolve around an essential (and ambivalent) feature of the Black Sea as a factor of connection, a bridge, and at the same time a border, a dividing line between Europe and Asia, between the Baltic and the Mediterranean region. In this fluctuation between the two, the predominance of one over the other ("bridge" or "border") has depended on a number of factors, first among them the distribution of power relations in the region. This vol...

The article aims to trace the veneration of St. Philothea and the metamorphoses
it underwent. It began in her fatherland and her pious life. The Life of the saint
woman is very complex. She was a pious lady who married but remained immaculate;
she rested in isolation and tutored the local Christians; after her death
she was venerated as saint and attracted the attention of the believers in her
country. So, it is not easy to classify her, following the usual criteria.
A crucial moment for the veneration of St. Philothea was the translatio of her
relics to Tarnovo. It was an act of the Bulgarian Tsar Kaloyan and, when they
arrived in the capital city of the Second Bulgarian Empire, St. Philothea became
a part of the sacred Christian pantheon of the state. This was the time when the
main hagiological texts for their veneration were prepared: Vitae, divine services,
panegyrics. It is to stress that the holy women formed a special element of the
mentioned state pantheon: the so-called Imagines Virginis who presented a type
of substitution of the veneration of Our Lady as intercessor and defender of the
Empire and of the City of Constantinople.
After the fall of Tarnovo, the relics of St. Paraskeva, of St. Empress Theophanò
and of St. Philothea were transferred to Vidin. After the fall of the traditional
capital, their movement could be seen as a type of translatio Imperii from Tarnovo
to Vidin and then to Serbia. This event produced one of the most interesting
texts about St. Philothea – her panegyric by the metropolitan Joasaph of Vidin.

Late Byzantium Reconsidered offers a unique collection of essays analysing the artistic achievements of Mediterranean centres linked to the Byzantine Empire between 1261, when the Palaiologan dynasty re-conquered Constantinople, and the decades after 1453, when the Ottomans took the city, marking the end of the Empire. These centuries were characterised by the rising of socio-political elites, in regions such as Crete, Italy, Laconia, Serbia, and Trebizond, that, while sharing cultural and artistic values influenced by the Byzantine Empire, were also developing innovative and original visual and cultural standards. The comparative and interdisciplinary framework offered by this volume aims to challenge established ideas concerning the late Byzantine period such as decline, renewal, and innovation. By examining specific case studies of cultural production from within and outside Byzantium, the chapters in this volume highlight the intrinsic innovative nature of the socio-cultural identities active in the late medieval and early modern Mediterranean vis-à-vis the rhetorical assumption of the cultural contraction of the Byzantine Empire.

Ce numéro des Cahiers du Monde russe s’ouvre sur un ensemble d’articles qui ont deux traits en commun : ils évoquent l’histoire des juifs en Russie du XVIIIe au XXe siècle ; ils portent tous sur des aspects peu connus de cette histoire, dont certains commencent à peine d’être défrichés. En effet, que ce soit l'étude anthropologique et sociologique du shtetl ou des communautés juives dans la Podolie du XVIIIe siècle, celle de l'historiographie juive au début du XXe siècle, celle des migrations des juifs russes vers la Pologne peu avant cette période ou celle d’un écrivain russo-juif atteint par l'antisémitisme, ce sont autant d’aperçus sur un monde encore largement méconnu et qui relèvent aussi bien de l’histoire proprement dite, de l’ethnologie, de la sociologie, de l’étude littéraire. Enfin, ce monde juif y est généralement montré dans son interface avec la société qui l’entoure, tant il est vrai qu’on ne saurait l’étudier que dans son interpénétration avec son environn...

