The Era of Dušan’s Code

Abstract

Drawing on the structure and contents of the extant manuscripts of Dušan’s Code, this paper attempts roughly to outline the history of its application and changes from the time of its promulgation in 1349 and revision in 1353–1354, a process that continued to the end of the 18th century. The scarce evidence about the application of the Code has been preserved in some charters issued by the emperors Dušan and Uroš, but since the 15th century the only evidence about its application is found in new copies or in the changes in its structure and in the phrasing of certain stipulations. The production of copies similar to the original version continued simultaneously with the revisions, with all sharing a single trait: the coalescence of Dušan’s Code with its codicological environment, whose first and fixed layer included the abbreviated Syntagma of Matthew Blastares and the so-called Code of Justinian. Along with these, other ecclesiastical-legal compositions were also copied, which suggests that the extant copies of Dušan’s Code were used in ecclesiastical courts or for the clergy’s everyday service needs. The signs suggesting that the Code was gradually adapted to suit different legal and social conditions are as follows: the exclusion of stipulations which were no longer up to date; a new systematization of stipulations according to subject matter; changes in penalties and sanctions; amendments and clarifications of some stipulations; and the modernization of the document’s language and legal terms.

At a point no earlier than the second half of the 17th century, a separate recension of Dušan’s Code was created in order to facilitate the adaptation and use of its legal material for the regulation of those legal relations that the Serbian ecclesiastical hierarchy or the local self-governing authorities had kept within their own jurisdictions under foreign rule. The majority of the copies of this new, younger recension was created and enacted in the circle of the Serbian ecclesiastical hierarchy and the subjects of the Habsburg monarchy after the Great Exodus. Not only did the Code provide positive legal material, but its mere existence and authority also helped the efforts of the Serbian hierarchy in the Habsburg monarchy to emphasize the tradition of Serbian statehood, as well as its tendencies toward a renewal of state independence.