Credited to Montenegro. The country is not in doubt, but sources disagree on whether the press stood at Obod or in Cetinje, and on whether Đurađ or his father Ivan Crnojević founded it. The books are described in sources as Serbian Cyrillic and the tradition is claimed in both Montenegrin and Serbian cultural history.
How it began
The press worked under Đurađ (Đurđe) Crnojević, lord of Zeta, a state in the territory of present-day Montenegro. Hieromonk Makarije managed the work. At the end of the Octoechos of the First Tone, Makarije wrote that the book was completed on January 4, 1494, and data in the preface indicate the work began in spring 1493. Most historians treat Đurađ as the founder, though some suggest the idea came from his father Ivan, who had spent time in Venice. Sources place the press at Obod or Cetinje and the question is unresolved. The Psalter states it was finished in Cetinje in 1495.
Before it existed
Before the press, liturgical books in Zeta were written by hand. In the preface to the Octoechos, Đurađ Crnojević explained the motive: the Ottoman Turks were demolishing churches and destroying the stock of books, so new books were needed. The vocabulary of printing did not yet exist locally. The afterword speaks of "putting together the forms" of the book in one year with eight people.
How it works
The books were printed with movable type on a press that is thought to have been bought in Venice. The letters are considered to have been cast in metal from engraved matrices, the principle introduced by Gutenberg, since identical letters share the same shape throughout. Latin letter forms were adapted to Cyrillic. Makarije laid the pages out after Serbian manuscripts while following Venetian taste. A reconstruction of the eight-person shop has two typesetters, two men at the press, one wetting the paper and one drying sheets.
How it spread
After the press closed, Makarije went to Wallachia, where he is considered to have started printing, and a copy of a Gospel book he printed there survives. Printers from the region gathered in Venice, where Božidar Vuković of Podgorica set up a Cyrillic printing house in 1519 and his son Vincenzo continued it.
What changed first
The press produced the Octoechos of the First Tone, the Octoechos of the Fifth Tone, a Psalter in 1495 and a Prayer Book. A fifth title, a book of the four Gospels, is claimed but no copy survives. The shop ran for about three years. In 1496 an Ottoman attack on Zeta forced Đurađ Crnojević to leave for Venice and printing stopped. What happened to the equipment is unknown.
What lasted
Printing returned to Cetinje in 1834, when Petar II Petrović Njegoš brought a press from St. Petersburg. In 1852 its type was melted into bullets during an Ottoman attack, and the shop was renewed between 1858 and 1860. The present Obod printing company in Cetinje traces its tradition to 1494 and describes the Crnojević press as the first state-owned printing house; that description is the company's own claim.
