For many years, the book of Mavro Orbini's “Slavic Kingdom” has been regarded by historians exclusively as a semi-mythical creation of past eras, which, however, is based on real facts. It is Orbini who belongs to 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, noting on the map the sphere of influence of the Slavic tribes.
Mavro Orbini
Orbini was born in Dubrovnik, Croatia, and from an early age he 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 broke up into unions, which gradually turned into significantly different tribes.
In his youth, Orbini met Isaiah Cohen, a wanderer who, by chance, ended up in Dubrovnik. It was Cohen who inspired the young monk to study, describe and study the roots of his own people in order to perpetuate his wealth and preserve this information for posterity.
Writing a book
The work “Slavic Kingdom” by Mavro Orbini is built on the principle of the classical ethnographic encyclopedia, which is divided into special chapters, each of which is devoted to a separate aspect of the activities of the people.
Mavro began collecting information for his work in the monastery library. When all the information about the Slavs in it ended, he asked for permission to go on a journey to collect more information for work.
At this time, Mavro became interested in the famous philanthropist Marine Bobalevich, who took upon himself all the costs of maintaining the 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 rehabilitating the reputation of the Slavic peoples, as it showed the indestructible power of this people, described in detail the military exploits of the Slavs and achievements in trade and production of various products.
What is this book about?
The voluminous work of Mavro Orbini tells the story of all Slavic peoples. Starting from the moment of their resettlement and ending with the decline of Slavic civilization. The scientist, without hesitation, ranked the Avars, Goths, Getae, Alans, or Ilirs tribes among the Slavs, which allowed historians to argue about the existence of multiculturalism and a multinational society on the territory of the Slavic land even at that time. In the "Slavic Kingdom" Mavro describes in detail the legislative and military system of the Slavs, military and trade campaigns, the development of crafts and the creation of large-scale production of various goods.
The scientist also pays great attention to architecture, literature, the visual arts of the people.
Some sources used by Mavro do not inspire confidence among modern historians, as they are either considered lost or are proven ancient falsification. In total, in a scientific study, Orbini used about two hundred information sources, which undoubtedly affected the quality and information value of the Slavic Kingdom.
In Russia
In 1722, by direct decree of Peter the Great, Orbini’s work was translated into Russian and, with minor reductions, published under the title Historiography, becoming a significant help for Russian encyclopedic scholars 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 Reformation supporters was to tarnish 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, the book of Mavro Orbini was banned in Western Europe.
For a number of reasons, Russian historians also paid almost no attention to the unique book “Slavic Kingdom”, preferring to be based on more modern and superficial works of their colleagues, while it is precisely in Orbini's work that contains a lot of truly unique data on the history and culture of Slavic peoples.