Gligorije "Gliša" Vozarović (Ležimir, Habsburg Monarchy, 1 August 1790 - Belgrade, Principality of Serbia, 10 January 1848)[1]was a Serbian publisher, bookbinder, and bookseller. In 1827, he opened the first modern printing and bookbinding shop and a bookstore in Belgrade. That shop was the gathering place of Serbian intelligensia, and it was here that the first modern Public Library in the city of Belgrade was established in 1832.[2][3][4]
He is known as one of the prominent figures in the history of publishing and bookbinding in Serbia. He was not only one of the main Serbian publishers and bookbinders between 1827 and 1848, but also one of its great theorists. It was Miloš Obrenović who personally chose Vozarović to reprint and bind the Sretenje Constitution.
Vozarević's Belgrade publishing and bookbinding workshop was founded in 1827 when he returned from Vienna after learning the latest techniques from a master publisher and bookbinder. A year later, he married and took his wife, Sara, into partnership. After his death in 1848, his widow, Sara, successfully continued the business in the same manner her husband envisioned, as a meeting place for important binders of the region and a reading salon that became a literary club for celebrated literati from Serbia and abroad.[5]
Biography
He was born on 1 August 1790 in Ležimir. His ancestors, the Silvestrijevićs, formerly lived in Zenica and were involved in the wool trade and blanket-making. Due to Turkish incursions, they fled from Bosnia to Slavonia at the end of the 17th century, and established a ferry service on the Sava River; hence their surname Vozarović. Between 1812 and 1816, Gligorije worked at an inn in Zemun before deciding to move to Belgrade to learn a new craft. Upon arriving in Belgrade, he learned bookbinding from a local craftsman, but he desired to learn more advanced techniques. He soon encountered the daughter of Serbian prince Miloš Obrenović, who was married to Todor Hadžic-Bajić, a Zemun merchant he knew from his time in Zemun. The generous Mrs. Perka Bajić provided Vozarević with 150 florins to further his bookbinding studies abroad. In Vienna, Vozarović met with Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, who introduced him to Jacob Herman, a master bookbinder.[6]
After mastering the art of printing and bookbinding in Vienna, he returned to Serbia in 1827. There, Vozarović opened one of the first bookstores in Belgrade.[6] The first location was in a widow's house next to a tavern. Gligorije befriended Aleksa Simić (a state advisor in Serbia) who supported his endeavors. Another close friend was Dimitrije Davidović.
In 1831, a state-owned printing press arrived in Belgrade from Imperial Russia. Vozarević's skills as a bookbinder and bookseller proved invaluable to the new state. His first bookbinding and publishing project was a book titled "Serbian Verse" in 1832. He subsequently published the complete works of Dositej Obradović in ten volumes (four volumes in 1833, five more by 1836, and the final volume in 1845). In his bookstore, the National Library of Serbia (then called the "City Library of Belgrade") was founded in 1832. This is believed to be the predecessor of the Belgrade City Library. The library was established under the auspices of Jevrem Obrenović, using books primarily from the private collection of Lukijan Mušicki. Vozarević worked as a bookbinder at the State Printing House in Kragujevac for a time, while his Belgrade bookstore was managed by his wife, Sara Mihailović (whom he married in 1828), who was the sister-in-law of Dimitrije Davidović.
He published the almanac Golobica ("The Dove" – the flower of Serbian literature) from 1839 to 1844, edited by Miloš Svetić (Jovan Hadžić). Stojan Novaković noted that Golobica laid the groundwork for the "Gazette" of the Serbian Learned Society,[7] and literary critic Jovan Skerlić considered it "the best Serbian almanac of the time." [8]Vozarović was elected an honorary member of the Serbian Learned Society on 10 February 1845.
Vozarović believed he had discovered the site where the relics of Saint Sava were burned, and in 1847, erected a wooden cross at the location of an older, fallen cross. This became known as the "Vozarević's Cross". The wooden cross was rebuilt on two separate occasions (1895 and 1923). Later, in 1933, the Saint Sava Society erected a red stone cross at the site, which remains there today. This area of Belgrade is now known as Crveni krst (Red Cross).
Gligorije Vozarović died on 10 January 1848 in Belgrade. He was buried in the old Tašmajdan cemetery, near today's St. Mark's Church, near his godfather, Sima Milutinović Sarajlija. The monument was erected by his wife, Sara, with whom he had no children. When the cemetery was relocated, his grave was lost, and its precise location is now unknown.
Legacy
In Sremska Mitrovica, the art gallery and library are named after Gligorije Vozarović.[9] However, there is no commemorative plaque for him in his hometown. While he may be forgotten in Lezimir, history remembers him as one of Serbia's pioneering booksellers, bookbinders, and publishers. He established one of the first modern bookstores in Serbia and within his printing and bookbinding shop published the first works of prominent Serbian writers and poets of the Age of Enlightenment in Serbian lands. This is just a part of his merit. Contemporary historian Dejan Ristić points out the lesser-known fact that Vozarović made his private library public in 1832, which was later expanded with the addition of Lukijan Mušicki's collection.
For eight ducats, Gligorije Vozarović purchased land in what is now Vračar, then a suburb of Belgrade, on which Church of Saint Sava now stands. Considering his connection to the site where Saint Sava's relics were burned, he placed a wooden cross there. [10] Although the relics were burned elsewhere, over time, that location became known as Crveni krst (Red Cross).
Miloš Obrenović personally selected Vozarović to reprint and bind the Sretenje Constitution. Vozarović's work was so meticulous that the Sretenje Constitution is preserved in the Archives of Serbia today, in its original condition.
References
- ↑ Beograda, Muzej grada (1968). Beograd u XIX [i.e. devetnaestom] veku (in српски / srpski). Search this book on
- ↑ Norris, David A. (2008-11-26). Belgrade A Cultural History. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199704538. Search this book on
- ↑ Norris, David A. (2009). Belgrade: A Cultural History. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195376081. Search this book on
- ↑ Hannover, Birgitta Gabriela (2013). Belgrad, Novi Sad (in Deutsch). Trescher Verlag. ISBN 9783897942479. Search this book on
- ↑ https://books.google.ca/books?id=O6NiAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Gligorije+Vozarevi%C4%87%22&dq=%22Gligorije+Vozarevi%C4%87%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj1wLf3lK_nAhVQZM0KHWEfAoAQ6AEIdDAJ
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Гласник Историјског друштва у Новом Саду", Нови Сад 1932.
- ↑ Стојан Новаковић: Српска књига, њени продавци и читаоци у XIX веку, Београд 1900, pp. 49.
- ↑ Јован Скерлић: Историја нове српске књижевности (1914), Београд 1967, pp. 138.
- ↑ https://books.google.ca/books?id=BHGyAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Gligorije+Vozarevi%C4%87%22&dq=%22Gligorije+Vozarevi%C4%87%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiZ6YqGlq_nAhUVAp0JHcH7CCI4ChDoAQh7MAk
- ↑ https://books.google.ca/books?id=bpTlAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Gligorije+Vozarevi%C4%87%22&dq=%22Gligorije+Vozarevi%C4%87%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwin_Ozjl6_nAhWbWM0KHZJnCHg4ChDoAQg0MAE
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