Early cyrillic printed books and the migration of decorative forms between the Adriatic and the Danube around 1500*

The article focuses on the artistic transfer of the early printed books from the Cetinje printing shop, between the Mediterranean and the Danube region in the late medieval and early modern period. The master-printer Makarije made these books under the influence of the Italian, German and Slavonic printers operating in Venice. He later traveled throughout Southeastern Europe, spreading their influence to the Wallachian principality. The paper analyzes and compares the decorative elements in these books in order to understand their ori-gin. The migration and the reception of the artistic elements of Makarije’s incunabula allow us to discover artistic dissemination routes.


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the Greek Orthodox church of San Giorgio dei Greci. This small community was very diverse, and parishioners were merchants, adventurers, men of letters, and also members of the old noble families who had left the Balkans for political reasons. 5 The Venetian government granted privileges to the local printing shops which made possible the production of Cyrillic books for the Orthodox population in the Balkans whose supply of liturgical books was cut off by the wars. For this reason, several printers and publishers were given a monopoly over the production of Cy-5 E. C. Burke, The Greeks of Venice, 1498-1600: immigration, settlement, and integration, Turnhout 2016 rillic books and their sales in different markets. This was so beneficial to the Venetian economy that the city magistrates turned a blind eye even to the religious arguments put forward from Rome, which urged the control of the content of Orthodox books. 6 From the beginning of the sixteenth century, some Venetian printing shops started printing books in Serbian-Slavonic, the language used by the majority of Orthodox people in Southern-Eastern Europe, with the exception of the Greeks. 7 This was important as it offered an alternative to manuscripts which took longer to produce and were affected by mistakes and inaccessible to wider circles of readers. 8 Precisely at this time, around 1490, Djuradj Crnojević, the lord of Zeta (1490-1496) arrived in Venice and displayed an interest in printed books, as well as in opening a printing shop at Cetinje. The Crnojević family already had close contacts with Venice -Ivan Crnojević, Djuradj's father, lived there from 1479 to 1481, balancing the independence of his country, squeezed in between the unreliable Venetian Republic and the mighty Ottoman Empire. 9 Crnojević's domains also had a direct border with the Republic since the largest part of the Adriatic coast was under Venetian rule. Young prince Djuradj was educated in Venice, and in 1490 married Elisabetta Erizzo, daughter of the Venetian noble Antonio Erizzo, a political marriage that was meant to ensure good relations between Zeta and the Republic of St. Mark. The wedding was described by Cardinal Pietro Bembo in his book Historia Veneta published in 1551. 10 Djuradj was very interested in replenishing the depleted collections of Cyrillic books in the Orthodox churches in his fatherland, and in 1493 he probably brought a printing press from Venice and founded a Cyrillic printing shop in his capital city of Cetinje. This was the first such workshop among the South Slavs, and only the second Cyrillic printing shop in the world: an earlier one was founded by Sweipolt Fiol in Krakow in 1491. It published Cyrillic liturgical books for the Russian markets. 11 Unfortunately, Djuradj Crnojević remained in power only until 1496, when the Ottoman forces conquered Zeta. In December of 1496, he fled to Venice, with all the pomp of a 'Byzantine' ruler, and settled with his family in the home of   tan Bayezid II, most likely after converting to Islam, and lived as a Turkish feudal lord until his death somewhere in Anatolia in the 1520s. 13 During the period between 1493 and 1496, while Djuradj Crnojević's printing shop was active, its principal was hieromonk Makarije 'of Montenegro' as he was called in the preface to one of his books. 14 To date, Makarije's life has remained almost completely unknown, and everything we know about him comes from his notes in the colophons and margins of the books he printed. 