Pages: 75-89

In 1979, the Romanian philologist I. Dumitru-Snagov published his dating of the Balkan map from the “Codex Latinus Parisinus 7239”. This date is 1396. The map shows Monchastro Castle — toponymic synonym of the medieval Belgorod on the Dniester. The historiographers started using this date for the early stage of the medieval Belgorod on the Dniester (the citadel). In the same monograph, the Romanian researcher dated Paolo Santini's treaty, which is incorporated in the Codex, but this dating seems to be wrong. The most likely date of the creation of the map is March of 1452. Santini's treaty “About the art of war and military machines” was copied not before 1449, from the work of Mariano Taccola “About machines”. The map and the treaty were consolidated under the cover of the Codex, but originally these were two different documents. The map was designed at the Hungarian Court during escalation of the military conflict on the Balkans before the conquest of Constantinople. It cannot beŁ used as evidence to determine the time of construction of the citadel in Belgorod. Moncastro is wrongly located on the Danube and does not reflect the real ensemble of the fortress in the middle of the 15th century.

Keywords: Belgorod fortress, 15th cent., citadel, Codex Latinus Parisinus, Mariano Taccola, Paolo Santini, siege of Constantinopol in 1453, John Hunyadi

Information about author:

Andrew Krasnozhon (Odessa, Ukraine). Candidate of Historical Sciences. South Ukraine National Pedagogical University named after K. D. Ushinsky. Staroportofrankovskaya St., 26, Odessa, 65000, Ukraine
E-mail: [email protected]