"Slavic Kingdom" Mavro Orbini: myth or reality

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The book of Mavro Orbini "The Slavic Kingdom" has been considered by historians for many years only as a semi-mythical creation of past eras, which, however, is based on real facts. It was Orbini who had the honor of being the first researcher of the life, culture, and art of the ancient Slavs. The scientist also described all the trade relations of this people and military campaigns, marking on the map the sphere of influence of the Slavic tribes.

Mavro Orbini

Orbini was born in Dubrovnik, Croatia, and from an early age was a servant in a Benedictine monastery. From a young age, Mavro was interested in the history and culture of the Slavic peoples, suggesting that earlier all the tribes were one powerful people, which now, for various reasons, has broken up into unions, gradually turning into tribes that are significantly different from each other.

In his youth, Orbini met Isaiah Cohen, a wanderer who, by the will of circumstances, ended up inDubrovnik. It was Cohen who inspired the young monk to study, describe and research the roots of his own people in order to perpetuate his heritage and preserve this information for posterity.

Writing a book

The work "Slavic Kingdom" by Mavro Orbini is built on the principle of a classic ethnographic encyclopedia, which is divided into special chapters, each of which is devoted to a separate aspect of the people's activities.

Mavro began collecting information for his work in the monastery library. When all the information about the Slavs in it ran out, he asked permission to go on a journey in order to collect more information for work.

At this time, the well-known philanthropist Marin Bobalievich became interested in Mavro's achievements, who took on all the expenses for the maintenance of Mavro, and also paid for all his travels and travel expenses.

With the help of Marina Orbini I managed to visit Italy and travel all over Europe. As a result, a huge work was first published in 1601, in Pesaro, in Italian.

The publication of the "Slavic Kingdom" was of great political importance in the rehabilitation of the reputation of the Slavic peoples, as it showed the invincible power of this people, described in detail the military exploits of the Slavs and achievements in trade and the production of various products.

What is the book about?

The voluminous work of Mavro Orbini tells the story of all Slavic peoples. Starting from the moment of their settlement and ending with the decline of the Slavic civilization. The scientist, without hesitation, ranked among the Slavstribes of Avars, Goths, Getae, Alans, Ilirs, which allowed historians to talk about the existence of multiculturalism and a multinational society already in those days on the territory of the Slavic land. In the "Slavic Kingdom" Mavro describes in detail the legislative and military system of the Slavs, military and trading campaigns, the development of crafts and the creation of large-scale production of various goods.

Also, the scientist pays great attention to architecture, literature, fine arts of the people.

Some of the sources used by Mavro do not inspire confidence in modern historians, as they are considered either lost or are proven ancient falsifications. In total, in a scientific study, Orbini used about two hundred information sources, which undoubtedly affected the quality and informational value of the "Slavic Kingdom".

In Russia

In 1722, by direct decree of Peter I, Orbini's work was translated into Russian and published with minor abbreviations under the title "Historiography", becoming a significant help for Russian encyclopedic scientists studying the history of their native country.

Criticism

Negative information about the "Slavic kingdom" was distributed mainly by agents of the Catholic Church solely for political reasons. The goal of the supporters of the Reformation was to denigrate the reputation of their religious opponents, which led not only to a split in the Church, but also to a long political war.

Two years after the publication of Mavro's bookOrbini was banned in Western Europe.

Domestic historians, for a number of reasons, also practically did not pay attention to the unique book "Slavic Kingdom", preferring to rely on the more modern and superficial works of their colleagues, while Orbini's work contains a lot of truly unique data about history and culture Slavic peoples.