30.06.2014
Promotion held for Dusan Vasiljevic's books “Crossbow in Europe and Serbia” and “The Siege of Tsargrad in 1453 and Mineworkers from Novo Brdo”
Promotion of books “Crossbow in Europe and Serbia” and “The Siege of Tsargrad in 1453 and Mineworkers from Novo Brdo” by Dusan Vasiljevic was held today at the Atrium of the Central Military Club of the Serbian Armed Forces, in organization by Odbrana Media Center. About the books, whose purpose is to take us back to the rich past of Serbia in Middle Ages and present to us somewhat forgotten warrior skills and arms of solders of the time, speeches were given by: publicist Vesna Pesic on behalf of the “Pesic i sinovi” Publishing House, Dusko Ilic, Secretary General at the National Arms Association of Serbia (NAOS) and Branko Bogdanovic, author of many books on arms.In the book “Crossbow in Europe and Serbia”, Vasiljevic leads us in a picturesque way through the period of the late Middle Ages and introduces us to the way of constructing crossbows, its tactical use, influence on constructing armors, costumes and primitive firearms.
- This is about a lesser kno
wn subject, and not many people could write about it better and in more detail than Dusan Vasiljevic. This work is a significant contribution to literature dealing with historiography of military arms, but also a valuable monument to the tradition of the Serbian people – Dusan Ilic pointed out, stressing that the story of crossbow is also a story of turning feudal armies into mercenary armies, where infantry replaced armored knights as rulers of the battlefield. Vesna Pesic and Branko Bogdanovic agreed with this assessment, pointing out the importance of Vasiljevic’s work when it comes to archives.The book “The Siege of Tsargrad in 1453 and Mineworkers from Novo Brdo” describes a forced engagement of Serbian mineworkers during the Turkish conquest of the Byzantine capital, as well as their desperate resistance to the Turkish invasion before and after the siege of Tsargrad. The readers will find a story of construction of siege tunnels and the most demanding military-engineering enterprises in the Middle Ages.
