Books by Marian Coman
Co-edited volumes by Marian Coman
Călători străini despre țările române. Supliment III. , 2022
Călători străini despre țările române. Supliment III. , 2022
Călători străini despre țările române. Supliment III. , 2022
Cǎlǎtori strǎini despre Ţǎrile Române. Supliment II , 2016
Papers by Marian Coman
Materiale și Cercetări Arheologice (MCA), 2024
The present paper aims to provide an interpretation of the dynamics of the largest medieval funer... more The present paper aims to provide an interpretation of the dynamics of the largest medieval funerary complex known so far in Wallachia (the site of Buftea – La Cârna/Mănești, generically dated between the 14th and 17th centuries), using the coins associated to the burials as a documentary basis. Obviously, such an approach has certain weaknesses, such as the use of a single element of analysis as terminus post quem indicator, the low percentage of burials with coins (less than 7%), etc. However, given the fact that the site was investigated in two distinct stages three decades apart, time bringing great changes in the theory and practice of archaeology, a reference system to report on the various specific aspects of both the earlier and the future research, a system perhaps vulnerable at the moment, but perfectible in time. The purpose of the article is to provide a historical interpretive framework for the archaeological finds from Buftea – La Cârna/Mănești, thus connecting the funerary finds with the socio‑economic and political changes that took place in medieval Wallachia, around Bucharest, from the end of the 14th to the beginning of the 17th century.
Turkiye-Romania Joint Military History Symposium, ed. Bunyamin Kocaoglu, Ahmet Tașdemir, 2023
Of more than fifty lords ruled Wallachia from 1418 to 1632, only four directly inherited the thro... more Of more than fifty lords ruled Wallachia from 1418 to 1632, only four directly inherited the throne. Usually, a bid for the throne was decades long and it took extremely convoluted routes, as a successful pretender needed to gather a wide-ranging coalition of supporters and allies. The competition for the throne often led to open military confrontations and the armies involved in such battles were usually mixed. Throughout this period, the slow integration of the realm into the Ottoman Empire brought significant changes into the game of Wallachian politics and, more often than not, the Ottoman troops were actively participating to these battles. The aim of this article, which has a threefold structure, is to investigate the military confrontations for the throne of Wallachia. The first part will sketch a few methodological caveats, by mapping the different distortions of the primary sources, both intentional and unintentional. The second part proposes a broad overview, delineating the main phases in the history of the military confrontations for the throne of Wallachia from 1418 to 1632. Finally, the third and last section of the study attempts to theorize the main rules of engagement, trying to define the circumstances, conditions and manners in which a battle for the throne of Wallachia took (or did not take) place, with a special focus on the involvement of the Ottoman contingents.
Maps and Colours. A Complex Ralationship, ed. Diana Lange, Benjamin van der Linde, 2024
Link: https://brill.com/display/title/60529?language=en
Genealogisches Wissen in Mittelalter und Früher Neuzeit Konstruktion – Darstellung – Rezeption, ed. Giuseppe Cusa and Thomas Dorfner, 2023
Istoria ca pasiune. Studii oferite profesorului Alexandru-Florin Platon la împlinirea a 65 de ani, 2022
REVUE DES ÉTUDES SUD-EST EUROPÉENNES, 2022
The present study addresses the complex and ambiguous relationship between Enlightenment adventur... more The present study addresses the complex and ambiguous relationship between Enlightenment adventurers and cartography. In order to authenticate their travel experiences and to fabricate a geographical expertise, the adventurers pointed out the flaws of known maps and, simultaneously, pretended to have possession of secret, better, ones. They especially exploited the gaps in the cartographic knowledge of the regions situated at the very margins of Europe, such as the Ottoman Empire. Such was the case with the Transylvanian-Suisse charlatan Ridolfo Damiano de Brűnnetz, the main character of this article. In 1716, taking advantage of the Habsburgs’ interest for Wallachia, this adventurer wrote a memorandum in an attempt to impress the potential employer with his geographical knowledge of the realm. However, Ridolfo Damiano de Brűnnetz’s alleged expertise was an unconvincing pretence, as his description of Wallachia reveals a rather patchy and superficial
knowledge. Nonetheless, at the core of his memorandum lies a detailed and systematic geographical description of Wallachia, extremely rich in place-names (no fewer than 503). The main contention of this article is that the memorandum is a pseudo-gazetteer of the 1700 map of Wallachia printed at Padua. Ridolfo Damiano de Brűnnetz’s prose cartography was, to a large extent, a veiled reading of this map.
