Božidar Vuković

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Božidar Vuković (born c. 1466, Podgorica, Zeta, nowadays Montenegro - died c. 1540, Venice) printer of Serb books.

Noble by birth, from the family of Đurići of Starčeva Gorica (on Lake Scutari), Vuković was born in the town of Podgorica in Zeta (therefore he often identified himself as Podgoričanin, of Podgorica). He entered the service of Đurađ Crnojević, the lord of Zeta and served as his logotet (court scribe). With the fall of Zeta to the Turks he fled with Đurađ to Venice where he earned his living by trade but also managed to acknowledge his noble title and to be received amongst the ranks of nobles of the Holy Roman Empire. As Venice was at the time one of the centers of European printing and since there was a lack of Serb liturgical books in the Serb lands conquered by the Turks, he decided to open a printing press with Serbian letters in 1519.

His printing press operated in two phases. In the first one (1519-1520) he printed Služabnik (1519) and Psaltir sa posledovanjem i časlovcem (Psalter, 1520). In the second phase, which came after a long break only in 1536-40 he published five more books in Serbian cyrilic: Zbornik (1536), Molitvenik (Prayer book, 1536), Oktoih petoglasnik (1537), Minej (The Book of Months, 1538), Molitvenik trebnik (1539 or 1540). All of his editions are printed versions of liturgical works in Serbian redaction of Church Slavonic that have been in church use for a long time. Except for the lack of books he also explained that he wanted to produce books which were printed in smaller letters and therefore smaller and easier to carry. All of his editions were done with great care for the visual side with nicely proportioned letters and fine miniatures. In his work he collaborated with other Serb refugees in Venice such as hieromonk Pahomije from Rijeka Crnojevića in Montenegro (ot Crne Gori or Reki), hierodeacon Mojsije of Budimlje (ot serbskije zemlji, otčstvom že ot mjesta naricamego Budimlja) and priests Teodosije and Genadije from Mileševa monastery.

His venture is explained by reasons of sale, his care for his soul's sake and of patriotism ("I saw the compiling of the printing presses of Godly scriptures in Greek, French and other languages, and I wished eagerly to compile in printing press also our Serb and also Bulgarian ones"). He distributed it to the monks via Kotor and Dubrovnik. The books from the Vuković printing press influenced not only Serbian printing, but also Bulgarian, Romanian and Russian where they also spread to.

He was married to a noble woman of the Della Vechia family whose surname he added her to his and by this name he was known in Italy.

On some occasions he used the title vojvoda (Duke) but it is uncertain who or when bestowed it to him.

In his first testament Vuković left his printing press to the monasteries in Lake Scutari, his homeland but this was later reversed and he left it to his son Vićentije Vuković who carried on with his father's work.

According to his last wish, his body was carried back to his homeland and buried in the monastery of Starčeva Gorica in Lake Scutari.