Yugoslav Miniatures

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     In 1964 Yugoslavia issued a set of six stamps with initials and miniatures from early manuscripts and printed books.

     The stamp shows a illuminated initial from the Gospel of Hilandar transcribed in  the thirteenth century. Hilandar was a Serbian monastery on Mt. Athos in Greece.

SCN 750

     Miroslav's Gospel is the oldest preserved Serbian document written in Cyrillic. It is a 362 page book, with rich ornamentation, transcribed in 1186-1190 from an earlier Macedonian exemplar. The transcription was done by Varsameleon from Zeta and Gligorije from Raska. It is the National Museum in Belgrade. The stamp shows an illuminated initial.

SCN 751

     Djuradj Crnojevic was the last independent South Slav ruler. He ruled Montenegro from 1490-1496. During his short reign he established a printing press at Cetinje in 1492, 38 years after Gutenberg developed the movable type press..
     Montenegro was the only country in the Balkans which was not occupied by the Turks, and the Cyrillic printing house printed Christian theological books. The picture on the stamp is a detail from on of the volumes of  the Cetinjski Octoih, a liturgical book.

SCN 752

      The stamp shows a female saint from the Evangel of Trogir by the copyist, Panaret in 1209.

SCN 753

     Hrvoje's Missal is a liturgical book transcribed by Butko in Zandar in 1404. It was written in the Glagolitic alphabet which was preferred by Bosnian Christians.. Hrvoje Vukcic Hrvatinic was the Duke of Bosnia, a Croat. The missal has been kept in the Library of the Topkapi Saray in Constantinople since the sixteenth century. The image on the stamp shows Duke Hrvoje on horseback.

SCN 754

     The final stamp shows a symbolic fight in a manuscript of St. Augustine's De Civitate Dei, transcribed in the fourteenth century.

SCN 755