15 We do not even know where he learned the mobile typeset printing technique, although many historians assume he could have acquired the skill from his countryman Andrija Paltašić from Kotor (Andrea Iacobi de Cattaro) who owned a printing shop near the church of Santa Maria Formosa in Venice in 1476. There are indications that, for his part, Paltašić learned printing from the well-known French printer Nicholas Jenson. During the two decades from 1479 to 1499, Paltašić's printing shop published thirty-eight books on religious, legal, and historical topics. 16 Paltašić offered his services to other printers as well (e.g. Octavian Scott), and we know that he also worked with South Slavonic printers like Dobrić Dobrićević from Dubrovnik (Boninus de Boninis de Ragusa). 17 Paltašić and Dobričević were not the only South Slavs from the Adriatic coast who were engaged in the printing business in Italy. We know of several others, like Grgur Dalmatinac (Grgur Senjanin), Bartolo Pelušić from Kopar or Šimun Paskvalić from Zadar (Simon Pasqualis). 18 It is not inconceivable that Makarije became interested in printing while he worked as a scribe and a clerk at Crnojević's court and managed to convince his master of the profitability and usefulness of a printing shop. At that time, many printers in Italy and Germany thought similarly, and looked for sponsors and partners among rich noblemen. 19 When Djuradj Crnojević left Zeta for Venice in 1496 he probably took Makarije with him. His will tells us that they took church silver, icons, and "scriptures" from Cetinje monastery, where the printing shop was located. 20 It has been shown that fifteenth-century printers had to prepare everything they needed for their work. That involved making type by pouring molten metal into matrices which had previously been made by driving punches of the type into a soft metal like copper. The type punches were made according to the draft drawings of the letter design. Goldsmiths, who had extensive experience in smelting metal, were often hired to do this part of the work. 21 The Cetinje printing shop most probably had two printing presses, which would also mean having two typesetters, two printers, one person to mix colors (ink), and one person to do all other tasks in the workshop. 22 The printing presses and paper, as well as punches or types, were most probably bought in Venice, but it is highly likely that Makarije hired local goldsmiths and woodcarvers to make the decorative elements for the books -the illustrations, vignettes and ornaments. It was only a little while earlier that the first Italian Renaissance decorative elements appeared mixed with older Gothic art forms in the nearby coastal cities: first in Dubrovnik in the middle of the fifteenth century, in the work of sculptor Pietro di Martino from Milan. 23 Djuradj Crnojević hired Makarije as a supervisor of the whole project, relying on the practical knowledge he must have acquired in Venice, as well as his erudition and overall knowledge of the language, texts, orthography and theology. 24 Makarije monitored and edited the texts, made decisions on the appearance and the distribution of illustrations, and took care of the issues related to type making and the press and all other technical matters. He led and monitored the main part of the operation, while the helpers, who worked under his supervision, did the bulk of the physical work.
The Glagolitic printing press founded in 1493 by Blaž Baromić in the Dalmatian city of Senj operated in a similar manner. Baromić had also learned printing in Venice, in the workshop of Andrea Torresani. 25 Makarije most probably knew Baromić from Venice, because they were there at similar times, and trained in the printing business in the same way. Moreover, they faced the same problems in starting printing shops and casting typesets that were equally rare and specific to both the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets. The Senj printing shop remained open until 1508, and it is not difficult to imagine that the two master printers exchanged experiences, especially as the Glagolitic typeset was made in Senj by Blaž himself. Moreover, the Missal printed in Senj in 1494 contains a depiction of ' The Cetinje printing press was founded in order to produce necessary liturgical books by means that would speed up and replace the old and slow process of copying books. Although this does indicate some innovative and emancipatory attitudes, the good state of the Church was the motivation for medieval rulers who saw themselves as the protectors of the Christian faith. Thus, this founding act of Djuradj Crnojević needs to be seen at least partly   [13][14][15][16][17][18]. The Octoechos is one of the most important liturgical books in the Orthodox church. It was originally organized as one book which contained hymns in all eight tones (collections of melodies) used in the Orthodox services. As the number of hymns in each tone increased, the book was later (not before the fourteenth century) divided into two volumes. Among the Slavs, the first volume was called "Prvoglasnik" (of the First Tone) and the second one "Petoglasnik" (of the Psalter with the Additions (Psaltir s posledovanjem) (1495), 29 and the Prayerbook (Molitvenik) (1495/6). 30

