Jakov of Kamena Reka

Jakov of Kamena Reka ( mk, Јаков од Камена Река, sr, Јаков из Камене реке; 1564–72) or Jakov Krajkov (Јаков Крајков, bg, Яков Крайков) was a Venetian printer. The information about his life is scarce. It is known he was from a former village called Kamena Reka (literally, 'Stone River'), according to him near the town of ''Kolasia,'' in Osogovo, Macedonia. It is assumed that the village could be Makedonska Kamenica in present-day North Macedonia, or Kamenichka Skakavitsa, in present-day Bulgaria, both placed in an area in Osogovo called ''Kamenitsa'', near the town of Kyustendil, then called ''Kolasia''. Also, in some works his birthplace is connected with Kamena Reka, near Kolasin in Herzegovina in today Montenegro. Nevertheless, that view is criticized as 19th century Šafárik's misinterpretation of the medieval name of Kyustendil (''Kolasia'') with that of the town of Kolasin. His family members had a long tradition of being Christian priests. In his youth Kraikov was a copyist of Church Slavonic books in the Osogovo Monastery "St. Joakim Osogovski". Then he went to Sofia, where in a local Church school, Kraikov deepened his literary knowledge. However some researchers maintain that Jakov of Sofia and Jakov of Kamena Reka are different historical persons.

Afterwards, he set off through Kyustendil and Skopje to Venice. It is assumed that Kraikov worked on his way in Gračanica monastery where a printing press was opened. He was among the first printers of Cyrillic books. Kraikov reached Venice around 1564 or 1565 where he worked in the Vuković printing house, established by Božidar Vuković and inherited by his son Vićenco Vuković. In 1566 (in period of only three and a half months) he printed the Book of hours (Casoslov) of 710 pages on the printing press of Vićenco Vuković. It was printed in Serbian recension of the Church Slavonic language. To print this book Jakov used old, already worn out, sorts. He had at disposal Vuković's matrix and was prepared to cast new letters but he obviously failed to do it. This book is described in some sources as the first Bulgarian/Macedonian printed book.Съюз на българските журналисти, Ще припомним първия ни печатар Яков Крайков, 03.04.2014, Елица Иванова, Кюстендил
Симпозиум и изложба за първия български печатар и граматик ще припомнят делото му. Център за славяно-византийски проучвания към СУ "Свети Климент Охридски".
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In 1570 Jakov worked in the printing press of Jerolim Zagurović where he printed a Prayer book. In 1571 Jakov again worked in Vuković printing house, where Stefan Marinović also worked before him. In 1597 this printing house was taken over by Italian printers (Bartolomeo Ginammi, Marco Ginammi, Giovanni Antonio Rampazetto, Francesco Rampazetto, Georgio Rampazetto, Camillo Zanetti) and its printing press was operational for additional 70 years.

See also

* Božidar Vuković

References

Further reading

* Evgenij L'vovic Nemirovskij: Die venezianische Druckerei des Jakov aus Kamena Reka – Gutenberg-Jahrbuch, 1996, 71
* Марияна Цибранска-Костова
Сборникът „Различни потреби“ на Яков Крайков между Венеция и Балканите през XVI век
2013, Издателство „Валентин Траянов“ .

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16th-century births
16th-century deaths
16th-century printers
16th-century Serbian people
16th-century Bulgarian people
Bulgarian publishers (people)
Bulgarian printers
Republic of Venice printers
Serbian printers
Venetian Slavs
Bulgarian engravers
People from Makedonska Kamenica Municipality
Serbian engravers
16th-century Eastern Orthodox Christians
16th-century businesspeople from the Ottoman Empire