S. N. LISHEV. Българският средневековен град. Sophia. Издательство на Българската Академия Науките. 1970. 223 pp.

In recent years, the medieval city has increasingly become an object of not only concrete, but also typological study. One of the types is a Balkan city and its individual types, such as a Dalmatian, Byzantine, or Turkish city1 . On the basis of new sources (tax inventories, market taxes), the period of the XV - XIX centuries is successfully studied, compared with which the previous era is very poorly provided with written monuments. That is why the study of the history of the Bulgarian city of the IX-XIV centuries, which was undertaken by the Bulgarian scientist S. Lishev, presents serious difficulties, compounded by the breadth of chronological framework, as well as the variety of problems faced by the author. The latter include the separation of the city from the agricultural environment, the system of its commodity relations, the problem of urban independence, the degree of division of labor, the social organization of crafts and trade, and finally, the social stratification of citizens.

In this book, the medieval Bulgarian city is examined at three stages of economic and social evolution. It is, first, a city of the IX-X centuries, then the XI-XII centuries (the era of Byzantine rule) and finally, the XIII-IV centuries 2 . The early, newly emerging city is outlined by S. Lishev in the most general terms. This is not accidental, since the data obtained during the excavations in Plisk and Preslav are clearly not enough to recreate the complete appearance of these settlements, and the materials drawn by the author from the "Book of the Eparch" can hardly serve as a sufficient basis for judging on this issue. In particular, the author should not, according to the data of the "Book of the Eparch" on the export of Bulgarian linen to Constantinople (p. 33), conclude that:

1 " La ville balkanique XV e-XIX e ss.". Sofia. 1970.

2 This is not the author's first work on this topic. See S. Lishev. За стоковото производство във феодална България. Sophia. 1957; his own. За проникването и ролята на парите зъв феодална България. Sophia. 1958.

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urban weaving in bulgaria: this canvas was also produced at a much later time in the field of rural home production.

Little more is known about the development of urban production in the next Byzantine era. Of course, very interesting information that can solve the old dispute, whether foreign rule had a positive or negative impact on the Bulgarian cities. It can be said that Bulgarians at this time were mastering Byzantine construction techniques, progressive metalworking techniques (multi-layer forging), learning how to plant many fruit trees, and improving the two-floor system of agriculture (pp. 60-66), but all this does not indicate any changes in the Bulgarian city as a center of craft. Idrisi, an Arab traveler who lived at the court of Roger II, who, however, did not set himself the task of comprehensively describing the city of that time, does not mention artisans in the Bulgarian cities of the XII century. S. Lishchev shows a fair lack of confidence in his information in relation to the XI - XII centuries.the author operates mainly with numismatic sources - numerous finds of copper coins. In itself, this fact does not indicate the development of the urban economy - local exchange could well take place between different agricultural sectors, for example, between grain farmers and cattle breeders, and not necessarily between the city and the village. By the way, a significant part of the treasures is found in the villages. Therefore, the author is right to repeatedly emphasize that the Bulgarian economy of that time was mainly natural (pp. 46, 47, 51). But in this case, it is not entirely clear that his conclusion that " domestic trade... it involved relatively broad strata of society in commodity-money relations" (p. 61). The reader has the right to ask: do not the abundant coin finds of the XI - XII centuries, which may well be the result of the influx of Byzantines to the conquered country, create a distorted picture, does not the author exaggerate the pace of urban development in Bulgaria, based only on numismatic material?

But here we have the central object of research-the city of the XIII-XIV centuries. to characterize it, S. Lishev draws on evidence from the Dubrovnik archive, Venetian and Genoese documents, the expense book of the Savoy official Anton Barberi, the Turkish inventory of the XV century, the recently published "Law on Mines" of the Serbian despot Stefan Lazarevic from 1412-1417, that is, sources that change the perspective of the analysis of urban life. They paint urban life from the perspective of a monarch, a foreign merchant, or a Turkish tax collector. There are almost no sources of actual urban origin. This circumstance should be taken into account when evaluating the picture created by the researcher.

In the XIII - XIV centuries, undoubtedly, the craft in Bulgaria was actively developing. In the cities, metals are mined and processed, clothing and footwear are sewn, pottery, textile and leather products, glass and jewelry are made. All this is confirmed by the data of the " excavations. With the help of the "Law on Mines", it is possible to reconstruct the state of mining in Western Bulgaria. Although this law, which regulated the activities of Saxon miners, was created for Serbian lands, these same Saxons also mined ore on the territory of Bulgaria, and it is quite possible to agree with the author, who suggests the existence of similar forms of craft (metallurgy) and methods of ore extraction in a number of Bulgarian cities.

