FILOZOFSKI FAKULTET U SARAJEVU

RADOVI
KNJIGA XIV/1
(Historija, Historija umjetnosti, Arheologija)
Ova knjiga Radova posveena je prof. dr. Ibrahimu Tepiu (1947-1997)
povodom ezdesetogodinjice roenja i desetogodinjice smrti
SARAJEVO
2010
RADOVI
Filozofskog fakulteta u Sarajevu
(Historija, Historija umjetnosti, Arheologija)
Knjiga XIV/1
2010.
Ova knjiga Radova posveena je prof. dr. Ibrahimu Tepiu (1947-1997)
povodom ezdesetogodinjice roenja i desetogodinjice smrti
REDAKCIONI ODBOR
Srebren Dizdar, Enver Imamovi, Dubravko Lovrenovi, Pejo okovi,
Zijad ehi, Senadin Musabegovi, Mirza Hasan eman, Snjeana Vasilj
REDAKCIJA
Enes Pelidija, Esad Kurtovi, Edin Radui, Aladin Husi, Amila Kasumovi,
Fahd Kasumovi, Salmedin Mesihovi, Amir Duranovi
SEKRETAR REDAKCIJE
Emir O. Filipovi
UREDNIK
Vesna Mueta-Aeri
Nauna gledita u pojedinim prilozima odraz su stavova autora,
a ne nuno i Redakcije asopisa.
Ovaj broj Radova dio je izdavake aktivnosti
Filozofskog fakulteta u Sarajevu planirane za 2008.
411
Dubravko Lovrenovi: Na klizitu povijesti (Sveta kruna
ugarska i sveta kruna bosanska 1387-1463),
Synopsis, Zagreb-Sarajevo, 2006, 808 pp.

Dubravko Lovrenovi, professor of medieval European history at the University

of Sarajevo, has chosen to entitle his new study The Landslide of History. The landside
in question is a result and reflection of the relations between Hungary and Bosnia
from the accession of Sigismund of Luxemburg to the Hungarian throne in 1387,
to the fall of the Bosnian medieval kingdom in 1463. Lovrenovi presents a wealth
of new historical material and a much needed new analysis of Bosnian medieval
history. Using already published sources, but also his own research in the archives
and libraries of Dubrovnik, Zadar, Zagreb, Belgrade, Berlin and Budapest, he closely
examines the nature of these relations, offering an original and fresh approach to the
history of Bosnia in the Middle Ages.
The book is separated into eight chronologically arranged and conveniently
subdivided chapters in which Lovrenovi concentrates on the political, economic
and cultural influence of Hungary on the development of the Bosnian state. It comes
with all the essential scholarly apparatus: a general index, footnotes, bibliography
and an unparalleled array of maps and illustrations which make the text much easier
to follow. His overarching argument is that Hungarian-Bosnian relations fit in one of
several feudal-dynastic models of Medieval Europe, best compared to the history of
Anglo-French relations. He also argues that it is necessary to draw the line between
the legal claims of Hungarian rulers and the factual state. If this is done the long
argued thesis concerning Hungarian sovereignity over Bosnia would lose much of
its persuasive power.
For a long time it was thought that the Bosnian kingdom was a vassal of the
Hungarian Holy Crown of St Stephen, which, on the basis of its patronage rights,
laid claim on Bosnia. Lovrenovi dismisses this theory. He gives a detailed overview
of the military campaigns of King Sigismund in Bosnia in the first decade of the 15
th