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It was exactly during the last thirty years of the fifteenth century that a significant change in the graphic design of books took place in Venice: more and more often the Venetian printers decorated their texts with richly ornamented Renaissance frames and attempted to introduce colors into printed books. 31 In 1469, Giovanni and Vendelino da Spira (Ger. Johann and Wendelin of Speyer) introduced a new round, uncluttered, and readable letter type -Roman, which was subsequently improved by another well-known printer -Nicholas Jenson. 32 Numerous other Italian artists also worked on illustrations and graphic ornaments for books, but it was Erhard Ratdold, a Venetian printer of German origin, who pioneered a new concept for the decoration of books by introducing wood carved illustrations, ornaments and initials with a characteristic combination of Gothic and Renaissance elements. His intention was to create a printing technique that would imitate the quality and decorations of manuscripts. 33 In contrast to modern printers, there was a division of jobs among printers in fifteenth-century workshops: they had to obtain the manuscript they intended to print, and ideally procure a second copy in order to double-check the content and the structure, notice and correct all the mistakes which the copyists might have made, and complete the editor's work before they could send the manuscript over to the typesetter. This process required considerable funds, time and knowledge. 34 the Fifth Tone). Numerous manuscripts of the octoechos have been preserved, but they all differ slightly, either by the recension of Old Slavonic they were written in, or by the order of hymns they contained.  (2015) 86-97. 30 The general prayer book is an important liturgical book that was often reprinted. It contains general prayers, short services, hymns and canons. The order of texts and services is organized to follow the course of human life, from birth to death. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Serbian printers most commonly called this book a prayer book. Crnojević's prayer book has only been preserved in fragments: Pešikan, Leksikon, 146; Đ. Trifunović, Azbučnik srpskih srednjovekovnih književnih pojmova, Beograd 1990, 350-351. 31   It has already been noted that fifteenth-century incunabula sometimes hardly differed from manuscripts, which often caused confusion among contemporary readers: the formats were identical (the most common formats were octavo, used for the octoechos, and quartos used for the psalters and general prayer and service books), the books did not have title pages or page numbers (only the folded sheets were numbered with letters on the first and the last side), formulaic texts at the beginning and the end of the books were taken over from the manuscript tradition. 35 Yet, the books from Cetinje introduced a whole range of new elements adopted from contemporary Renaissance literary production. Thus, Makarije's initials belonged to the group of Renaissance initials created under the influence of Venetian printed books. Makarije used the same type of vignettes and initials for both the octoechos and the psalter, but he varied their sizes to suit the formats of the book. A tribute to his skill was the praise he received from Ludovico Pasquali, chancellor of the Latin Chancery in Dubrovnik, who petitioned the authorities to grant him the permission to open a printing shop in the city which would print books similar to those printed by the Crnojević's, using the type that had been used by Serbian monks in their churches ("in lettere rassiane, al modo che usano il calogeri della religione rassiana in loro chiese"). 36 The Psalter contained the largest number of initials of all his editions. Despite these resemblances, the way these vignettes were used was taken from the manuscript tradition. Thus, for example, the illustration from the Octoechos of the First Tone from 1494 ( Fig. 1) does not have a parallel among earlier Serbian miniatures, although under the influence of this book such motifs later appeared in sixteenth-century manuscripts. Renaissance motifs were copied from books belonging to various Venetian printers; for example, D. Medaković discovered the source for a small angel's head with schematic wings among the initial letters of Venetian printer Bernardino di Novara. 