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In this text, however, we will focus on printed srbulje, which were produced from 1494 (when \u0110ura\u0111 Crnojevi\u0107 founded a printing house in Cetinje and published the \u201cOktoih osmoglasnik,\u201d of which 105 copies have survived to this day, and then three more books over the next two years) until the end of the 17th century, and mostly during the 16th.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Printed Cyrillic was shaped according to the model of manuscript uncial script, and artistically designed within the Orthodox tradition but under strong influence of Venetian graphics, since most were printed precisely in Venice, and even when that was not the case, the printing craft was learned there and presses were acquired there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The most significant in Venice was the printing house of Bo\u017eidar Vukovi\u0107, and his son and successor Vi\u0107enco Vukovi\u0107, which \u201csealed\u201d Serbian Church Slavonic Cyrillic books from 1519 to 1638, changing owners but not its mission. Their first in 1519\/1520 was the \u201cLiturgijar\u201d (Russian Church Slavonic imposed the form \u201cSlu\u017eabnik\u201d); the printer was hieromonk Pahomije. The seventh in order and Bo\u017eidar\u2019s last was the \u201cMolitvenik\u201d in 1539.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Venice there also operated the printing house of the Kotor native Jerolim Zagurovi\u0107, who, although Catholic, printed Cyrillic books in Serbian Church Slavonic. He began with the \u201cPsalter\u201d in 1569 and printed until his death in 1580; the printing house was then taken over by his printer Jakov from Kamena Reka, and then in 1597 by Bartolomeo Ginami. The last srbulja of this printing house was a reprint of the \u201cPsalter\u201d in 1638.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A series of our printing houses emerged very early within the Ottoman territorial milieu. The first was the Gora\u017ede Printing House, which Bo\u017eidar Gora\u017edanin founded in Venice in 1519 and then moved to the village of Sopotnica near Gora\u017ede, around the Church of St. George; his printers were his sons \u0110ura\u0111 and Teodor. Its first in 1519 was also the \u201cSlu\u017eabnik\u201d (they call it \u201cLiturgija\u201d), followed by the \u201cPsalter with follow-up\u201d (1521) and the \u201cMolitvenik\u201d (1523).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Rujan Printing House, the first in present-day Serbia, produced the \u201cRujan Four Gospels,\u201d printed by monk Teodosije (whose monument can be seen in the Rujan Monastery). The only completely preserved copy is located in the National Library in Prague, and another, partially damaged, in Saint Petersburg. The copy once held by our National Library was destroyed in 1941 in a fire caused by bombing; Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts possesses a fragment of 92 leaves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the Gra\u010danica Printing House, monk Dimitrije in 1539 printed the \u201cOktoih petoglasnik,\u201d by order of Metropolitan Nikanor of Novo Brdo (today in the Museum of the Serbian Orthodox Church), while the Mile\u0161eva Printing House published the \u201cPsalter\u201d in 1544, the \u201cTrebnik\u201d in 1545, and again the \u201cPsalter\u201d in 1557, thanks to Bo\u017eidar Vukovi\u0107, who visited Mile\u0161eva and reached an agreement with the monastery, after which his son Vi\u0107enco and Teodor Ljubavi\u0107 (who had previously worked in the Gora\u017ede Printing House) brought the press in 1543.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Belgrade Printing House of Prince Radi\u0161a Dmitrovi\u0107 and later the Dubrovnik native Trojan Gunduli\u0107 produced only the \u201cBelgrade Four Gospels,\u201d on August 4, 1552 (around 40 copies survive, 14 of which are in Belgrade, and the best preserved in the Museum of the City of Belgrade).<\/p>\n\n\n\n After the closure of that printing house, the presses were taken over by hieromonk Mardarije, illustrator of that srbulja, who transported them to an unnamed village near Mrk\u0161ina crkva, whose location is a matter of debate, where in 1562 he published the \u201cFour Gospels\u201d (five surviving copies are kept in monasteries in Montenegro, two of which in the Cetinje Monastery), and then the \u201cTriod cvetni\u201d in 1566. The Turks already in 1567 burned the church, burned the village, and burned the house with the printing house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As for srbulje that came out of Romanian printing houses, mention should be made of the \u201cTriod cvetni\u201d from 1649, printed in T\u00e2rgovi\u0219te by hieromonk Jovan Svetogorac, by order of Princess Jelena, wife of Wallachian voivode Matei Basarab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today the largest collection of srbulje is held by the Matica srpska Library, which possesses 30 editions of Serbian printing houses in 143 copies and one bound volume, as well as two Romanian editions in three copies. Numerous srbulje, however, are scattered far and wide, often outside the borders of Serbia and Montenegro; who knows how many are in private collections, often obtained through illegal channels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When one considers the high artistic value of printed srbulje created at the end of the 15th and during the 16th century, and when one takes into account that our lands were under the Turks and culture almost deprived of noble patronage, so crucial for cultural development, it is no exaggeration to say that our cultural production at the time still managed to be at the very top of European culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n DEPARTURE OF A SERBIAN GENIUS FROM CHICAGO: Dr. Ljubomir Djordjevic, the scientist who invented artificial blood, has passed away!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n BY ORDER OF DONALD TRUMP: America is putting pressure on NATO to withdraw its army from Kosovo and Metohija!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n PHOENIX AT THE CROSSROADS OF HISTORY: Why more battles were fought for Belgrade than for any other city in the world!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/02\/Clipboard-2-scaled-1-1024x736.jpg\")
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