century, emphasizing that religious disputes were not the moving spirit behind these
campaigns. He argues instead that Sigismunds objective was to win the Bosnian
Crown. In order to conceal his true intentions, Sigismund used a rhetoric which
branded the Bosnians as heretics and infidels.
412
emir o. filipovi
Although he was successful militarily, the high point being his victory at
Dobor in 1408, Sigismund failed politically in Bosnia. This meant that he had to
accept the will of the Bosnian magnates, who kept their right to decide who would
and could be king of Bosnia. They did not elect Sigismund, who already had
many European Crowns in his possession. And since the Bosnian Crown eluded
Sigismund, Lovrenovi concludes that it must have been an item much sought after
on the European market of crowns.
After finally giving up his aspirations to the Bosnian throne, Sigismund shifted
from military to diplomatic methods in his dealings with Bosnia. The tournament
held in Buda in 1412 was a sure sign of his reconciliation with the most powerful of
the Bosnian nobles, including the Bosnian king Ostoja. They were all present at this
magnificent and splendid event, but the period of peace and harmony did not last.
In 1415 Hungarian forces encountered the allied army of Bosnians and Ottoman
Turks in the valley of the river Lava in central Bosnia, and were utterly defeated.
This brought a significant change to the relations between Bosnia and Hungary, as
afterward Hungarian political pressure on Bosnia weakened, while Bosnia entered
the much more powerful sphere of Ottoman control. Lovrenovi characterises
Bosnias plight in the years that followed (14161443) as being caught between the
Ottoman hammer and the Hungarian anvil.
Although Lovrenovi claims that the territories of the Hungarian and Bosnian
Crowns were separate feudal entities in all segments of legal, ecclesiastical-political and
financial aspects, he does not ignore Hungarys direct spiritual and cultural influence
on Bosnia. This is evident in the many institutions that Bosnia adopted from her
powerful neighbour, such as the political concept of the Holy Crown, a Christo-
centric ruling ideology, sepulchral architecture, chivalry and heraldry. Therefore,
Bosnia was firmly linked via Hungary to the culture of the Western and Central
European royal courts. But Hungary did not only act as a conduit bringing a Western
and Central European model to Bosnia. She also served as an independent role model
for the Bosnian medieval kingdom in her own right. As Lovrenovi shows nowadays
it is impossible to research Bosnian medieval history without situating it into this
wider political and cultural region, and contextualising it with contemporary
European history.
Among the many other points he discusses, the most important is his theory on the
coronation of Bosnian King Tvrtko Kotromani in 1377. Historians had previously
identified the town of Mileevo in Serbia, the burial place of the Serbian saint Sava, as
the place where Tvrtko was crowned as The King of Serbs and Bosnia, but Professor
Lovrenovi offers a new opinion, siting the coronation in the Bosnian town of Mile
(today the village of Arnautovii near Visoko). In doing so, he takes up a trail left by
the Benedictine historian Mauro Orbini in Il Regno degli Slavi, which was published
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dubravko lovrenovi: na klizitu povijesti (sveta kruna ugarska i sveta kruna bosanska 1387-1463)
in Pesaro in 1601. Historians were misled by Orbinis obvious confusion of the
Serbian Mileevo with the Bosnian Mile. Even though the coronation doesnt fit
into the proposed chronological limits of his book (1387-1463), Lovrenovi clarifies
a picture distorted by a mistaken interpretation of the sources. He believes that this
event had an enormous influence on later relations between Hungary and Bosnia.
Apart from this, he also recognizes the exceptional importance of the move of the
Bosnian bishopric to territory under Hungarian control in mid 13
th
century. It was
that which gave rise to the popular Bosnian Church. According to Lovrenovi, this
institution was a fully organized state Church which performed all the usual political
rituals and, through its sacralisation of the ruling ideology, made possible the factual
independence of the Bosnian crown from the Archiregnum Hungaricum.
Lovrenovis is a thoroughly documented study which opens up new perspectives
and explains the complex situation Bosnia found itself in during the 15
th
century,
situated in the Bermuda triangle between the Holy See, the Hungarian Crown,
and the Ottoman Turks. There is little doubt that it will prove to be an attractive,
highly readable and informative study for anyone interested not only in medieval
Bosnia, but also in the history of the wider region of East-Central Europe in the
Middle Ages.
emir o. filipovi