REVUE DES ÉTUDES SUD-EST EUROPÉENNES, 2022
Transilvania, 2022
The article focuses on a case-study of a scientific dialogue (or lack of it) between the Marxist ... more The article focuses on a case-study of a scientific dialogue (or lack of it) between the Marxist sociologist Henri H. Stahl and Romanian historians. The first section of the study, A failed dialogue, examines the various rhetorical strategies used by Henri H. Stahl when addressing an audience of historians. Stahl's increasingly irritated tone, triggered by what he perceived to be his marginalization by professional historians, seems only partially justified. The reception of Stahl's studies of historical sociology was heterogeneous, but despite some positive reviews his contributions remained rather overlooked in the field of historiography. The second section of the article, The taxonomy of Romanian historiography, looks at the historians through the lenses of Stahl's scientific references and late life interviews. Apart from Iorga, to whom Stahl was emotionally and intellectually attached, the sociologist classified Romanian historians in four categories: (1) respected, but out dated; (2) meticulous, but rather thick; (3) pseudo-socialising and dangerous; (4) useful and trans-disciplinary. In the end, Stahl's growing frustration with Romanian historiography seems to be best explained by his failure to initiate a methodological revolution in the field.
Enciclopedia reprezentanților scrisului istoric românesc, 2022
Andreescu, Ștefan; Arion, Dinu; Barbu, Daniel; Bogdan, Damian; Câmpina, Barbu; Ciocîltan, Virgil;... more Andreescu, Ștefan; Arion, Dinu; Barbu, Daniel; Bogdan, Damian; Câmpina, Barbu; Ciocîltan, Virgil; Conea, Ion; Dionisie Ecleziarhul; Eskenazy, Filip Victor; Giurescu, Constantin; Lăzărescu, Emil-Constantin; Lukacs, Antal; Murgescu, Bogdan; Sacerdoțeanu, Aurelian
Studii și Materiale de Istorie Medie, 2018
This article aims to investigate how the memory of war was shaped by
the Wallachian chancery in t... more This article aims to investigate how the memory of war was shaped by
the Wallachian chancery in the sixteenth century. It takes a comparative
approach, by looking at the historical memory of war in chancery charters, in chronicles and in stone funeral inscriptions. The article mainly focuses on the most spectacular war descriptions in the sixteenth century Wallachian charters, those of the battles from Fântâna Ţiganului (1538?) and Jiliştea (1574) in several charters given to the Goleşti boyars. The article is structured in four sections: (1) Historical memory. Chronicles and compositions like chroniclers; (2) Donative memory. The shedding of blood and the land grants; (3) Genealogical memory. The cartulary of the Vieroş monastery and the Goleşti boyars; (4) Charters, chroniclers and songs. The main contention of the article is that the Goleşti boyars’ heroic deeds thoroughly described in the charters preserved in a mid-18th century cartulary of the Vieroş monastery are late interpolations. The monks and a descendent of the 16th century boyars fabricated the charters for material and symbolic gains. The cartulary scribe used the oral traditions of the past in order to substantiate the historical context of the charters he rewrote. It is my suggestion that the genealogical memory of war was transmitted through oral epic songs.
Religious Rhetoric of Power in Byzantium and South-Eastern Europe, ed. Ivan Biliarsky, Mihail Mitrea and Andrei Timotin, 2021
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Books by Marian Coman
Co-edited volumes by Marian Coman
Papers by Marian Coman
knowledge. Nonetheless, at the core of his memorandum lies a detailed and systematic geographical description of Wallachia, extremely rich in place-names (no fewer than 503). The main contention of this article is that the memorandum is a pseudo-gazetteer of the 1700 map of Wallachia printed at Padua. Ridolfo Damiano de Brűnnetz’s prose cartography was, to a large extent, a veiled reading of this map.
the Wallachian chancery in the sixteenth century. It takes a comparative
approach, by looking at the historical memory of war in chancery charters, in chronicles and in stone funeral inscriptions. The article mainly focuses on the most spectacular war descriptions in the sixteenth century Wallachian charters, those of the battles from Fântâna Ţiganului (1538?) and Jiliştea (1574) in several charters given to the Goleşti boyars. The article is structured in four sections: (1) Historical memory. Chronicles and compositions like chroniclers; (2) Donative memory. The shedding of blood and the land grants; (3) Genealogical memory. The cartulary of the Vieroş monastery and the Goleşti boyars; (4) Charters, chroniclers and songs. The main contention of the article is that the Goleşti boyars’ heroic deeds thoroughly described in the charters preserved in a mid-18th century cartulary of the Vieroş monastery are late interpolations. The monks and a descendent of the 16th century boyars fabricated the charters for material and symbolic gains. The cartulary scribe used the oral traditions of the past in order to substantiate the historical context of the charters he rewrote. It is my suggestion that the genealogical memory of war was transmitted through oral epic songs.
