The Metropolis of Montenegro and the Littoral is the winner of this year's award of the 67th International Belgrade Book Fair, in the category of Best Publisher from the Diaspora and the Region, for the monograph Manuscript Book of the Monastery of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Cetinje, authored by Milena Martinović.

On this occasion, we remind you of the conversation that our colleague Olivera Balaban had with Dr. Milena Martinović.

The work "Manuscript book of the monastery of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Cetinje" is a supplement to the author's doctoral dissertation of the same name, defended at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Belgrade in 2016, and the very idea of ​​a deeper scientific and research work on this topic originates from the ancient proposal of the abbot of Cetinje, Archimandrite Luke (Anića).

- The doctorate brought together a manuscript collection located in the Cetinje Monastery, about which other scientists also wrote, but sporadically. It was never a whole. Something was always left unfinished, unprocessed, so my topic at the time, which was taken for my doctorate, was actually supposed to describe all the manuscripts that exist in the Cetinje Monastery. This book came out of that doctorate. Of course, a doctorate is a school paper, let's say, which is accepted and defended, but for the publication of a book, you always, of course, have suggestions from mentors, professors who were on the committee, and who on that occasion gave me suggestions to work a little more on research and the collection itself, as well as manuscripts that once belonged to the Cetinje Monastery, and are in other libraries in the region, in other European libraries, in Russia, etc. so that it is a rounded whole when it concerns that manuscript collection, or in general, to show the Cetinje Monastery as a true nursery of Serbian culture and Serbian literacy from the very foundation of the monastery to the present day. The monastery which was the normal seat of the Metropolis. I accepted all those suggestions and I worked for a long time, these are jobs that take a long time, you can't finish something overnight if you think thoroughly, so, thank God, I finished - said Dr. Martinović for Radio "Svetigora", expressing his gratitude to everyone who helped this book see the light of day.

- I should also thank the late Father Luka (Anić) for all of that, because I started working as a conservator on a voluntary basis in the monastery, to have all those manuscripts at hand in a technical sense - to protect them, and then he once said to me: "Well, if you're already protecting them, why don't you read them?". And so I started. I later had the blessing of Metropolitan Amfilohi, and that was important to him, and now I finished thanks to Metropolitan Ioanniki. Simply, man alone cannot do anything. Of course, there is also the help of the mentor and archeological department of the National Library of Serbia, Viktor Savić - proofreader. You can't do it alone. You have to have a team for this kind of work.

The collection of manuscript books and the interpretation of records testify to the extent to which the Serbian Church took care of culture and literacy even in the difficult times our nation was going through.

- When you get into the matter, you can see how important it was for the development of culture in Montenegro. This is our cultural heritage. The written word, not only in the Cetinje monastery, all the churches and monasteries in Montenegro, which are part of the Serbian Church as a whole, they all had the same task, they had the same mission in all Serbian areas - spreading literacy and culture, and when you get into that matter, only then do you see how strong and sustained that mission was, despite all the adversities. You see how important culture was and the culture of memory, of remembering, to know who you are and what you are, and to never forget it.

The collection, which contains 85 books, includes all important liturgical books, as well as the most significant spiritual literature of that time.

- The collection itself is not only from the Cetinje Monastery. The greater part of that collection, it must be said, is from the Piva monastery. At the time when the collection was formed, in 1885, after the liberation, the then prince Nikola Petrović brought 51 books from the Piva Monastery. Thirty-four titles recorded by Vuksan, the first to write about that collection, and I found out through the records that it is not only 34, but more than half of the collection of beer manuscripts, which should also be paid attention to. All the most beautiful and, let's say, the most important manuscripts for our culture and literacy are from that monastery. They were transferred to the Cetinje Monastery, and then with the existing manuscripts from Cetinje and the manuscripts that Prince Nikola took or received from the coastal monasteries, a collection of 84 manuscripts was formed, that is, 85 that are still preserved today. These are manuscripts from the 14th to the end of the 18th century. There is also a manuscript that was created in the first half of the 19th century, less significant, but still a manuscript. They are mainly books for liturgical purposes: trebniki, prayer books, Oktoich, Triod, Posni triod, Cvjetni, Syntagma Matija Vlastar, Ljestvica Jovan Ljestvičnik, Armatol, all possible contents that are necessary for the Church. They are not only characteristic for their content, but also for the beauty of their decorations. We also have a manuscript from the school of Hristifor Račanin. Everything that was on the territory of the former Serbian lands is represented in this collection of books and in the Cetinje Monastery. Later in 1961, one very important manuscript was added from Ostrog to this collection, namely the Milesev Panagirik or Zlatoust. It is from the 14th century. It was written on parchment. There are no decorations, but as far as Serbian literacy is concerned, it is very important for study, because it supports the old tradition of handwriting and has a lot of importance for linguists. Then, Divoš's Gospel from the Podvrh Monastery is also in the collection of the Cetinje Monastery and was also written on parchment. According to the beauty of the decorations, it is one of the most beautiful and representative manuscripts after Miroslav's Gospel. That's how important and rich that collection is and how everything is kept in the monastery.

The book is divided into two parts. The part that deals with the study of history and the part that refers to the catalog of the collection. Martinović draws attention to the fact that previous research did not deal essentially with the content of the writings, but mainly with their illumination and basic description, which speaks of the importance of her research, which deals with the very content of the manuscripts and the important records within them.

- In those manuscripts, one very important item are the records of contributors, bishops from that time. You have, for example, a manuscript in the Cetinje collection that was written by bishop Romil in 1559. You know what it means for Bishop Romil, for example. who wrote down and copied that book himself. And then you have others who signed in Piva. Savatije Sokolović, the latter patriarch, for example, who also contributed, has a record in one of his manuscripts of what he contributed during the founding of the Piva monastery. These are very important records for the study of history. Even to know who passed through there, who stopped by, even for some historical events. At one time, those records were the only ones left for us to know who was there, when it was, a record, let's say, of when the church was built. That's why it was so important to get those records out. Vuksan got it right at one time, but now this was a new reading in more detail, and if there was a mistake somewhere, it should be corrected because we all make mistakes. Even Petar Momirović, who, for example, worked on that last book with Ljupka Vasiljev, wrote: "One day, when there is better technology, someone should take this manuscript and take photos, so that it can be seen." Therefore, in that second part, I extracted those contents and records.