Serbian pronoia and pronoia in Serbia: The diffusion of an institution

Abstract

Of all of Byzantium’s neighbors who appropriated the fiscal and agrarian institution of pronoia, it was the Serbs whose adaptation of the institution most closely resembled the Byzantine model. The article re-examines the institution of pronoia in Serbia from its earliest manifestation during the reign of Stefan Uroš II Milutin through the time of the Brankovići in the mid-fifteenth century. In the course of analyzing the character of Serbian pronoia, particularly during the reign of Stefan Dušan, the administration of conquered Byzantine pronoiai is distinguished from the creation of pronoiai in native Serbian territory.

Keywords

• pronoia
• Serbia
• property
• agrarian
• land
• Zakonik
• Dušan