Les sources grecques dans ľ oeuvre historique de Jovan Rajić

Abstract

J. Rajič was one of the first and most important Serbian historians,
theologians, and literary men of the Serbian renaissance of the eighteenth century. N. Radojčič has pointed out, and it has since become
widely accepted, that Rajič viewed foreign writers, including the
Byzantines, with great circumspection and distruct, which is why he
made minimal use of them.
A study in greater depth of his theological and historical work has
led the present writer to form more specific and somewhat different
conclusions: namely, that a certain development took place in Rajić’s
thinking and in his trust in his sources, and that above all he underwent
a noticeable change of attitude when dealing with ecclesiastical
history. In this latter case it is clear that he had absolute confidence in both Byzantine and later Greek writers.