37 Two vertical ornaments set to the left and right of the vignette are braided with the ends in the shape of stylized leaves, which corresponds to the medieval decorative plaster ornaments of the Moravan architecture and decoration school, and which can also be found in the early manuscript tradition. This example indicates that the printers from Cetinje reinterpreted traditional decorative motifs, and without any qualms incorporated new elements from Renaissance printed books into them. In this process they displayed a high level of creativity. Angels and putti were standard motifs in the Venetian printed books of that period, especially in depictions of heraldic images where a wreath or a shield with a noble family's coat of arms was often carried by two heavenly creatures. The motifs on the ivy that fills the rectangular space of 35  the vignette correspond to the textile ornament characteristic of Venetian manufacturers. 38 The second volume of the Octoechos is the most richly decorated of all books printed in Cetinje. 39 It contains at least six xylographic illustrations, all of which are above average in the quality of their artistic decoration (Fig. 2). Each of these ornaments was printed as two templates that complement one another: one template is an ornamental frame with an arch, within which the second template is an inserted illustration. It appears that there was only one copy of this frame, which displays all the characteristics of the Quattrocento, and it was used until it literally started to fall apart. 40 However, the in-  side illustration was routinely changed. The ornamental frame consisted of white lines on a black background, and was composed of stylized plants intertwined with figures of winged putti, birds and animals, both real (lions) and imaginary (griffons). The symbols of the four evangelists occupy the corners, while the coat of arms of the Crnojević family -a two-headed eagle in a wreath held by two putti and birds -was placed in the middle of the lower part of the frame. The eagle is surrounded by Djuradj Crnojević's monogram. The same coat of arms can be found in the first volume of the Octoechos, except that the version from the second volume contains a crown at the top of the wreath, which is not present in the earlier book. 41 Some researchers, like Pavel J. Šafarik, noticed that the Cetinje typeset shows the influence of the Latin Antiqua font, and sometimes even of Gothic type. Based on that, they concluded that Makarije did not cast the typeset for the books himself, but that it was done by an Italian master in Rome or Venice. 42 Many others agreed that the presence of the double stylistic influence in the Cetinje books proved that the initials and ornaments were carved in Venice and then bought as finished products. In time, however, the conclusion that prevailed was that the ornaments were created in local shops on the coast and in Cetinje itself. By closely analyzing the Octoechos and the Psalter, E. L. Nemirovski established that Makarije replaced the worn-out or broken letters from the first set with letters that were modified, improved and cast from the matrices in Cetinje. In this way, the typeset of the Cetinje incunabula was constantly improved and redefined to follow the shapes of the Venetian Renaissance letter. 43 One characteristic of the Cetinje initials is that they are contained within rectangular frames and printed on a black or red background. Special wood-carved templates for printing initials were used for the first time by the Venetian printer Erhard Ratdold. 44 Until Ratdold's times, initials were hand painted in spaces that the printer had prepared. Initials usually contained a rectangular red or black background on which a white letter was intertwined with stylized white vine branches (Fig. 3). Ratdold's technique was quickly accepted, and by the end of the fifteenth century this method of printing and decorating initials was frequently used in Venice. It can be seen in the works of numerous printers such as Philip de Piero (1477), Franz Renner of Heilbronn (1478), and Johann Herbert of Heiligenstadt (1483). 45 This method for printing initials remained dominant until the 1520s, and the initials printed in Cetinje workshop fully belong to this group of Venetian printing techniques.
