Ninac Vukosalić
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Ninac ( cyrl, Нинац; 1450–59) was a figure who served in the court of the Albanian lord
Skanderbeg Gjergj Kastrioti (17 January 1468), commonly known as Skanderbeg, was an Albanians, Albanian Albanian nobility, feudal lord and military commander who led Skanderbeg's rebellion, a rebellion against the Ottoman Empire in what is today Albania, ...
between 1450-59. He was involved in writing and delivering correspondence in Slavic to the
Republic of Ragusa The Republic of Ragusa, or the Republic of Dubrovnik, was an maritime republics, aristocratic maritime republic centered on the city of Dubrovnik (''Ragusa'' in Italian and Latin; ''Raguxa'' in Venetian) in South Dalmatia (today in southernmost ...
. He collaborated with Skanderbeg's diplomat in Ragusa
Pal Gazulli Pal Gazuli or Paulus Gassulus (1405–1470) was an Albanian Catholic priest, scholar and diplomat under Skanderbeg service. After the death of Georgius Pelino in 1463, he became the personal ambassador of Skanderbeg in Republic of Venice. On 13 Dec ...
and at least in one occasion they were involved in the transfer of funds from Ragusa to Skanderbeg. Political and commercial correspondence between different courts in the medieval era was mediated by scribes, each of whom was responsible for communication in one specific language. Ninac or Ninec appears in the court of Skanderbeg around 1450. He may not have been originally a scribe but someone who was considered trustworthy as in his writing he changed the spelling of his name several times and didn't call himself a ''
logotet Logothete (, ''logothétēs'', pl. λογοθέται, ''logothétai''; Med. , pl. ''logothetae''; ; ; ; , ''logotet'') was an administrative title originating in the eastern Roman Empire. In the middle and late Byzantine Empire, it rose to become ...
'' as was customary. He wrote his surname as Vlkosalik and Vukosalik (Вꙋкосалик); the modern spelling is Vukosalić. Ninac was responsible for the correspondence of Skanderbeg with the
Republic of Ragusa The Republic of Ragusa, or the Republic of Dubrovnik, was an maritime republics, aristocratic maritime republic centered on the city of Dubrovnik (''Ragusa'' in Italian and Latin; ''Raguxa'' in Venetian) in South Dalmatia (today in southernmost ...
from 1450 to 1459. In the first letter, he calls himself a ''dijak'' (scribe) which he continues to use in later correspondence but later also adopts the commonly recognized title of ''chancelier'' in Ragusa. He served as Skanderbeg's scribe for at least nine years. He wrote in
Early Cyrillic The Early Cyrillic alphabet, also called classical Cyrillic or paleo-Cyrillic, is an alphabetic writing system that was developed in Medieval Bulgaria in the Preslav Literary School during the late 9th century. It is used to write the Ch ...
and in his writing many features of the Zeta dialect of
Shtokavian Shtokavian or Štokavian (; sh-Latn, štokavski / sh-Cyrl, italics=no, штокавски, ) is the prestige supradialect of the pluricentric Serbo-Croatian language and the basis of its Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin stand ...
as well as other southern dialects can be discerned. He was probably a native speaker of these dialects. As such Jovanović (1990) proposes that he was a
Serb The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are a South Slavic ethnic group native to Southeastern Europe who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history, and language. They primarily live in Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia ...
. In his writing, certain terms which may seem odd in Serbo-Croatian, may be the result of root-for-root translation from Albanian. The letters written by Ninac were published in the late 19th century by
Franz Miklosich Franz Miklosich (, also known in Slovene as ; 20 November 1813 – 7 March 1891) was a Slovenian philologist and rector of the University of Vienna. Early life Miklosich was born in the small village of Radomerščak near the Lower Styrian town ...
.


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* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ninac 15th-century letter writers 15th-century Serbian people 15th-century Serbian writers Medieval chancellors (government) Skanderbeg