The Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) submitted an author's text by its member, historian Dragutin Papović, "Duklja Culture at the End of the 12th and Beginning of the 13th Century."
We transmit the text in its entirety:
At the end of the 12th century, the Grand Prefect Stefan Nemanja annexed Duklja to Serbia (Raška) by destroying cities and conquering them. As historian Sima Ćirković states, it was not yet clear at that time whether Nemanja's state creation would last long, because that state was not centralized, but rather composed of constituent principalities dominated by old political frameworks and traditions. This mostly concerned Duklja, which differed significantly from Serbia in terms of political, religious and ethnic characteristics, as well as cultural characteristics. This is evidenced by Duklja's literacy, literature, painting and architecture.
Literary historian Dimitrije Bogdanović stated that the Chronicle (Kingdom of the Slavs) of the Priest of Dukljanin, as the main Dukljan writing from the 12th century, belongs in terms of content to Latin chronicles and Latin medieval historiography, while the earliest Serbian literature was created in the Macedonian-Glagolitic tradition. Bogdanović concluded that the Chronicle of the Priest of Dukljanin "in terms of literary characteristics and especially in terms of ideology, is completely separate from the mainstream of medieval Serbian historiography and hagiography". The chronicle is a fundamental work of Montenegrin literacy, literature and historiography, or as literary historian and linguist Danilo Radojević concluded, "a spiritual link with the Montenegrin early Middle Ages".
Cyrillic texts in Duklja were also influenced by Latin literacy and art. The first and most important preserved Cyrillic text from this period is the Gospel of Miroslav. It dates from the penultimate decade of the 1180th century and was written to "Prince Miroslav, son of Zavidin", the brother of Stefan Nemanja. Miroslav ruled Hum during the 1184s. The majority of the text was written by an anonymous scribe in the Zeta-Hum or Duklja orthography under the influence of the Beneventan angular script, which means that the scribe, according to Dimitrij Bogdanović, had a Latin scriptorial education. A smaller part of the text was written by a student of Gl(r)igorija in the Raša orthography, under the influence of Russian orthography, so that, although the entire text is written in the constitutional Cyrillic script, the two types of orthography are completely different. The Zeta-Hum (Duklja) orthography relies on earlier Glagolitic Romanesque texts from the coast, while the model for the Raša orthography is in Russian literary texts. According to historian Tomislav Raukar, the Cyrillic alphabet spread from its native Bulgaria and Macedonia to Serbia, Duklja, Hum, Bosnia and Croatia in the late 1250th and early XNUMXth centuries. It is interesting that the oldest preserved Croatian Cyrillic text "Povaljski prag" on Brač was created in XNUMX (preserved in a copy from XNUMX), that is, almost at the same time as Miroslav's Gospel. Cyrillic literacy in Croatia, Duklja, Hum and Bosnia formed the western Cyrillic area, which, as Raukar points out, differed graphologically and linguistically from Cyrillic in the eastern, Orthodox area.
The Gospel of Miroslav was created outside of Byzantine and Orthodox influence and exclusively under Latin literary and religious influence. This is also evidenced by the illuminations (miniatures) in the text, which, according to art historian Pavle Mijović, represent a fusion of late Attic, Byzantine and Italic fine art. Mijović concluded that the miniatures were made in the spirit of early Romanesque and Western miniature painting and that in terms of their quality and "brilliance of artistic equipment", this book surpassed all previously known illustrated Slavic books. He stated that "in relation to the entire body of old Serbian art, the Gospel of Miroslav stands as a solitary monument to a very complex artistic tradition, which was conceived in the Kingdom of Duklja under extraordinarily complicated conditions". In addition to their Romanesque models, these miniatures primarily reflect the expression of local art and reflect the birth of the "young feudal culture" of Duklja's early history. Mijović saw the source of this art in the combination of Byzantine art of the Basilians (Orthodox monks) and Latin Benedictines in southern Italy (Apulia and Campania) and that the original basis for the initials of the Miroslav Gospel is found in the Benedictine centers in Capua and Bobbio. The painting skill and style were transmitted by the Benedictines who came as missionaries to Duklja. Mijović believes that the Miroslav Gospel was not written or illuminated in the church of St. Peter in Bijelo Polje, but in some secular environment. It was probably in a scriptorium in one of the coastal towns of Duklja. Art historian Vojislav J. Đurić states that nearly three hundred miniatures in this gospel were done by just one painter. And Đurić points out that the decorations show "Western features", that the size and layout of the initials "correspond to Latin books", that "the initial letters are composed of elements characteristic of the Romanesque miniatures of Rome, Tuscany and southern Italy" and that the style "is in the spirit of the miniatures created in the Benedictine illuminator workshops in Campania and Apulia". Based on these features, Đurić concluded that Miroslav's Gospel "became an example of Zeta decoration of books".
