Under the direction of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People’s Republic of China, China-CEEC Libraries Union was established in October 2018 in Hangzhou, China, with its secretariat permanently set in Hangzhou Public Library. More than 60 libraries from China and CEEC, on a voluntary basis, seek common progress made on the principle of "equality, mutual benefit, inclusiveness and openness". 

The Very Collection in My Library aims to introduce treasures kept in each member library to audience in China and Central and Eastern European countries and bring ancient books into the limelight, through of which people could enhance their understanding of cultures and histories of other countries.

This episode here is presented by Dragica Lompar, the director of  National Library of Montenegro "Đurđe Crnojević", introducing you the rare ancient book Octoechos of the First Voice.

(The Very Collection in My Library is updated on Cooperation between China and CEEC official website http://www.china-ceec.org/ and CHINA CULTURE.org https://cn.chinaculture.org/.)

The first South Slavic printing house operated in the last decades of the 15th century in Montenegro, in Cetinje. The only South Slavic country that was not under Turkish rule at the time was Zeta (former name for Montenegro). Đurđe Crnojević, the ruler of Zeta, whose name today is in the name of the National Library of Montenegro, founded the first Cyrillic printing house and the first state printing house in the world. In 1494, the first book printed in Cyrillic letters was published – “Octoechos of the First Voice”, only 38 years after Johann Gutenberg's Bible.

art work of the academic sculptor Milivoje Babović (2014)

This church book, as well as three others in the same printing house, was made by the hieromonk Makarije. It is characterized by Renaissance style, artistic beauty and decorated with beautiful initials. It contains 269 leaves, i.e. 538 pages. The coat of arms of the Crnojević dynasty is on the title page. The polygraphic organization of the text resulted in a four-level hierarchy of division into sections: Voices, days of the week, services and singings. All titles are highlighted in red letters. 

cyrillic letter "V"

Civilization and cultural progress of Montenegro is linked to Octoechos of the First Voice because it’s a book that symbolizes start of printing among South Slavs and it was printed in the first state printing house in Europe. Today’s National Library of Montenegro is named after Đurđe Crnojević. This is to express all the gratitude of the nation for his great cultural achievement in years in which all surrounding countries were conquered and under foreign influence. Montenegro, although very small country, found strength to breed an accomplishment like this on its own ground and based on this fact, to develop the entire cultural identity which is part of today’s rich cultural heritage of Montenegro and Octoechos of the First Voice is a cultural monument of national significance of the highest category.

cyrillic letters "P" and "V"