Yearbook of the Maritime Museum - a beacon of Bokele's rich maritime past

The jubilee edition of the "Yearbook of the Maritime Museum in Kotor" (number 69-70) was promoted last night at an appropriate ceremony in that scientific and cultural institution in Kotor.

The publication which, according to tradition, at the end of the year ends the rich and varied programs organized by the Maritime Museum of Montenegro in Kotor, and in this jubilee edition, which follows the 70th anniversary of the museum itself, brings a large number of scientific and research works from maritime history, but also general cultural heritage Kotor and Boka. On over 370 pages, the "Yearbook" presents 11 scientific works by eminent authors from Montenegro, Croatia and Serbia, two reviews and three shorter reviews.

The outgoing director of the Kotor Maritime Museum, Andro Radulović, addressed the large audience that gathered in the Baroque Grgurin Palace in Kotor for the promotion of the "Annual".

"The Maritime Museum of Kotor is recognized for many things: for its priceless exhibition, the beautiful palace of Grgurin and for numerous high-quality exhibitions and promotions, international cooperation and high-quality events. However, in comparison to other similar institutions, it is published by the "Annual of the Maritime Museum" - a periodical publication that, with its original scientific works, has been a significant promoter of the far-famed maritime past of Boka Kotorska for the past seven decades. All these editions with their content represent a kind of monument of the maritime and cultural heritage of this region," Radulović said, adding that "unfortunately, he must state that there are fewer and fewer original works on the history of seafaring because there are fewer and fewer researchers of the maritime past, of whom there are very few left."

He reminded of the prowess of numerous earlier people of pen and science - excellent researchers, who in local and archives in Dubrovnik, Split, Zadar, Trieste and Venice studied numerous documents and testimonies about important people, ships, events and tendencies from the history of Boke seafaring and that was then published in "Godišnjak" by the likes of Antom Milošević, don Ivo Stjepčević, Pavo Butorac, don Nik Luković, Anton Dabinović, Milivoj Milošević, Rist Kovijanić, Ignjati Zloković, Slavko Mijušković, Miloš Milošević, Antun Tomić, Jovan Martinović, Petar Palavšić and Anita Mazibradic. They, as he said, "spent days, months and years in order to obtain important written information about the Pomoc past of this region."

"From the launch of this edition in 1952 until 1962, when the 'Proceedings of the Society for the Study of Maritime Affairs of Yugoslavia' was launched, the 'Annual of the Maritime Museum of Kotor' was the only publication with the theme of maritime history in the territory of the former Yugoslavia," said Radulović, adding that Godišnjak gained a reputation as a professional and diverse publication on the history of not only seafaring, but also a number of related activities and cultural heritage in Boka. He thanked the editorial board of the Yearbook for their cooperation, but also all his colleagues at the Kotor Maritime Museum and wished success to the new director of that institution, Maja Uskoković.

Retired museum librarian Slavko Dabinović and senior librarian Danijela Nikčević spoke about the works published in the latest edition of the Maritime Museum Yearbook. Dabinović singled out the work "Ships of the Bay of Kotorska from Croatian Maritime Registers of the 18th Century" by Dr. Zrinka Podhraški Čizmek from the Department of Art History of the University of Zadar as particularly significant. He emphasized that this work is a great contribution to the study of Boka's maritime history in the 18th century, because Boka Kotorska is mentioned in more than five thousand documents in Croatian registries from that century.

"After several years of stagnation in research into the maritime and commercial history of Boka Kotorska, this work represents a major step forward in documented and qualified studies of the maritime legacy of our predecessors, which the Kotor Maritime Museum carefully preserves and communicates," Dabinović pointed out.

Recalling the genesis and basic mission of the "Yearbook" created seven decades ago together with the Museum in Kotor, Dabinović emphasized that this publication was the place where the works of the most eminent scientific names and expert researchers from the area of ​​the former Yugoslavia were published.

"The task of the museum's periodical publication 'Yearbook' was then, as it is now, to give credibility to the centuries-old continuity of the maritime activities of Bokele maritime merchants, warriors and patrons. Throughout the 70 years of the presence of this serial publication, the topics that were studied were mainly from the issues of maritime history, but there were also other topics that are somehow related to the inherited cultural and maritime past of Boka Kotorska," said Dabinović.

His colleague Danijela Nikčević said that the Kotor Maritime Museum will continue its publishing activities.

"Thus with this double issue 69-70 of the 'Yearbook', our museum is successfully continuing the tradition of previous issues, fulfilling its task to contribute to the development of maritime knowledge, fostering maritime thought in the fight for a more active and versatile Adriatic orientation of the citizens of the state of Montenegro," concluded Nikčević.