The Life of Despot Stefan

between Serbian biographical literature and the broader Byzantine historical heritage, leaving a lasting mark on culture and scholarship.

An abridged and retold Russian translation of the Life of Despot Stefan Lazarević was published in the middle of the 19th century by Andrei N. Muravyov (Андрей Николаевич Муравьёв, 1806–1874) and Saint Philaret Gumilevsky, Archbishop of Chernigov (1805–1866).

Soon, within a span of less than ten years, three editions of the text of the Life appeared - first it was published in 1869 by Andrei Popov, then by J. Šafarik in 1870, and then by Vatroslav Jagić in 1875. The German philologist and translator Maximilian Braun (Maximilian Braun, 1903–1984) prepared an edition of the Life in 1956. The Bulgarian scholars K. Kuev and G. Petkov published the text of the Life at the end of the 20th century; Đorđe Trifunović also prepared an edition.

The first translation of the Life of Despot Stefan into modern Serbian is the work of Lazar Mirković; this translation was printed in 1936. On the basis of this translation, Justin Popović in 1975 prepared the Life of the Despot published in the Lives of the Saints; later, abridged editions based on the text of Justin Popović also appeared.

Gordana Jovanović corrected the translation of Lazar Mirković and prepared it once more for an edition in 1989. A second, corrected edition of this translation was published in 2009. The Life of Despot Stefan written by Constantine the Philosopher itself, as a first-rate historical source and a literary jewel, has for more than a century and a half been the subject of research by historians, linguists, philologists and writers, and the literature on this masterpiece of Serbian medieval literature is constantly growing.