Countries and cities of 10th century West Balkans according to Constantine Porphyrogenitus on the map of Guillaume Delisle

Abstract

The paper discusses the perception of countries and cities of 10th century West Balkans according to Constantine Porphyrogenitus VII, as displayed on Guillaume Delisle's map and some recent findings within the field of historical geography. The aim of the paper is to argue the mid-10th century West Balkans map and identify the pioneer Slavic settlements on the basis of two mutually connected sources. The first one is De administrando Imperio by Constantine Porphyrogenitus VII dating back from mid-10th century, and the other one is a poorly studied but priceless map designed by Guillaume Delisle, a French cartographer, titled "Eastern Empire and neighboring regions of Constantine Porphyrogenitus ". According to Anselmo Banduri, a Benedictine scholar and historian from Dubrovnik, who wrote an extensive writing that became a part of Parisian corpus along with the latest edition of the famous Porphyrogenitus's essay, the map was designed around 1718.

U ovom radu se raspravlja o percepciji zemalja i gradova zapadnog Balkana X veka po Konstantinu VII Porfirogenitu, prema karti De Lila i nekim novijim saznanjima na polju istorijske geografije. Cilj ovoga rada je da razmotri kartu zapadnog Balkana polovinom 10. veka i da identifikuje prve slovenske "naseljene gradove", na osnovu dva međusobno povezana izvora. Prvi izvor je delo Konstantina VII Porfirogenita De administrando Imperio, nastalo sredinom 10. veka, a drugi je do sada malo proučena ali dragocena karta francuskog kartografa Gijom de Lila (Guillelmo del' isle) "Istočna imperija i okolni regioni prema Konstantinu Porfirogenitu^. Karta je izrađena oko 1718. godine prema komentaru benediktinca i istaknutog istoričara Anselma Bandurija, poreklom iz Dubrovnika, autora obimnog dela koje je ušlo u Pariski korpus, zajedno sa novim izdanjem čuvenog Porfirogenitovog spisa