This book has been designed as a study guide to Serbian mediaeval law, which has been practically unknown outside of the Serbo-Croatian speaking area. With the exception of the Law Code of Stefan Dušan, which has been translated into most major world languages, such as English, French, German, Russian and Italian, the other sources have remained out of reach of most scholars’ attention. The majority of studies concerning Serbian mediaeval law have also been written in Serbian (or Serbo-Croatian) language. However, we also have just one book in Serbian that treats the complete matter of Serbian mediaeval law. This is the monograph of the former professor of Belgrade University, in the Faculty of Law, Teodor Taranovski,1 under the title History of Serbian Law in Nemanjić’s State (Историја српског права у немањићкој држави), (Belgrade 1931–1935; second edition Belgrade 1996). Although this excellent book represents an invaluable study guide for anyone who wants to make acquaintance with Serbian mediaeval law, some of the author’s conclusions seem to be unacceptable today. Naturally, a lot of works have been written on the subject between 1935 and today.
I hope that this book might be useful for everyone who has interest in the history of the Middle Ages, especially Serbian and Byzantine legal history, but who cannot read literature in the Serbo-Croatian language.
Serbian Cyrillic Теодор Тарановски; Russian Фëдор Васильевич Тарановский; 12/24 May 1875–1823 January 1936. Taranovski was born in Plonsk (Polish Płońsk, Russian Плоньск), at that time in Russia, today in Poland, to a Russian father and Polish mother. He went to school in Warsaw (Warszawa) and studied and graduated from the Russian Law Faculty in Warsaw. He spent several years in Germany and France, where he studied legal history. Taranovski’s University career started in 1903 in Warsaw. Before coming to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Yugoslavia), he taught at the Universities of Yaroslavl (Ярославль), Yuryev (Юрьев, today Tartu, ex Dorpat in Estonia) and Saint Petersburg (Санкт Петербург). He left Russia in January 1919, and arrived in Belgrade in March 1920. Already in April 1920 he was appointed Professor of History of the Slavonic Laws at the Faculty of Law in Belgrade, where he taught until his death in 1936. On his life and career, see J. Danilović, “Doprinos T. Taranovskog srpskoj pravnoj istoriografiji” [“Contribution of T. Taranovski to Serbian Legal Historiography”], preface to the second edition of T. Taranovski’s Istorija srpskog prava u nemanjićkoj državi (Belgrade 1996), pp. 7–18.