It seems that the author did the right thing by using materials about miners from the Serbian ore lawbook, thereby significantly expanding our understanding of medieval Balkan metallurgy.

As the author shows, the division of labor is progressing in the Bulgarian craft industry; the nature of coin hoards is changing, individual coins or small hoards are becoming more common; foreign trade is growing even faster; continental, and to an even greater extent coastal cities are turning into transit trade centers, actively exporting bread and importing Italian goods. This characteristic of the Bulgarian city, which was outlined several decades ago (works of Iv. Sakyzov), receives a convincing justification in S. Lishev's book. Tarnovo, V and Din, Sredets, Varna, Sozopol, Melnik, Anchialo become the main exchange points with Dubrovnik, the Italian republics, especially with Venice. The main figure in this trade, the author writes, is Italianus-

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The main supplier of bread to the foreign market is a Bulgarian feudal lord.

It was not without reason that the city became an intermediary for the export of local grain - it still remained within the framework of the seigniorial regime. All or part of the city remains under the jurisdiction of the nobility. In this respect, the Bulgarian city of the 13th - 14th centuries is similar to other continental cities of the Balkan Peninsula, which for the most part did not achieve self-government. The system of political domination over the city, as S. Lishev shows, was supplemented by the right of ownership of feudal lords to the lands that they had in the city, while a certain part of its inhabitants were the holders of this land. It is not surprising that in relation to the majority of city residents, sources use the term "people", which usually refers to the category of addicts. The book explains the lack of urban self-government, despite the existence of urban communities. The latter united not only the trade and handicraft, but also the agricultural strata that lived in the city and were dependent on landowners for land. In this (the semi-agrarian nature of the production basis), the Bulgarian city, S. Lishev rightly concludes, reveals another feature of similarity with other Balkan " centers. A more detailed social description of the urban population is difficult, the author can only establish the widespread existence of concepts related to wage labor - "mercenaries", "workers". Although they are common not only in urban, but also in rural environments, their prevalence indicates the decomposition of former, pre-urban relations. This is the summary description of the city of the XIII - XIV centuries, contained in the reviewed book.

Unfortunately, in a number of places the author confuses the processes that took place in the city and the countryside, he portrays urban life in purely agrarian categories. The analysis of the concepts of "ratai", "youths", " wigs "(p.182 - 185) is introduced into the description of the urban system. The same applies to the assessment of feudal land ownership and rent (pp. 157-168). It seems that this shortcoming is mainly related to a certain vagueness in the definition of the research framework and in the presentation itself. We can also make a second claim to the work: the author's well-known attraction to established schemes especially affects the analysis of social stratification and social relations in a medieval city. So the author writes about the classes in the city, although he names only feudal lords (p. 169-185), finds a "territorial" community in the city (p.168), divides the urban population into feudal lords, dependent holders, free small owners and the poor (p. 169 - 170), although such a structure is characteristic of any medieval society. If in relation to miners the term "drouzhina" can mean a shop, then in relation to merchants this statement does not follow from the meaning of the source (its text reads: "trgovets bde tam [in Dubrovnik] without drouzhina" (p.94). It would be useful to clarify the headings of a number of chapters and sections, because they sometimes promise more than the specified parts of the book actually contain. Thus, the section "Cities as the center of medieval ideology and political and social movements in the X - XIV centuries" actually contains a description of bogomilism alone, and even then it is very concise.

Evaluating the work of S. Lishev, it should be noted that by attempting to create a consolidated picture of the history of the medieval Bulgarian city, the author was able to fill in many gaps. He convincingly showed that the industrial life of the late (XIII - XIV centuries) city was much broader than previously thought. Photographs of archaeological finds attached to the book give S. Lishev's conclusions and judgments a special persuasiveness. The book's strong point is its richness in numismatic material, which supports observations about money circulation, the growth of a network of local markets, and foreign trade relations; the mechanism of feudal taxation of trade is described in the book in an interesting way. Not a single researcher of the Balkan Middle Ages can pass by the material collected and explained by S. Lishev.

M. M. Freudenberg

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