Рад Стојана Новаковића на проучавању средњовековне српске историје

Abstract

У раду се даје преглед и оцена рада Стојана Новаковића на проучавању српске средњовековне историје. Новаковић се у својим радовима бавио најразноврснијим питањима српског средњег века – политичком, економском, друштвеном, културном, правном, војном историјом, историјском географијом, хералдиком, археографијом, народном традицијом, објављивањем извора, књижевношћу... Значај Стојана Новаковића не огледа се само у резултатима до којих је дошао и бројним радовима које је објавио. Можда је значајније то што су његови чланци и размишљања покренули даља истраживања. Ради се о једном од најзначајнијих истраживача српског средњовековља

Stojan Novaković was one of the most important researchers of Serbian medieval history. There are not many historians who approached, or at least tried to approach, research of our history in such a planned and systematic manner. Novaković was unique in many ways in this area. In his works, he dealt with various topics of Serbian medieval period – political, economical, social, cultural, legal and military history, historical geography, heraldics, archeography, folk tradition, publication of historical sources, literature... Historiographical work of Stojan Novaković was in part connected to his political activities. Influence of his political beliefs and thoughts is also visible in his works dedicated to Serbian medieval period. Stojan Novaković started writing historical discussions in the middle of the 1870s. He published his first historical work, covering topic related to numismatics, in 1875, although we can say that his real work on studying of Serbian medieval history started with his works in the field of historical geography. When we talk about Stojan Novaković’s contribution in research of Serbian medieval period, we must not forget numerous limitations which were hampering his work. On one side, there was the unavailability of historical sources which was preventing him to get deeper insight in numerous issues he was researching, which today makes some of his results and claims outdated. On the other side, it was also about Novaković’s personality itself, because it seems that he wrote some of his works in a hurry, without entering into the topic he was covering as deeply as he could have, so those works give impression that he wanted to publish them as soon as possible. As many of his works were intended to be parts of a bigger whole, they look as if they were unfinished or as if they were drafts, and not finished works. Stojan Novaković holds an important place among researchers of Serbian medieval period. Objections which we have today to his work and results he achieved, by no means his pioneering work in research of Serbian medieval history. Novaković was a pioneer in many things. He entered many unexplored and untouched areas and made significant thematical breakthroughs. His importance is not only in the results of his research, nor in numerous works he wrote. Maybe even more important is the fact that his works and thoughts initiated further research