Reflection of daily life in medieval inscriptions and notes from Serbia and Bosnia (12th–16th centuries)

Krstić, Aleksandar (2023) Reflection of daily life in medieval inscriptions and notes from Serbia and Bosnia (12th–16th centuries). Analele Banatului, serie nouă, Arheologie – Istorie, XXXI. pp. 181-191. ISSN 1221-678X

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Abstract

Inscriptions on buildings, wall paintings and tombstones, as well as marginal notes of copyists and readers of books are important sources for the study of daily life in Serbia and Bosnia in the Middle Ages. They contain information about the erection and painting of churches and monasteries, their founders, builders and painters, and sometimes about the reasons and circumstances in which these buildings were created. The tombstone inscriptions can offer basic information about deceased persons and their lives and often depict the beliefs, ethics and culture of the nobility. Records of copyists, translators and manuscript illuminators reveal both religious motives that led them to accept this endeavor, as well as various difficulties they faced in their work (from inadequate sources, poor quality writing material, to the difficult conditions in which they copied, translated and decorated books – cold, hunger, lack of sleep, sight problems, social disturbances and wars). Similar marginalia about the difficulties they encountered in everyday life, about illness, death or fear of the Turks were often left by the readers of these books, and empty pages or margins in the books were sometimes used to list someone’s income and expenses, draft private contracts or record global and local news

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