20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

592 A. GirfanovaKonstantin wrote the book in Polish during his stay in Poland, stressingthat it is in full compliance with the interests of Kazimir, the Polish king,who waged struggle against the Polish gentry (szlachta) and condemnedthe Pope, these ideas being reflected in “The Notes…” For some reason D.Zhivanovich does not believe that Konstantin could learn how to writein Polish staying in Serbia.Thus, the linguists still disagree on the question of the originallanguage of “The Notes…” We cannot ignore, however, the evidence andobservations that Konstantin must have written the book sojourning in thePolish-Lithuanian state.In 1975, the first full German translation of “The Notes…” waspublished. In the preface to the book, K.P. Gaaze emphasizes that theliterary monument consists of three main parts: (1) the treatise on the anti-Turkish war; (2) facts about Muhammadanism (Islam) and the history ofthe Turks; (3) episodes in the Serbian history. Quite notable is that thepublishers themselves do not seem to believe that the author of the book,Konstantin, was a real person.Apart from having an obscure history, “The Notes…” has not yet beenanalysed from the point of view of source studies.Moreover, little is known about the life of Konstantin from Ostrovitsa.The location of the place itself is unclear, as there are several settlementsunder this name in Serbia alone. The age of the author can only beconjectured from his story about being captured (taken prisoner) by theTurks in Noviy Brdo (Serbia) in 1455 – he then describes himself as alreadyhaving come of age.The author’s origin seems quite hazy, too. On the one hand, his brother,who was captured together with him, was in charge of the Sultan’s Treasuryin 1463. On the other hand, the extent to which Konstantin himself wasunaware of the Serbian literary tradition and religious literature is shocking.After the fall of Constantinople he returned to his home country and livedin the town of Novy Brdo, where he was taken prisoner by the Turks in1455. Whether or not he was a yanychar remains an open question.Furthermore, though he does not explicitly call himself a janychar, he,however, is rather inconsistent in his self-identification – describing theassault against Belgrade, he in a way alienates himself from the janychares(“And then we saw the janycharres fleeing…”), but later, telling about theraid on Trapesund in 1459, he reckons himself among them.No less contradictory is his figure in connection with religion –Konstantin is very well acquainted with the tenets of Islam, he knows thecustoms and rituals, quotes long prayers in Arabic. Yet, he does not give