knowledge. Nonetheless, at the core of his memorandum lies a detailed and systematic geographical description of Wallachia, extremely rich in place-names (no fewer than 503). The main contention of this article is that the memorandum is a pseudo-gazetteer of the 1700 map of Wallachia printed at Padua. Ridolfo Damiano de Brűnnetz’s prose cartography was, to a large extent, a veiled reading of this map.
the Wallachian chancery in the sixteenth century. It takes a comparative
approach, by looking at the historical memory of war in chancery charters, in chronicles and in stone funeral inscriptions. The article mainly focuses on the most spectacular war descriptions in the sixteenth century Wallachian charters, those of the battles from Fântâna Ţiganului (1538?) and Jiliştea (1574) in several charters given to the Goleşti boyars. The article is structured in four sections: (1) Historical memory. Chronicles and compositions like chroniclers; (2) Donative memory. The shedding of blood and the land grants; (3) Genealogical memory. The cartulary of the Vieroş monastery and the Goleşti boyars; (4) Charters, chroniclers and songs. The main contention of the article is that the Goleşti boyars’ heroic deeds thoroughly described in the charters preserved in a mid-18th century cartulary of the Vieroş monastery are late interpolations. The monks and a descendent of the 16th century boyars fabricated the charters for material and symbolic gains. The cartulary scribe used the oral traditions of the past in order to substantiate the historical context of the charters he rewrote. It is my suggestion that the genealogical memory of war was transmitted through oral epic songs.
Link: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/tmr/article/view/35244/38390
The functioning power networks of the medieval Balkan elites confronted a similar system of hierarchical networks of dependencies, initiated and led by the Ottoman dynasty. Following its own strategic agenda the established power networks in the Balkans either bitterly opposed and resisted the advance of the Ottoman polity or intermingled with the power networks presided by the Ottoman rulers. Ironically, not so rarely the conquerors of a given Balkan region, who in the mind frame of dominant historiographic tradition can be portrayed as the “Ottoman invaders”, appear to have originated from the local nobility thus being foreign to the conquered lands no more than those who resisted the “invasion”. In light of this, it seems little surprising that Balkan elites and their dependent power networks intermixed quite successfully with those networks that originated in Late Medieval Bithynia and carried the Ottoman banner into the Balkans. The complex mixture of mighty families of Anatolian or Balkan elites on Ottoman service, who had at their disposal substantial revenues and significant military contingents shaped entirely the history of the early Ottoman Balkans. Until the mid-sixteenth century, when the Ottoman central power gradually managed to replace the power networks of these elite families, they not only held big landed estates as private property, administered large parts of the Balkans, initiated close interaction with neighboring Christian rulers, shaped the Ottoman relationships with foreign powers by channeling the communication, but were also decisively involved in the enthronement of virtually every Ottoman ruler until Suleyman I (1521-1566), which reflected the political bids for power voiced by the noble families in the Ottoman Balkans and their clientelistic networks, manifested by patronage over religiously non-conformist groups’ literary, and architectural traditions.
Evolving around these considerations the workshop seeks to move away from the state- and religion-centered approach to the early Ottoman Balkans and invites for a more thorough examination of the complex web of political and personal relationships that extend beyond the local Balkan or imperial Ottoman boundaries tangled in a complex interplay of different relations between states, empires, elites and individuals with varying interests and agendas. In light of that, it suggests a thematic focus on the following intertwined themes:
Dynamics of power relations in a trans-imperial and regional context
- motives for joining a power network
- alliance building and collaboration within and outside the Ottoman domains
- alienation and factional politics within and outside the Ottoman domains
- political coalitions of Balkan elite families in Christian and Muslim context
- dynastic factionalism and the formation of networks
- power networks in times of dynastic struggles and political instability
- servants, agents and elite slaves as part of the power networks
Notables and their elite households
- royal and non-royal courts within and outside the palace
- extended households, kinship ties and clients
- military-administrative households and their clientelistic networks
- military contingents and manpower
- social groups manning the retinues
- exchange and mobility of soldiery
- trans-imperial and regional household relations
Regional lordships, large domains, and land tenure
- power bases and regional lordships: motives for reuse of seats of power and/or for establishing new ones
- spatial patterns of regional Balkan lordships
- hereditary rule over territories before and after the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans
- military fiefs, hereditary and tenancy rights
- pious foundations and landed estates
Patronage of the Balkan Christian and Muslim elites
- architectural patronage legitimizing local power and political authority
- literary patronage
- patronage over religious groups
- patronage over spiritual leaders
- patronage over shrines and other places of worship