Dubrovnik Charter of Ivan Asen II
c. 1230
A grant of free trade throughout the empire to the merchants of Dubrovnik — the oldest surviving Bulgarian commercial charter.
The object
Text and translation
No passage has been transcribed and translated for this entry yet.
Why it matters
The charter names the roads. In granting Ragusan merchants freedom to trade "throughout my empire", Ivan Asen II lists the lands they may pass through — and that list is one of the few direct statements of how far Bulgarian authority actually reached after Klokotnitsa.
It is also the earliest evidence of Bulgaria as a party to Adriatic commerce rather than a hinterland of it.
Further information
It is the document in which the term хора is clearest, used both for a whole state — the republic of St Blaise, or Bulgaria — and for a district within the empire. The Albanian land appears alongside the хори but is named by its people rather than by its chief town.
Description
- Date
- c. 1230
- Language
- Middle Bulgarian
- Material
- Parchment
- Held at
- State Archives of Dubrovnik
- Place
- Dubrovnik