The normative function of culture is precisely what builds and preserves the community, while the function of development renews it and supplies it with a perspective towards the future. This chapter aims to point out some aspects of them that need to be considered in order to achieve the tasks of the study. It discusses the following group of concrete examples from texts, which exhibit an equating of the concept of Law and Faith that situates both of them at the core of a society's identity-defining values. The chapter make some general remarks on the topic of law and religious faith. It shows that language and professional jargon, but also law, are equally identity characteristics of every civilisation. The chapter aims to clarify this aspect of interrelations between language and law based on a study of the legal vocabulary of the mediaeval Bulgarian state.Keywords: Byzantine law; identity; language; mediaeval Bulgarian state

I can say without any doubt that the appearance of Maya Petrova-Taneva’s book is an event in Bulgarian mediaeval studies, not only in literary and hagiographic fields, but also in areas related to pursuing political ideology and legitimizing power through holiness. It is a comprehensive and exhaustive study of the veneration of a saint, who not only was the wife of one of the most remarkable Roman basileis, but through the presence of her relics in Tărnovgrade has attracted the attention of probably the most remarkable figure of 14th century Bulgaria – Patriarch Euthymius – and enters the pantheon of the Second Bulgarian Empire as an “supporter to the tsars”. The book is constructed in a classical way: the study of the life of Empress Theophano preceded the presentation of her worship in the Empire, and then in Bulgaria and Serbia, after which the author proceeded to present the sources for the cult (first prologues, then Vita of the deacon Nicholas and the service of St. Patriarch ...

Il est possible d’etudier l’histoire, le passe en general, en suivant des methodes differentes. Certaines de ces methodes sont liees a la conception du temps, caracteristique pour une culture, d’autres a l’existence d’une attitude religieuse, emotionnelle ou identitaire envers le passe. Nous voudrions presenter ici nos observations sur la conception du temps et de l’histoire dans le milieu culturel et social des Protobulgares au moment de la transition de leur Etat au IXe siecle de la religion paienne en Christianisme orthodoxe. Ce n’est pas le temps comme phenomene qui fera objet de notre etude actuelle, mais sa conception philosophique ou theologique, autrement dit la vision du temps qu’une societe cree. Cette vision est tres importante pour l’etude d’une culture ou d’une civilisation car c’est le temps qui est au cœur de la conscience de la societe et des conceptions de tous les phenomenes naturels. La liaison entre la conception de temps et la religion est hors de doute. Le cale...

This chapter presents the structure and contents of the separate units of which the glossary consists. In the selection of words for the glossary, author has stuck to the broadest possible meaning of "legal vocabulary". Thus, included in the glossary are not only terms in the strict sense of the word, but likewise all words related in some way to law and to the linguistic expression of legal acts, institutes, persons, institutions, objects, etc. The author offers a historical and juridical interpretation of the respective word, including clarification of its concrete legal meaning, which alone is of interest to us. Together with this, the meaning of the word is clarified in the course of its development and in the concrete historical environment of mediaeval Bulgaria, as well as in the framework of the concrete text in which one can find it. The chapter also presents the abbreviations used in citations.Keywords: legal vocabulary; mediaeval Bulgarian

This chapter outlines specific problem in the investigations on mediaeval Bulgarian history and culture: the specific legal vocabulary. Whereas even after the adoption of Christianity the First Bulgarian Empire preserved a large number of institutions inherited from the pagan state of the Bulgars - institutions based on Eurasian Steppe traditions, the Second Bulgarian Empire was entirely under the influence of the Byzantine traditions of statehood. This explains why Byzantine legal culture dominated so categorically in Bulgaria during the latter period. The chapter endeavours to trace this process with respect to the legal vocabulary in a wider range of texts. The author presents his views on problems such as law and identity, law and values, law and language. He prepares a research on the entire legal vocabulary of the Bulgarian Middle Ages.Keywords: Bulgarian legal vocabulary; middle ages

