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Holy archangels near Prizren, by far the largest medieval Serbian monastery, was the endowment of Stefan Dušan, erected shortly after his coronation in Skoplje as “emper- or of Serbs and Greeks” in 1346. The cathedral of the Holy
29 Cf. comprehensive study by Branislav Todić & Milka Čanak– Medić, The Monastery of Dečany (Belgrade: Muzej u Prištini, Mne- mosyne & Manastir Visoki Dečani, 2013), 534 p. Cf. also: The Monas- tery of Visoki Dečani, by the brotherhood of Visoki Dečani (Belgrade: Knjiga Komerc, 2014). See also a bilingual edition: Milica Grković, The First Charter of the Dečani Monastery (Belgrade; Mnemosayne, 2004).
archangels was the most monumental church built in the Byzantine Commonwealth in the fourteenth century.30
The Serbian monasteries in Kosovo-and-Metohija held in their libraries, in medieval times alone, at least 7,500 manuscripts, with Peć and Dečani as the most important centres. Several thousand new manuscripts and printed books were produced during the following two centuries of the Church’s organized activity under Ottoman rule
30
Kosovo and Metohija: History, Memory, identity
For more, see Dimitri Obolensky, Byzantine Commonwealth: Eastern Europe, 500–1438 (New York: Praeger, 1971).
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