During the First Ottoman War – Family Correspondence as a Source for Supplementing the Biography of Tihomir R. Đorđević

Abstract

The legacy of Tihomir R. Đorđević, together with the legacy of the Janković sisters – preserved as special collections within the National Library of Serbia – represents a significant yet still insufficiently researched source base for confirming and expanding both established and newly discovered data on the life and work of Tihomir R. Đorđević. Of particular importance is the exceptionally extensive body of correspondence, only partially and incompletely processed, comprising over six thousand letters and nearly nine thousand sheets. Building on the results of previous research into this corpus, and taking into account that each study has contributed to the identification and presentation of new biographical data on Đorđević – as well as to a more precise understanding of the cultural history of Serbia in the late nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century – this paper presents the findings of research on the corpus of family correspondence among members of the Đorđević family (Radosav and Jelisaveta Đorđević; Borka and Draginja Đorđević, later Janković; as well as letters written by T. R. Đorđević himself). Th e research corpus also includes additional manuscript materials related to the life of the Đorđević family. In addition to the standard archival description of the material (inventory data, internal systematization, localization, and chronological framing), this study incorporates an analytical approach focused on themes, stylistic features, and naming practices, with particular attention given to data that complement and/or correct information found in previous relevant biographies – especially those shedding light on aspects of private life in Serbia at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries. Examining correspondence from various theoretical and methodological perspectives opens up multiple insights into the private sphere, encompassing not only the world of the sender but also the private (and public) lives of others, shaped by the broader social environment and, in particular, by the relationship with the addressee. Such personal testimonies include events, emotions, and experiences; however, despite their primarily intimate and private character, they also reflect a wider social, historical, political, and cultural context. Th e temporal discourse embedded in these testimonies represents an important source for studying its many layers and thus constitutes valuable material for multiple scholarly disciplines. Th e analyzed corpus of correspondence clearly demonstrates its research potential, particularly in the fi elds of the history of private life, biography, and, above all, the study of letters as a distinct genre at the intersection of documentary and literary forms.