analogies with the internal structure of the book, it has been estimated that it contained thirty-one or thirty-two engravings: Medaković, Grafika srpskih štampanih knjiga, 67; V. Jagić, Ein Nachtrag zum "ersten Cetinjer Kirchendruck vom J. 1494", AfSPh 25 (1903  The Cetinje printers did not simply copy existing shapes; they also decorated Cyrillic letters using the abovementioned initials as models. This is most apparent in the initials "К", "Л" and "Б", which contain not only stylized leaves and flowers, but also naked winged putti, birds, animals and cornucopia (Fig. 4). 46 Octavian Scott, a well-known Venetian printer, is considered a major influence behind the appearance of initials where figural representations and children's faces were added to the stylized vegetal ornament of the letter. These initials rapidly reached exceptional complexity and beauty, at first when painted on a light background, and gradually on a black background as well. Letters decorated with children and animals appeared first in the books of northern printers and quickly became known as "Kinderalphabet" in the work of Hans Holbein. 47 Thus, we can assume that the Cetinje printers learned how to create this initial by combining Scott's and Ratdold's works, which shows that they closely followed the latest developments in printing techniques in Venice. 48 The letters and ornaments in books produced in Cetinje resemble the ornaments in the aforementioned Venetian books, but an exact copy is nowhere to be found. This indicates that someone, most probably Makarije, created drawings of letters, ornamental initials, and vignettes based on ornaments from the Venetian incunabula, but also adapted them to the existing manuscript tradition. This part of the work was most probably done in Venice where it was possible to find a large number of early printed books by different printers. 49

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Due to the variety of initials and the beauty of ornaments and illustrations, books from the Cetinje printing shop had a strong effect on printing in the Balkan hinterland. This was mostly due to the spiritus movens of the Cetinje printing shop -hieromonk Makarije. After the printing shop closed, we lose track of him in sources until ten years later, in 1508, when he reappears in the Principality of Wallachia, on the banks of the Danube. He was engaged there as a printer, and published several books: Prayerbook (1508), Octoechos (1510) and the Four Gospels (1512), all of which contain his remarks in the colophons. The reason why Makarije decided to move to this distant principality can be found in the links between the Crnojević family and the Wallachian rulers: specifically, in their shared Orthodox religion and in the common Church-Slavonic language that was used at the time in Romanian churches. 50  Apart from the common publisher, these three books have many textual elements that point to links with the Cetinje printing shop: the high quality of printing which would very rarely be achievable in the decades that followed, the uniform prefaces and conclusions in both Octoechos, a very similar text structure, and the mention of Serbian saints Sava and Simeon in the Prayerbook. 53 The visual elements also point to direct links between these works and Cetinje: the decorative vignettes used in the Psalter printed in Cetinje in 1495 are repeated on the first page of the 1508 Prayerbook. The Four Gospels printed in Wallachia in 1512 also contains one decorative vignette from the Cetinje incunabula. It consists of a braided ornament inside a rectangular frame which, apart from its decorative function, also represents a Greek cross at the center of which is a black two-headed eagle as a reference to the Crnojević family (Fig. 5). 54 This was a common motif since the fourteenth century not only in the decorations of Serbian manuscripts, but also on objects meant for everyday use, such as the carved single doors in Slepče monastery near Bitola (Macedonia), produced in the sixteenth century. 55 Thus, it is not surprising that Cetinje printers decided to include it as well. A similar type of braid was used in the Four Gospels, except that the coat of arms in the middle contained a black raven with a crown on its head and a cross in its beak, the coat of arms of Prince Radu cel Mare. 56 This migration of influences between the Mediterranean and the Danube region is also confirmed by the similarity of another illustration that appeared in both of Makarije's editions of the Octoechos -the Cetinje book from 1494 and the Wallachian book from 1510. Before the text for the service of Little Vespers on Saturday evening, the Cetinje book contains an illustration of the Holy Hymnographers, the authors of the hymns from the Octoechos: St. Joseph the Hymnographer, St. John Damascene and St. Theophanes Graptos. In the background is an unknown church, which for a long time was the object of many speculations about whether it could be the church built by Ivan Crnojević in Cetinje. 