The ''Cetinje Octoechos'' ( sr, Цетињски октоих or ''Cetinjski oktoih'') is an
Orthodox
Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to:
Religion
* Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pa ...
liturgical book
A liturgical book, or service book, is a book published by the authority of a church body that contains the text and directions for the liturgy of its official religious services.
Christianity Roman Rite
In the Roman Rite of the Catholic C ...
printed
Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The e ...
in 1494 in
Cetinje, the capital of the
Principality of Zeta
The Principality of Zeta ( sr, Кнежевина Зета, Kneževina Zeta) is a historiographical name for a late medieval principality located in the southern parts of modern Montenegro and northern parts of modern Albania, around the Lake of ...
(present-day
Montenegro
)
, image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Podgorica
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, official_languages = M ...
). It is the first
incunabulum
In the history of printing, an incunable or incunabulum (plural incunables or incunabula, respectively), is a book, pamphlet, or broadside that was printed in the earliest stages of printing in Europe, up to the year 1500. Incunabula were p ...
written in the
Serbian recension of
Church Slavonic, as well as the first book printed in
Cyrillic in
Southeast Europe
Southeast Europe or Southeastern Europe (SEE) is a geographical subregion of Europe, consisting primarily of the Balkans. Sovereign states and territories that are included in the region are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia (a ...
. The
octoechos
Oktōēchos (here transcribed "Octoechos"; Greek: ;The feminine form exists as well, but means the book octoechos. from ὀκτώ "eight" and ἦχος "sound, mode" called echos; Slavonic: Осмогласие, ''Osmoglasie'' from о́с ...
was produced under the direction of
Hieromonk Makarije
Hieromonk Makarije ( sr, Јеромонах Макарије; 1494–d. after 1528) is the founder of Serbian and Romanian printing, having printed the first book in Serbian and the first book in the territory of Walachia (part of modern-day Rom ...
at the
Crnojević printing house
The Crnojević printing house ( sr, Штампарија Црнојевића, Štamparija Crnojevića) or Cetinje printing house ( sr, Цетињска штампарија, Cetinjska štamparija), was the first printing house in Southeastern Eur ...
, which was founded in 1493 by
Đurađ Crnojević
Đurađ Crnojević ( sr-cyr, Ђурађ Црноjeвић, cu, Гюргь Цьрноевыкь; d. 1514) was the last Serbian medieval Lord of Zeta between 1490 and 1496, from the Crnojevic dynasty. The son of Ivan Crnojević and Goisava Ariani ...
, the ruler of Zeta. Printed in two instalments, its first volume contains the hymns to be sung to the first four tones of the
Octoechos system of musical modes, and the hymns for the remaining four tones are included in the second volume. The two volumes are called Octoechos of the First Tone (''Oktoih prvoglasnik'') and Octoechos of the Fifth Tone (''Oktoih petoglasnik''), respectively.
Octoechos of the First Tone
Octoechos of the First Tone (''Oktoih prvoglasnik'') was finished on 4 January 1494.
There are 108 copies of this book which survived. It contains 270 leaves sized 29 x 21.6 cm. It is characterized by high quality and clean two-coloured printing, red and black, with finely formed letters. It is decorated with
headpieces and
initial
In a written or published work, an initial capital, also referred to as a drop capital or simply an initial cap, initial, initcapital, initcap or init or a drop cap or drop, is a letter at the beginning of a word, a chapter, or a paragraph that ...
s printed from
woodcut
Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas tha ...
s in the spirit of the Renaissance with traces of old manuscript traditions. In the quality of its print and decoration it is considered to be at the same level as Venetian production at that time. The
National Library of Montenegro "Đurđe Crnojević" in
Cetinje published 600 facsimiles of Octoechos of the First Tone in 1987.
Octoechos of the Fifth Tone
Octoechos of the Fifth Tone (''Oktoih petoglasnik'') represents the first illustrated
South Slavic incunabulum. It is preserved in fragments, the longest one containing 37 leaves. It has six woodcut illustrations, made by an artist who managed to put rather complex compositions with many characters on a relatively small space.
See also
*
Božidar Vuković
References
Sources
*
*
Further reading
*
External links
''Cetinje Octoechos''(incomplete), the Library of Matica Srpska
15th-century Christian texts
Medieval Serbian literature
Montenegrin literature
Serbian literature
History of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro
Principality of Zeta
Cyrillic manuscripts
Incunabula
Psalters
Serbian books
Serbian manuscripts
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