The Crnojević printing house () or Cetinje printing house (), was the first printing house in

Southeastern Europe Southeast Europe or Southeastern Europe is a geographical sub-region of Europe, consisting primarily of the region of the Balkans, as well as adjacent regions and Archipelago, archipelagos. There are overlapping and conflicting definitions of t ...

; the facility operated between 1493 and 1496 in

Cetinje Cetinje ( cnr-Cyrl, Цетиње, ) is a List of cities and towns in Montenegro, town in Montenegro. It is the former royal capital ( cnr-Latn-Cyrl, prijestonica, приjестоница, separator=" / ") of Montenegro and is the location of sev ...

Zeta Zeta (, ; uppercase Ζ, lowercase ζ; , , classical or ''zē̂ta''; ''zíta'') is the sixth letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 7. It was derived from the Phoenician alphabet, Phoenician letter zay ...

(modern

Montenegro , image_flag = Flag of Montenegro.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Montenegro.svg , coa_size = 80 , national_motto = , national_anthem = () , image_map = Europe-Mont ...

). It was founded by

Đurađ Crnojević Đurađ Crnojević ( sr-cyr, Ђурађ Црноjeвић, ; d. 1514) was the last Serbian medieval Zeta under the Crnojevići, Lord of ZetaSlijepčević 1974, p. 43: "Према Карлу Хопфу и Балшићи и Црнојевићи »п ...

, the ruler of Zeta between 1490 and 1496. The printing press was operated by Serbian Orthodox monks at the supervision of Hieromonk Makarije. Five Orthodox

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 Church service, religious services. Christianity Roman Rite In the Roman Rite of ...

s were printed in this printshop: '' Oktoih Prvoglasnik'', ''Oktoih Petoglasnik'', ''Psaltir'', ''Trebnik'' (''Molitvenik'') and ''Cvetni Triod''. * Octoechos of the First Tone (''Oktoih prvoglasnik'') is the first book printed in the

Cyrillic script The Cyrillic script ( ) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic languages, Slavic, Turkic languages, Turkic, Mongolic languages, Mongolic, Uralic languages, Uralic, C ...

among the

South Slavs South Slavs are Slavic people who speak South Slavic languages and inhabit a contiguous region of Southeast Europe comprising the eastern Alps and the Balkan Peninsula. Geographically separated from the West Slavs and East Slavs by Austria, ...

. It was finished on 4 January 1494. There are 108 copies of this book existing. 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 nicely shaped letters. It is decorated with headpieces and

initial In a written or published work, an initial is a letter at the beginning of a word, a chapter (books), chapter, or a paragraph that is larger than the rest of the text. The word is ultimately derived from the Latin ''initiālis'', which means '' ...

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 that ...

s in the spirit of the Renaissance with traces of old manuscript traditions. *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. *

Psalter A psalter is a volume containing the Book of Psalms, often with other devotional material bound in as well, such as a liturgical calendar and litany of the Saints. Until the emergence of the book of hours in the Late Middle Ages, psalters were ...

with Additions (''Psaltir s posledovanjem'') was printed in 1495. It is not only of liturgical and conventional but also historical and literary significance. It is decorated with three headpieces and 27 initials repeated for 221 time. There are 36 complete and partial copies preserved. The National Library of Montenegro "Đurđe Crnojević" published 650 facsimiles of the psalter in 1986.

Legacy

In his 1514 letter to Ragusan senate, Ragusan nobleman Luka Primojević emphasized that he had intention to print books using the same letters used by Serbian priests in their churches, the same letters used in the Crnojević printing house which books were well respected and praised. Although his intention to establish a printing house in Dubrovnik and to print Cyrillic books failed, his written statements left significant testimony about high reputation of books printed in the Crnojević printing house.

Legacy

References

Sources

Further reading