57 Above the composition is God's hand, which blesses the church while the hymnographers celebrate God through their hymns. It is very unusual to see a miniature depicting the Holy Hymnographers together, and so it is assumed that the original of this composition is to be found on frescoes where they often appear in the composition called "All Creation Rejoices in Thee" based on the hymn attributed to St. John Damascene. From the sixteenth century onwards, this composition appears on the frescoes throughout the Balkans, including the monasteries Gračanica and Ravanica in Serbia, Humor and Sucevița in Romania as well as in Molivoklissia on Mount Athos, to name just a few. 58 As the original drawing for this illustration has not been preserved, we cannot determine the identity of the person who combined the portrait with the illustration of a hymn to the Mother of God. 59 We also do not know who did the engraving for this illustration, but the unknown engraver could most probably be found among the woodcarvers and goldsmiths from Dubrovnik and Kotor, whom Makarije could have easily hired. Like the Slavonic painter from the coastal region, we know that these artisans were familiar with both the Byzantine tradition and the new decorative visual language of the Renaissance. This is clearly visible in the examples of the 55 P. Momirović, Ikonografija duboreznih vrata manastira Slepča, ZLUMS 6 (1970) 62-63. 56 Medaković,Grafika srpskih štampanih knjiga,[173][174]Nemirovskij,Gesamtkatalog der Frühdrucke,[28][29] Although this has been a topic of debate for more than a century, we still do not have a final answer, as shown by the extensive literature on this subject: B. Borozan, Sakriveni iskaz gravure iz Cetinjskog oktoiha, Matica 44 (Cetinje-Podgorica 2010) 614-616; V. Đurić, Umjetnost, in: Istorija Crne Gore II/2, ed. D. Vujović et al., Titograd 1970, 492. 58  floral ornaments, symbols and figurines which appear throughout the Cetinje Octoechos. 60 This same composition can be found in the Wallachian edition, but as the frontispiece of the book (Fig.  6). The alterations are negligible: the position of the Holy Hymnographers is different because the central place is given to Theophanes Graptos rather than St. John Damascene; their names are not written on the halos; and they hold scrolls instead of books. The composition is less strict than in the Cetinje edition, while the elongated tambours of the domes indicate that the background church belongs to the Wallachian type of architecture. However, scholars have not been able to determine precisely which monastery is depicted. It seems logical that the monastery in the picture would be the one that hosted the printing shop, which various monasteries did, like Govora, Dealu, Snagov or Bistrica near Tirgoviște, the see of the Wallachian ruler. However, it is not impossible that the church in the picture was from Tîrgoviște itself, because right at that time, the 1540s, another Serb, Dimitrije Ljubavić from Goražde, opened a printing shop attached to the Wallachian princes' court. Judging by the watermarks, the paper for Makarije's books arrived from different parts through merchants from Sibiu, a common practice at that time. 61 After several years, Makarije left Wallachia for the Hilandar monastery on Mount Athos, of which he became the abbot shortly after he settled. He maintained ties with the Wallachian princes, who became patrons of the Hilandar monastery, granting charters and sending financial help every year. In a few of these charters, kept in Hilandar monastery but issued in Tîrgoviște between 1522 and 1529, Makarije is named as the abbot. Radu IV had already sent substantial gifts to the monasteries of Mount Athos and Sinai; for example, in 1498 he sent a large sum of money, around 5,000 aspras, to the Hilandar monastery. 62 Radu V sent 10,000 aspras to Hilandar, 1,000 of which were intended for the abbot Makarije personally. 63 One of the charters issued by the Moldovan duke Petru Rareș on 13 March 1533 tells us that Makarije was at that time in Moldova, and that he had secured the duke's support for Hilandar. Makarije also preserved his ties with Dubrovnik, whose officials also sent money to the same monastery. Thus, the Hilandar delegation that arrived in Dubrovnik in 1526 received financial aid from the city's authorities in the amount of 1,000 denarii. At the same time, between 1526 and 1529 -perhaps influenced by his life abroad -Makarije compiled a small geographic essay 60  about Wallachia and Moldova, entitled Tlkovanije o zemljah dakijskih (An Essay on Dacian Lands). 64 The technical merits of Makarije's editions made them, from a technical point of view, the best printed books in Romania, although they were of lesser quality in comparison to the books that were printed in Cetinje. Over the decades that followed, the high technical standard of these books became the measuring stick for new master printers.

