Penka Danova, La fortune des écrits du marchand écrivain Giovanni Sercambi : extraits et conclusions balkaniques

Penka Danova - Institut d’études historiques, Académie Bulgare des Sciences, Sofia
TOME LIX 2021
pp. 189-206
Online publication date: 
10/13/2023
Keywords: 
Italian medieval chronicles; Giovanni Sercambi; sources on Balkan history; Battle of Nicopolis (1396); vexillology
Abstract: 

The article studies the distribution of the manuscript Chronicles, self-written by Giovanni Sercambi from Luca, Italy, and its subsequent printing. Special emphasis is placed on five chapters of this urban chronicle. They describe the crusade of Nicopolis (1396) in accordance with the oral account of Giglio Sercambi, who was not only the chronicler’s uncle but also an eyewitness to the events. Danova furthermore deals with the illustrations to these chapters and more precisely with the images of both bombard and flags in the Turkish camp. On the flags there were a profile of a talking black head on a white background and black scorpion on a yellow background. Assumptions are made about the sources of these images and their symbolic meaning.

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