[THE MOST RICHLY ILLUSTRATED EARLY SLAVIC BOOK] Mineia Prazdnichnaia [Festal Menologium].

Venice: Božidar Vuković, by typographer Moisei, 1538. 432 leaves, measuring ca. 29 × 19.5 cm. Dimensions of the binding: 31.5 × 22.2 × 8.7 cm. With 34 woodcut illustrations, 85 headpieces, and 137 decorative initials in red throughout. Printed in black and red. Item #52837

Eighteenth-century binding in dark brown calf over wooden boards with simple ornamentation, over four raised bands. Re-backed and professionally restored in 2015–17, preserving parts of the original binding and the original front endpapers and blank leaves, with notes and ink test marks. First and final two leaves with restoration along edges; a few other leaves with smaller repairs to corners; but overall very good, with occasional light soil and traces of candle wax. All sheets preserve the original size (with traces of red color to all three edges). The final leaf is soiled and toned, but complete. The clasps are new reconstructions based on those on another known copy of the book, which date back to the eighteenth century.

The Festal Menaion (Slavonic: Miniia) is an abridged, one-volume edition of the Menaion, the twelve-volume work which contains the scriptural texts of the liturgical proper for each day. By contrast, the Festal Menaion features the propers for the major feast days, in the present case also including the feast days of important saints of the Church. The Vuković Menaion was ground-breaking both for the number of illustrations and for its consistent placement of the woodcuts alongside the propers, with the images depicting key Gospel scenes, such as the Nativity and Dormition of Mary, the Feast of the Presentation, the Transfiguration, and the Epiphany of the Lord. On the relevant feast days, smaller images show figures such as John the Baptist, Apostles Peter and Paul, saints revered in the Eastern Church, such as Constantine and Helena, and specifically Serbian saints, such as Sabbas (Sava), the first Serbian archbishop.

Considered the crowning achievement of Božidar Vuković (ca. 1460–1539), this book was the sixth product of his typography, and the most voluminous and technically accomplished work. Born in Podgorica, Montenegro, Vuković migrated westward following Ottoman advances in the region and settled in the Republic of Venice. He was or became Orthodox Christian and was affiliated with the Scuola dei Greci community in Venice. Around 1519 he established a printing press for Serbian liturgical books (e.g. texts printed in the Serbian recension of Church Slavonic), which produced seven books in two distinct periods, around 1519–1520 and again from roughly 1536–1540, when the present work was printed. His works reached various monasteries via Montenegro and Dalmatia, and would have an influence not only on Serbian printing, but also on Bulgarian, Romanian, and Russian early books. Nikola Tesla famously treasured his copy of Vuković’s Služabnik (1519), which is today housed at the Truman Presidential Library.

As with most books intended for liturgical use, complete copies are rare and most libraries hold incomplete or damaged copies.

Nemirovskii, Slavianskie izdaniia kirillovskogo (tserkovnoslavianskogo) shrifta: 1491–2000 (Moscow, 2003), no. 67. See also: Pantic, Pet vekova srpskog stamparstva, 1494–1994.

Price: €60,000.00

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