Review article
On the Tracs of Late Mediaeval Literature in the Požega Area
Željko Tomičić
orcid.org/0000-0002-6780-1887
Abstract
In a short overview, the author deals with several metal book fittings (book edges) unearthed during archaeological-conservation excavations in the town of Požega and its surroundings. During the course of archaeological-conservation excavations in 1988, a sample of book edges that were part of the fittings of a late mediaeval book was found at the site of St. Laurentius Church in Požega, while at the site of the Benedictine abbey of St. Michael in Rudina, a group of typologically and chronologically relevant samples of metal fittings from several different books, most probably of a devotional character, were unearthed. The author proposes typological relationships between the unearthed archaeological finds, pointing to a similarity in craftwork and to connections with late mediaeval centres of religious and worldly power, testifying to the need of the late mediaeval population of Slavonia for devotional texts in the last third of the fifteenth century. The unearthed finds clearly fit into the cultural and historical ecumene of the central Danubian Region in the last decade of the Middle Ages, thus forming a discernible whole with other related and contemporaneous finds identified in the interfluve of the Drava, Danube and Sava rivers, and clearly fitting into the cultural heritage of the Europe of the time. The finds of interesting book fittings from Požega and Rudina, whose significance has not been recognized until recently, send a clear message about the great importance of the town of Požega and its wider area, and also its active participation in shaping the cultural and historical landscape of a Slavonia integrated in Matthias Corvinus’ Hungarian-Croatian Empire.
Keywords
Požega; St. Laurentius Church; abbey of St. Michael in Rudina metal book fittings; Late Mediaeval
Hrčak ID:
97364
URI
Publication date:
15.11.2012.
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