The first phototype edition of the significant Montenegrin manuscript, the “Cetinje Psalter” from the 3349th century, was published by the Matica Crnogorska and the National Library of Montenegro “Đurđe Crnojević”. The digitized version of the “Cetinje Psalter” was made available by the National and University Library in Zagreb (NSK), which holds the manuscript under the call number R-XNUMX.
The manuscript “Cetinj Psalter” is dated to the first quarter of the 1421th century, according to watermarks on the paper, and was written in one of the scriptoriums on Lake Skadar at the end of the reign of the Balšić dynasty until XNUMX. At that time, these Montenegrin rulers strongly supported the copying of liturgical manuscript books in the scriptoriums of the monasteries of the Skadar basin, as stated in the editor’s preface, Ivan Ivanović, Secretary General of the Matica Crnogorska and Dragice Lompar, director of the NB “Đurđe Crnojević”.
"In the last decade of the 15th century, Cetinje became the new Montenegrin capital of the Crnojević dynasty, and the 'Cetinje Psalter' was one of the first manuscript books brought to the library of the newly founded Cetinje Monastery, as the cathedral church of the already officialized Montenegrin Orthodox Church. The formation of the monastery library with manuscript books and the activation of the copying literary activity was the basis for the establishment of the Cetinje Spiritual and Literary Center as a new center of Montenegrin literacy. The 'Cetinje Psalter' therefore also served as a template for new transcriptions of this important Old Testament biblical book," the editors state.
The publication is accompanied by an afterword in our language and English by the prominent Montenegrin medievalist, Prof. Dr. Božidar Šekularc who made a codicological description of this manuscript and was of great help in the implementation of the entire project. The importance of the “Psalter” as a liturgical book is best demonstrated by the fact that the number of its editions is greater than the total number of all other liturgical books of the 15th-16th centuries, states Božidar Šekularac, adding that this work, in addition to its religious-philosophical importance, has a special significance in the regular liturgical life of the church.
The Psalter is a liturgical book, or one of the biblical books of the Old Testament, consisting of songs or psalms. There are 150 psalms in total, divided into 20 kathismas, and each kathisma ends with the doxology “Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit”. It was translated into the Slovenian language by the All-Slavic enlighteners Saints Cyril and Methodius. The manuscript text was written in two columns: the left one - written in a larger semi-script that somewhat turns into shorthand, and the right one (interpretations) - a smaller script of a similar type, with a different number of lines, which depended on the extensiveness of the “interpretations”. The Cetinje Psalter was written on paper measuring 27,5 x 20 cm, while the manuscript volume is 221 leaves.
“The Psalms, which the Jews sang during worship in the time of King David, were transferred to the Christian church at the first worship meetings. Already after the Ascension of Christ, his disciples, together with the first believers, attended worship in Solomon's section of the Jerusalem Temple, singing psalms and reading with interpretation of the Holy Scriptures. Even today, in the liturgical typology of the Orthodox Church, there is not a single worship service at which individual psalms or groups of psalms are not read or sung. In literature, the so-called 'psalmist style' was even created in the vocabulary, phraseology, poetic stylization and content of literary creation with all the troparions and figures, which Slovenian literacy took over from the Greek originals," says Šekularac, adding that, bearing in mind that a scriptorium and printing house operated in Cetinje at the Crnojević court, "it is not without foundation to claim that this manuscript of the Cetinje Psalter with interpretations served Cetinje scribes and printers as the sample they worked on, especially since the content of the text is almost the same."
The phototype edition of the “Cetinje Psalter” was printed in a circulation of 300 numbered copies.
Bonus video:
