Makarije (printer)

The top page of the Oktoich from 1494

Priest monk Makarije ( Eng. Makarius ) ran the first printing press in Southeast Europe . He is considered the founder of Serbian and Romanian printing.

Not far from Cetinje in Obod , a small Orthodox monastery fortress, Đurađ Crnojević , the prince of Zeta in today's Montenegro , set up a small printing workshop in 1493, a few decades after Johannes Gutenberg's first printing house in Mainz . The priest monk Makarije was entrusted with the printing. Makarije is believed to have previously worked in Aldus Manutius' printing works in Venice , where he was able to gather his technical knowledge. Several important works were printed in Obod, including the Oktoich , an ecclesiastical hymn book for psalms in eight parts, and the first New Testament in Church Slavonic .

In 1496, Cetinje and Obod were destroyed by the Ottomans . Đurađ Crnojević fled to Venice with his family, while Makarije went to Wallachia in what is now Romania . In Târgovişte , Makarije founded a new printing workshop in 1508, with which the beginnings of Romanian letterpress printing were laid. The first book of the new printing house was printed in 1510. Later Makarije went to the Hilandar monastery on Mount Athos , where he is mentioned as abbot of the monastery around 1526 . According to tradition, he helped set up the local printing press.

Makarije also wrote the treatise “On the Borders of Dacia ” ( O medjah Dacije ), which is now kept in the library of Hilandar Monastery.

Web links

• Prints by Makarije in the general catalog of incunabula