Taxation and taxation systems in Bulgaria in the Middle Ages can be discussed in the context of the final formation of the state system. The era of the Second Empire provides a somewhat greater amount of information, as one has several imperial documents from that time. It is precisely data from that period that will be the basis of this chapter. The chapter introduces the fiscal vocabulary and its interpretation, the titles of the officials of the fiscal offices, and the taxes, corvees and auxiliary objects. For obvious reasons, the fiscal terminology is most widely covered in the charters of the Bulgarian rulers of the Middle Ages and, also for obvious reasons, it is absent from the Law for Judging the People, which does not regulate issues relevant to this subject matter.Keywords: Bulgarian fiscal system; Bulgarian legal vocabulary; Bulgarian mediaeval law; taxation systems

In our article we propose a case study on the character of the veneration of neomartyrs of Sofia in the 16th century and a review of the related literature. We try to argue that the aims of their veneration were religious and political, and that these aims were attained through the exaltation of the Christian faith and the creation and maintaining of a historical memory. The direction of the intended results, however, is not anti-Ottoman, but anti-Islamic; the veneration urged to consolidate the Orthodox Christian congregation. It is to the people of the Orthodox confession, not to the national (in this period mostly “ethnical”) community, that the veneration of the neomartyrs was addressed. The strengthening of the congregation could be achieved excellently through the martyr’s bearing witness (having in mind that “martyros” means “witness” in Greek); the martyr adds holiness to the place and sacralizes the space of the city, and finally of the whole political milieu. The witness i...

Methodius’s translation of the John the Scholastic’s Synagogue of 50 titles, and the very archaic Slavonic compilation « Law for judging people », based upon the 17th chapter of the Byzantine Eclogue are representative of the legal interests of the Panonian archbishop. These two works illustrate the process of adoption of Byzantine civil and canon law by the Slavs in the third quarter the 9th century. Methodius’ translation is one of the most important Slavonic translations. It attests to the richness of the Slavonic literary language, and reveals the definite influence of the Moravian literary school in the reception of the Byzantine Law. The authorship of the « Law of judging people » may be inferred from the reference to the ecclesiastical supremacy of the author and to his great authority in legal matters. The article draws the attention to the passages on the right of asylum and to the use of Codex Theodosianus, XVI, 10, 23 as a very probable source for the first article of thi...

Methodius’s translation of the John the Scholastic’s Synagogue of 50 titles, and the very archaic Slavonic compilation « Law for judging people », based upon the 17th chapter of the Byzantine Eclogue are representative of the legal interests of the Panonian archbishop. These two works illustrate the process of adoption of Byzantine civil and canon law by the Slavs in the third quarter the 9th century. Methodius’ translation is one of the most important Slavonic translations. It attests to the richness of the Slavonic literary language, and reveals the definite influence of the Moravian literary school in the reception of the Byzantine Law. The authorship of the « Law of judging people » may be inferred from the reference to the ecclesiastical supremacy of the author and to his great authority in legal matters. The article draws the attention to the passages on the right of asylum and to the use of Codex Theodosianus, XVI, 10, 23 as a very probable source for the first article of this work. These two legal sources attest to the importance of missionary activity among neophytes with clearness of meaning and abridged form of the content. They show the significance of law and legal culture in the early development of Slavonic literature in Great Moravia.

The book presents an investigation into the legal language of mediaeval Bulgaria, seen in its own cultural context: the Byzantine Commonwealth. Law and Language are cultural phenomena and their interdependence is closely linked to their civilisation in which they are embedded.

This article is devoted to the question concerning the conceptualization of power and its religious basis in pre-modern societies, carried out through a study of the inauguration rituals – especially the marriage – that mark not only the instigation of the power of the ruler but also suggests its religious basis, conceptualization and justification. It is grounded on source material from Byzantium and its legacy in the countries of South-Eastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean. The analysis has shown the woman as legitimating power in the case of royalty in connection with its correspondence to marriage. The legitimation and confirmation of the kingship in some pagan cultures passed through a hierogamy, conceived as a unity with the universal harmony in the image of a chthonic goddess. From the Christian point of view the relations between the royal bride and the bridegroom was under the archetypal model of the relation of Jesus Christ to His Church. He (Christ and the christia...