The Vuković printing house () was 16th century printing house established in

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

Božidar Vuković Božidar Vuković ( sr-Cyrl, Божидар Вуковић, , ; c. 1460 — c. 1539) was one of the first printers and editors of Serbian books in Montenegro. He founded the famous Vuković printing house in Venice. His printing house was opera ...

. In the first period, when printing was organized by Božidar Vuković, the editors and printers were Hieromonk Pahomije (1519–21) and Hierodeacon Mojsije (1536–40). In 1560 Božidar's son Vićenco Vuković inherited the printing house and for a year only reprinted his father's books. In 1561 he started printing his own publications. Initially they were edited and printed by Stefan Marinović and later by Jakov of Kamena Reka. The books printed in Vuković printing house were '' srbulje'', liturgical books in Serbo-Slavonic, the Serbian

written language A written language is the representation of a language by means of writing. This involves the use of visual symbols, known as graphemes, to represent linguistic units such as phonemes, syllables, morphemes, or words. However, written language is ...

between the 12th century and the 1830s. Vuković printing house printed the largest number of srbulje and was the first printing house that printed srbulje on

parchment Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared Tanning (leather), untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves and goats. It has been used as a writing medium in West Asia and Europe for more than two millennia. By AD 400 ...

. The books printed in Vuković printing house were distributed by Ragusan traders over the territory of Balkans under the Ottoman control, i.e.

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

Nicopolis Nicopolis () or Actia Nicopolis was the capital city of the Roman province of Epirus (Roman province), Epirus. Its site, near Preveza, Greece, still contains impressive ruins. The city was founded in 29 BC by Octavian in commemoration of his ...

Vidin Vidin (, ) is a port city on the southern bank of the Danube in north-western Bulgaria. It is close to the borders with Romania and Serbia, and is also the administrative centre of Vidin Province, as well as of the Metropolitan of Vidin (since ...

etc. Mileševa was center for their distribution. They were richly decorated, very popular and had significant influence on printers of books on

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

and

Romanian language Romanian (obsolete spelling: Roumanian; , or , ) is the official and main language of Romania and Moldova. Romanian is part of the Eastern Romance languages, Eastern Romance sub-branch of Romance languages, a linguistic group that evolved fr ...

History

In period 1519—1560 this printing house was owned by Božidar Vuković who engaged printers and organized printing in it. After his death in 1560 it was inherited by Božidar's son Vićenco who continued to organize printing of the books in it.

Under Božidar Vuković

During Božidar's life this printing house was operational in two periods, in 1519/1520—1521 and in 1536—1540 and printed some of the first srbulje (Cyrillic books on Serboslavonic language, Serbian recension of

Church Slavonic Church Slavonic is the conservative Slavic liturgical language used by the Eastern Orthodox Church in Belarus, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Slovenia and Croatia. The ...

). In the first period 1519/1520—1521 three books were printed (Psalter, Liturgijar and Molitvenik or Zbornik). The editing and printing was done by Hieromonk Pahomije. In second period 1536—1540 two books were printed (2nd edition of Molitvenik or Zbornik and praznični Minej or Sabornik). The most luxurious and lengthiest edition was ''Praznični Minej''. In this second period the printing was done by Hierodeacon Mojsije. The books printed in Vuković printing house under Božidar Vuković had rich decorations made by woodcut. Mileševa (a

Serbian Orthodox The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous (ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodox Christian churches. The majority of the populat ...

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...

located near

Prijepolje Prijepolje ( sr-Cyrl, Пријепоље, ) is a town and municipality located in the Zlatibor District of southwestern Serbia. As of 2022, the town has 11,928 inhabitants, while the municipality has 32,214 inhabitants. Etymology One possible mean ...

, in southwest

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

) was center for distribution of books printed in Vuković printing house.

Under Vićenco Vuković

In 1560 Bozidar's son Vićenco Vuković inherited the printing house. His father's books were so popular that until 1561 Vićenco had only published reprints of his fathers books, such as ''Oktoih Petoglasnik'', and successfully sold them. In 1561 Vićenco engaged Stefan Marinović to operate the printing press and first book he printed was Posni Triod. In 1566 Jakov of Kamena Reka printed the Book of hours (Часослов) of 710 pages. Printing activities of Vićenco Vuković announced beginning of the decline of publishing and printing of Serbian books in Venetian Republic, although it had been risen on very high level by Božidar Vuković.

Legacy

Books printed in this printing house significantly influenced, directly or indirectly, to Russian, Greek and particularly Romanian language printed books because some of Božidars woodcuts were copied by printers who printed books on these languages.

Notes

References

Sources

* * * * * *