Career
He led a second Serbian contingent sent by Milutin to aid the Byzantines, the first having participated in the Battle of Gallipoli (1312). Novak"s army had the task of liberating the Byzantine counties around Brus, Nicaea and Nicomedia from the Turks. The victories of Novak have been recorded in papers of Church of Saint George, Staro Nagoričane.
In two chrysobulls of Andronikos II Palaiologos to the Serbian Hilandar monastery, dating to October 1313 and July 1317, Andronikos showed gratitude to Stefan Milutin for his aid, as detailed in the prefaces.
lieutenant has been claimed that Novak was the father of Vojihna. Svetomir Nikolajević (1844–1922) concluded this on the basis after Alexander Hilferding (1831–1872), who recorded folk traditions traveling Serbia before 1859.
Novak and veliki župan Dragoš are the only nobility mentioned in Danilo II"s Život kraljeva i arhiepiskopa srpskih. Novak is the oldest known veliki vojvoda, after him, Jovan Oliver had the title.
He is enumerated in Serbian epic poetry, and poems (or dramas) of Dragoljub J. Filipović (1884–1933), Dragutin Subotić (1887–1952), Rastko Tadić and Milutin Bojić (1892–1917).