The ''Cetinje Octoechos'' ( or ''Cetinjski oktoih'') is a
Serbian Orthodox liturgical book printed
Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and Printmaking, 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 Nabon ...
in 1494 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 ...
, the capital of the
Principality of Zeta (present-day
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 is the first
incunabulum written in the
Serbian recension of
Church Slavonic, as well as the first book printed in
Cyrillic
The Cyrillic script ( ) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking countries in Southeastern Europe, Ea ...
in
Southeast 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
octoechos was produced under the direction of
Hieromonk Makarije at the
Crnojević printing house, which was founded in 1493 by
Đurađ Crnojević, 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 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
woodcuts 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
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 ...
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
Slavonic incunabula
History of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro
Principality of Zeta
Cyrillic manuscripts
Incunabula
Psalters
Serbian books
Serbian manuscripts
Serbian Cyrillic texts
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