The Kingdom of the Slavs (Italian : Il Regno de gli Slavi) is a book by Mavro Orbini published in the Italian city of Pesaro in 1601. [1] The book provided a history of the Slavic peoples. [2]
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The historical context of the work is the Long Turkish War and the loss of the position of the southern Slavs in the rule of the Ottoman Empire after the hanging of Michael Kantakouzenos Şeytanoğlu (March 3, 1578) and the assassination of Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha (October 11, 1579). The Venetian Republic, through its protégés, Validе Sultanas, succeeded in displacing the Republic of Dubrovnik from its position in the Mediterranean trade by constructing a port in Split. [3]
After Peter the Great declared himself Emperor, his first order was to translate into Russian and publish this book.[ citation needed ] The book played a huge role in the emergence of pan-Slavism.[ citation needed ]
It is unclear how much truth there is in the book. Historian Solange Bujan argues that Orbini created a false historical document based on contemporary unpublished sources and Benedictine texts, such as excerpts from recently published works by Byzantine historians, intended to lend credibility to the story, and that the real and authentic medieval historical texts are the Dubrovnik chronicle AnnalesRagusini Anonymi and the text Regum Dalmatiae et Croatiae gesta by Marko Marulić, which has so far been considered a concise overview of Orbini's The Realm of the Slavs. [4]