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The influence of the Cetinje printing shop on the South Slavonic printers was felt long after it shut down, not only in the Balkans but also among those who continued to work in Venice. Božidar Vuković, a Venetian printer of Cyrillic books, mentioned Djuradj Crnojević in his works' colophons, giving him credit as the first printer. He followed him in the printing and replacing of the holy books that the Ottomans destroyed. The forewords to Crnojević's books had a noticeable impact on the forewords in Vuković's editions. What is more, already in his Prayerbook for Travellers (Zbornik za putnike) from 1520, on which he worked with the printer Pahomije from Montenegro, Vuković expressed his wish to transfer the printing shop to his homeland (Montenegro). His wish was not fulfilled due to the wars and general insecurity which forced him to remain in Venice, but in the meantime, in 1537 he printed the second volume of the Octoechos (Tones 5-8). 65 In comparison to the Cetinje edition, Vuković's book contains a simpler version of the depiction of the three hymnographers. 66 The influence of Makarije's Octoechos was also noticeable in another edition of the second volume of the Octoechos, printed in the Gračanica monastery in 1539, deep in the interior of the Balkans under the patronage of Nikanor, the metropolitan of Novo Brdo. The printing itself in this case was done by a printer by the name of Dimitrije, while the bishop Nikanor was the supervisor of the whole process. That he was an exceptionally learned man is clearly visible from his biography and the catalogue of his personal library. 67 Although the text of the Octoechos differs from the Cetinje and the Venetian editions, the influence of the Cetinje book is visible in the use of framed initials. The printer in Gračanica in part copied them directly, and in part made some innovations (Fig. 7). 68 An even stronger link to the Cetinje edition is signaled by the illustration of the Holy Hymnographers (St. Kosmas of Maiuma, St. John Damascene, 201 and St. Joseph) beneath a clearly recognizable depiction of Gračanica monastery, the see of the metropolitan of Novo Brdo. The representation of the three hymnographers is combined with the emblem of the printing shop and its founders, whose names are given at the top and the bottom of the page. 69 It is precisely this illustration that connects this edition of the Octoechos with the earlier books printed in Cetinje, Venice and Wallachia. The mentioned image achieved its final composition through compilation: the upper part of the illustration with the monastery in the background was created based on the ideas of the Octoechos books from Cetinje and Wallachia, while the portrait of the hymnographers was inserted separately from a special template created from the illustration in Vuković's Venetian Octoechos printed in 1537. 70 There were, however, some changes in the way the illustration was used as the frontispiece of the book, as was the case in the Wallachian edition. Technically, the illustration is of lesser quality than the previous two, but it is of great value as it shows how this new iconographic model was transformed from a minor decorative element to a standard emblematic image in this type of early printed book.
The reproduction of the illustration from the Cetinje books was widespread in the printing shops founded in the cities and monasteries all around the Balkansin Goražde, Gračanica, Mileševa, Belgrade and Mrkšina 69 Pešikan,Leksikon,[99][100][101] As someone's feet and a socle are visible at the bottom of the picture, it is clear that a different figure was originally portrayed in this place. Based on the analogy with some icons from Gračanica, monastery we can assume that the illustration depicted the Mother of God enthroned (she was the patron of the church) and metropolitan Nikanor who offered the book as a votive: S. Petković, Nesačuvani portret novobrdskog mitropolita Nikanora iz 1538/1539. godine, SKM 9 (1989SKM 9 ( -1990 74-85. crkva. 71 This phenomenon contributed to the creation of numerous unreliable stories and legends tied to the Cetinje printing shop. Thus, Jerolim Zagurović, a printer from Kotor, wrote in the preface to his Psalter printed in Venice in 1579 that he had found the original typeset from the Cetinje printing shop, abandoned at Cetinje by Djuradj Crnojević at the time when he went into exile. 72 Marco and Bartol Ginami, Venetian booksellers and printers, also evoked Djuradj Crnojević's printing shop in the preface to their Psalter from 1638. 73 Even much later there were claims that the printing shop had remained in Cetinje until the end of the seventeenth century when it was destroyed at the time of the Venetian-Ottoman war, and that the letters from its typeset could be found in other places in Montenegro. 74 All of these rumors created significant confusion among historians, but at the same time they contributed to the prestige of the Cyrillic incunabula printed in Cetinje during the last decade of the fifteenth century. This marked even more clearly the routes of cultural transfer between the Mediterranean coastal regions and the continental interior of the Balkans over a long period of time. The decorative transformations the books underwent along this route are a strong testimonial to the creativity of the Serbian early printers. The migration of Renaissance influences and the dissemination of Venetian visual ideas were greatly dependent on the local traditions, and reflected the fine differences between the artistic tastes of the populations of South-East Europe.