Warfare, State and Society on the Black Sea Steppe, 1500â1700. Warfare and History by Brian L. Davies (review)

740 SEER, 88, 4, OCTOBER 2010 Obsidio Iadrensis, Opsada^adra. Edited and translatedby Veljko Gortan, Branimir Glavicic,VladimirVratovic, Damir Karbic,MiroslavKurelac and Zoran Ladic. MonumentaSpectantiaHistoriamSlavorumMeridionalium ,54. CroatianAcademyof Sciences and Arts,Zagreb, 2007. Notes.Indexes.Facsimiles. 341pp. + 78 fols.HRK 200. The seriesMonumenta Spectantia Historiam Slavorum Meridionalium began publicationinZagrebin 1868,intheyearoftheNagodba. Despiteitstide,theseries was alwaysconcerned withthepublication ofhistorical sourcesilluminating Croatianhistory. Inevitably, itsearlyfecundity driedup to a trickle in both thefirst and secondYugoslavia,while- in one ofthevagariesofYugoslav nationalities policy - official supportwas in the 1950sput behinda rival series, Monumenta Turcica Spectantia etc.,published in Sarajevo. Following the re-establishment oftheCroatianAcademyofSciencesand Artsin 1991,the series waseffectively re-launched. In 2002,theAcademy published a collection of sourceson the history of fourteenth-century Splitunderthe Monumenta imprint. This latestwork,a contemporary accountoftheVenetiansiegeof Zadar in 1345-46,is itsimmediate successor. The volumeincludesa critical editionoftheoriginal Latintext,a paralleltranslation intoCroatian,a facsimile oftheearliest extant version ofthetext, and several introductory essays, in Croatianand English, thatexplorethehistorical background to thesiege, thepossibleidentity oftheauthorand hisstyle and grammar. UCL SSEES Martyn Rady Davies, Brian L. Warfare, Stateand Society on theBlack Sea Steppe, 1500-iyoo. Warfare and History. Routledge, Londonand NewYork,2007.xv+ 256 pp. Maps. Notes.Bibliography. Index.£22.99 (paperback). The blackearthforest-steppe and thesteppenorthoftheBlack Sea was a frontier zone fortheEast Slavicforest people(thepeopleofmedievalKievan Rus') sincemedievaltimes.Conflict had dominatedhere overcooperation and culturalexchangewithvariousTurkicpastoralpeople. After themidsixteenth century, afterMuscoviteRussia's conquestof the Khanates of Kazan' and Astrakhan had secureditssouth-eastern frontier, the southern frontier remainedthe mostcontestedfrontier zone forMuscoviteRussia, followed onlybyRussia'swestern borderzone.Thischangedprofoundly only withtheconquestof thenorthern shoreoftheBlack Sea by Russia under Catherine II in thesecondhalfoftheeighteenth century. The authorofthiswonderful newbook,BrianL. Davies from theUniversity ofTexas at San Antonio, explores howthethreat oftheCrimeanKhanatestimulated Muscovite Russiatoimprove itsmilitary organization alongits longand opensouthern frontier. Thisis initself an ambitious task.The story has neveryetbeenfully written inWestern historiography, butDavies'sbook offers farmorethanit initially setsout to achieve,by presenting a multidimensional accountoftheblackearthforest-steppe and stepperegionfrom around1500to Russia'sconquestoftheportofAzov in 1696.It does so by REVIEWS 741 givingbalanced treatment to all majorregionaland imperialactorsin the region: theCrimeanKhanatewhichdependedmostly on theconsideration of theOttomanSultans;theNogai,who overtwocenturies lostmuchoftheir influence; the Kalmyks, who to some extentassumedtheirpositionin the seventeenth century; theCossacks,whosecommunities had evolvedsincethe late fifteenth century along thelargerrivers, particularly theDon Cossacks and theZaporozhianHost,and sincethemid-seventeenth century theUkrainian CossackHetmanate;thePolish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, whichlost influence during thecourseoftheseventeenth century, and lastbutnotleast MuscoviteRussia. To investigate and describethe interaction of all these actorsin an area whichis, forgeographical reasonsalone, alreadyhighly complex(further and more detailedmaps than the two includedshould havebeen added)requires extensive research and higherudition. Davies has fulfilled his task superbly.The book can be recommendedto historians withvariousscholarly interests: thosewho are interested in theprocessesof (military) colonization willfind important chapters on theso-called Abatisand theBelgorodLine or on garrison towns;social historians willfinddetailed information on socialgroupssuchas theodnoduortsy' historians ofUkrainewill acknowledge thatDavies has takenthemostimportant Ukrainianhistorical literature intoconsideration (e.g.inhistreatment ofthePereiaslav agreement); military historians willreadwithinterest abouttheMuscovite wagenburg tactics, different commandstructures and foreign formations inRussia'sarmy.In the lastthird oftheseventeenth century, Muscovite Russiaabandoneditspolitical isolationand became morethana regionalpoliticalactorby participating in the Holy League againstthe OttomanEmpire.In 1696 Russian and Ukrainiansoldierssuccessfully laid siege to the Ottomanfortress of Azov, locatedat themouthoftheDon. Although thisis an accountofa worldfarremovedfrom thepresent day, Davies's volumenevertheless contains muchthatcouldbe valuablyappliedto our understanding of thecomplexities of contemporary Polish,Lithuanian, Russianand Ukrainian political relations. Historisches Seminar Universität Freiburg G. Hausmann Glomski,Jacqueline. Patronage andHumanist Literature in the Ageofthe Jagiellons: Courtand Careerin theWritings ofRudolfAgricola Junior,Valentin Eck, and Leonard Cox.University ofTorontoPress,Toronto,ON, Buffalo, NY and London,2007. xiv + 336 pp. Illustrations. Maps. Notes. Bibliography. Appendices. $75.00:£45.00. Despite thepatronageofRenaissanceartand architecture by Sigismund I (1506-48),Cracowwas nota hospitable place forwandering humanists inthe earlysixteenth century. The springs ofcourtpatronageweredrunkdryby royalservants suchasJustus LudovicusDecius andJohannes Dantiscus, while theuniversity itself was onlybeginning to reform itscurriculum. The present ...

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