PRIMERI EVROPSKIH IZVORA NA ROMANSKIM JEZICIMA U SLUŽBI KULTURNE BAŠTINE LESKOVCA I OKOLINE

Abstract

e period of the establishment of fruitful trade relations between the Ottoman Empire and Europe, from the 15th to the 18th century, is actually the period when many envoys and travel writers wrote in their reports about the Balkans, including the south of Serbia, which was under foreign rule at that time. Speaking about the sources important for the study of Leskovac and its surroundings, we can say that they represent a fertile and very diverse material and we can categorize them into travel reports, travel diaries, chronicles, epistles, dictionaries and lists. Their charm is all the greater because they are written in different European languages. The largest number of sources are in the Latin language, while a certain number of sources were written and published in other Romance languages, such as French, Spanish, Portuguese, as well as in varieties of the Old Italian language. This fact sheds light on some new research that goes beyond previous conclusions based only on the analysis of Ottoman and Cyrillic sources and opens the door to some new research based on the study f sources on Roman sources that are important testimonies and an important part of the cultural heritage of the South of Serbia