The Nemanjićs also encountered different architecture and forms of applied art in the Duklja state. According to art historian Vojislav Korać, the architecture of Duklja was created in the late 12th and early 13th centuries under the influence of Western European architecture, with the mediation of neighboring Italian regions. In both political and religious terms, Duklja (Zeta) was part of the Western European world. While Duklja had a luxurious architectural wealth that spread from advanced coastal cities, which emerged under the influence of Byzantine and Western European culture, Serbia was dominated by architectural monotony and asceticism. That Duklja (Zeta) architecture was more advanced than the architecture of the Serbian conquerors is evidenced by Vojislav Korać's conclusion that the endowment of Stefan Nemanja Đurđeva stupovi near Novi Pazar was possibly built by the same craftsmen who built the Cathedral of St. Tryphon in Kotor. It is certain that the Serbian rulers hired craftsmen from Duklja (Zeta) to build endowments in Montenegro, thus adopting Romanesque architecture. These are the churches of St. Peter in Bijelo Polje, St. George (Đurđevi stupovi) in Berane, and the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Morača (Morački Monastery). They were influenced by the Zeta Romanesque, primarily in adapting the forms of Raška buildings to Romanesque forms.
Vojislav Korać pointed out that the church of St. Peter in Bijelo Polje does not resemble the first Raška churches, but that it was later adapted to Raška architecture. That there was probably a pre-Romanesque temple there that was renovated or expanded by Prince Miroslav is suggested by the conclusion of art historian Jovanka Maksimović, who pointed out that parts of sculptural stone decoration with pre-Romanesque stylistic features were found in the church of St. Peter. Art historian Tatjana Koprivica indicates that the older phase of the church of St. Peter dates back to between the 1190th and 1195th centuries. Art historian Tomislav Marasović states that it is typologically similar to the church of St. Nicholas (Mikula) in Veli Varoš in Split, which was built in the second half of the 1199th and early XNUMXth centuries. It is certain that the renovation of the church was financed by Prince Miroslav of Hum around XNUMX, but there is an opinion that it was completed only after his death, between XNUMX and XNUMX. Vojislav J. Đurić points out that the shape of the church of St. Peter's Church was designed according to the Romanesque basilicas and cathedrals in the West and was built by coastal masters. The monumental portal with the founder's inscription, the square dome and the rectangular apse were designed in the spirit of Dalmatian pre-Romanesque and Romanesque churches. Its cruciform base was created under the influence of Byzantine architecture. The two towers with a narthex are a feature of Raška architecture, but they also have similarities with the towers of the Cathedral of St. Tryphon in Kotor, so that in this segment too there are features of Western architecture. Because of this, it is questionable to which rite the original Church of St. Peter was dedicated - Catholic or Orthodox. That is why historian Mladen Ančić stated that it is not clear to which of these two confessions Prince Miroslav belonged. Since the mid-XNUMXth century, this church has been the seat of the Hum Episcopate. Based on this, the American Byzantologist John VA Fine (JR.) concluded that the Church of St. Peter with Bijelo Polje and Lim represented the border between Hum and Serbia. The Church of St. Peter probably dates from the Duklja period, as does the nearby Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Bogorodica Bistrička) in the Voljavac Monastery, on the right bank of the Lim River, along the present-day border of Montenegro and Serbia. The church was built, according to tradition, by King Mihailo Vojislavljević, and is architecturally similar to Mihailo's endowment church in Ston on the Pelješac peninsula.
The Church of St. George (Đurđeve stupove) near Berane was built by the prefect Prvoslav, son of the great prefect Tihomir, who died in battle against his younger brother Stefan Nemanja in 1168. Prvoslav's building dates back to 1213. Vojislav J. Đurić pointed out that the original building, a single-nave church with a dome, resembles the Kotor Romanesque churches of St. Luke and St. Mary more than the churches of Raška. Later additions gave it elements of Raška architecture. The plan of the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Morača from 1251–2, whose founder was Vukan's son Stefan, has features of Raška architecture, modeled on the church of the Žiča monastery, while the windows with stone plastic elements are made in the Romanesque spirit. The sculpture of the western portal of the church is made in the spirit of Italian Romanesque, while the granite episcopal throne, in form and figural decorations, is similar to episcopal seats in southern Italy and is the only such example in Montenegro. In addition, elements of folk art are represented in the Morača sculpture.
Despite the fact that the Dukla state was annexed to the Nemanjić state at the end of the 12th century, its cultural, ethnic and religious peculiarities continued their special development. And what is more important, Dukla culture was significantly more developed than Serbian, so much so that it conquered Serbian rulers who copied the patterns of Dukla literacy, literature, painting and architecture.
Bonus video:
