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Austrian Enlightenment in Cyrillic: Joseph Kurzböck's Cyrillic Printing Shop and the Transmission of the Enlightenment to Austria's Serbs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 April 2017

Marija Petrović
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Austrian History Yearbook , Volume 48 , April 2017 , pp. 25 - 38
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Copyright © Center for Austrian Studies, University of Minnesota 2017 

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References

1 Leschinkohl, Franz, “Das serbische Druckwesen in der Frühzeit und in der österreichisch-ungarischen Monarchie,” Gutenberg Jahrbuch 67 (1992), 89–99, esp. 89–90Google Scholar; Gavrilović, Nikola, Istorija ćirilskih štamparija u Habsburškoj monarhiji u 18. veku (Novi Sad, 1974), 33–53 Google Scholar; Mita Kostić, “Knjige, knjižarstvo i knjižnice Srba 18. veka,” and Stošić, D., “Štamparije srpskih knjiga u 18. veku,” in Srpska štampana knjiga 18. veka, ed. Čurčić, Lazar and Stošić, Dušica (Novi Sad, 1964), 13–26, 173–88Google Scholar.

2 For the complete list of Serbian Cyrillic books in the eighteenth century, see Georgije Mihailović, Srpska bibliografija 18. veka (Belgrade, 1964); Röhling, Horst, “Anfang und Vermittlung. Bemerkungen zum serbischen Buchdruck im 18. Jahrhundert,” Zeitschrift für Bibliothekswesen und Bibliographie 19, no. 3 (1972): 149–67Google Scholar.

3 As an example, in 1749 one missal or psalter cost 12 fl., the same as four calves. Gavrilović, Istorija ćirilskih štamparija, 49–50; Kostić, Mita, “Rusko-srpska knjižarska trgovina terezijanskog doba,” Izvestaj srpske velike gimnazije Karlovačke (Sremski Karlovci, 1912), 1–18 Google Scholar.

4 It is difficult to establish when this practice began. However, by the 1760s it was widespread. Kostić, Mita, Grof Koler kao kulturno prosvetni reformator kod Srba u Ugarskoj u 18. veku (Belgrade, 1932), 67–69 Google Scholar.

5 “Every year, in order to buy the necessary church and schoolbooks, a considerable sum of money is spent abroad, partly in Turkey but to the largest degree in Russia.” Grujić, Radoslav M., “Prilošci za istoriju srpskih štamparija u Ugarskoj u polovini 18. veka,” Spomenik SKA 42 (1910), 144–52, esp. 145Google Scholar.

6 Gavrilović, Istorija ćirilskih štamparija, 91–92.

7 He was hoping to be able to secure everything necessary to open the printing shop for 3,000 fl., but in their reply the Nuremberg printers estimated that 6,000 fl. would be needed. Grujić, “Prilošci za istoriju srpskih štamparija,” 150.

8 Gavrilović, Istorija ćirilskih štamparija, 114–23.

9 “Zweites Promemoria Joseph Kurzböck's an den Präsidenten der Illyrischen Hof Deputation Baron Koller,” in Nikola Gavrilović, “Die kyrillische Buchdruckerei,” in Buch- und Verlagswesen im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert. Beiträge zur Geschichte d. Kommunikation in Mittel- u. Osteuropa, ed. Herbert Georg Göpfert et al. (Berlin, 1977), 95–98.

10 Gavrilović, Istorija ćirilskih štamparija, 142–46; Kurzböck, however, kept the other parts of his printing shop going, and over the following two decades played an important role in printing works of Austrian literature, as well as works in “oriental” languages. Zeman, Herbert, “Der Drucker-Verleger Joseph Ritter von Kurzböck und seine Bedeutung für die österreichische Literatur des 18. Jahrhunderts,” in Die österreichische Literatur—Ihr Profil an der Wende vom 18. zum 19. Jahrhundert (1750–1830), ed. Zeman, Herbert (Graz, 1979), I:143–78Google Scholar.

11 Ruvarac, Dimitrije, “Privilegije carice Marije Terezije Josifu Kurzbeku štamparu,” Srpski Sion 16 (1906), 484–86Google Scholar.

12 Gavrilović, Istorija ćirilskih štamparija, 147–53.

13 This request went against the general tendency to take censorship out of clerical hands. However, in dealings with the Serbs Vienna probably had no choice but to turn to the metropolitan. The best-educated people among Orthodox Christians were still either clerics or people working for the bishops. As we shall see, even the metropolitan had difficulty finding a suitable candidate. This is comparable to the way in which the Orthodox school directors were recruited. The Metropolitanate's Archives, Sremski Karlovci [MPA], Collection “A,” 238/1772; Adler, Philip J., “Habsburg School Reform among the Orthodox Minorities, 1770–1780,” Slavic Review 33 (1974), 23–45, esp. 30–31CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14 MPA, Collection “A,” 443/1770 and 459/1770.

15 Kostić, Grof Koler, 73–74.

16 There were two other people Metropolitan Georgijević considered educated enough, the bishop of Temeswar, Vićentije Jovanović Vidak, and the bishop of Bačka, Mojsije Putnik, but due to their rank they were not viable options. Gavrilović, Istorija ćirilskih štamparija, 154.

17 Jovan Rajić was a historian and theologian, one of the best-educated Serbs in the second half of the eighteenth century. He attended the Jesuit school in Komárom and the Lutheran school in Sopron, and then spent three years at the Theological Academy in Kiev. Upon his return, he taught at various Serbian schools in Karlovci, Novi Sad, and Temeswar, before taking monastic vows in the Kovilj monastery in 1772. Rajić had a difficult, quarrelsome personality, and was on bad terms with most of the bishops of his time. Nevertheless, he was respected for his learning. He is best known for his four-volume History of the Serbs (Istorija raznih slavenskih narodov naipače Bolgar, Horvatov i Serbov [Vienna, 1994]).

18 Ruvarac saw a combination of pure selfishness and hypochondria behind Rajić’s decision, as Rajić had a reputation for being unduly worried about his health. Lazar Čurčić, on the other hand, thought that Rajić was an ardent Russophile who did not want to support a printing shop that would loosen the ties between the Serbs and Russia. Ruvarac, Dimitrije, Arhimandrit Jovan Rajić, 1726–1801 (Sremski Karlovci, 1901), 35–37 Google Scholar; Čurčić, Lazar, “Karlovački mitropolit Jovan Georgijević i srpska knjiga,” Prilozi za KJIF 35 (1965), 190–212, esp. 199–200Google Scholar.

19 MPA, Collection “A,” 448/1770; Gavrilović, Istorija ćirilskih štamparija, 156; Kostić, Grof Koler, 73.

20 MPA, Collection “A,” 475/1770. Baron, later Count, Koller, was a member of the Hungarian Court Chancellery and later the president of the Illyrische Hofdeputation, the main administrative body in charge of relations with the Metropolitanate of Karlovci. Over the years the deputation became the leading body for the introduction of the ongoing Josephinist state reforms into the metropolitanate, and Count Koller has traditionally been seen as the mastermind behind the reforms of the metropolitanate. On closer viewing, it is, however, apparent that many of the reforms and novelties introduced were simply mirroring general state reforms of Maria Theresa and Joseph II.

21 MPA, Collection “A,” 494/1770.

22 Gavrilović, Istorija ćirilskih štamparija, 157–58.

23 MPA, Collection “A,” 157/1771.

24 MPA, Collection “A,” 217/1771.

25 MPA, Collection “A,” 411/1775.

26 Kostić, Mita, “Dositejev prijatelj i savetnik Sekereš,” Glas SANU 12 (1963), 25–57, esp. 49–50Google Scholar.

27 For the potential explanation of Joseph's lack of action in the Metropolitanate of Karlovci, see Marija Petrović, Josephinist Reforms and the Serbian Church Hierarchy in the Habsburg Lands (D. Phil. thesis, University of Oxford, 2010), esp. 262–71. For the analyses of a more traditional approach to Joseph's reign in Serbian historiography, see Clewing, Konrad, “Der Josephinismus als Begriff und Epochenvorstellung in der kroatischen und serbischen Historiographie,” in Josephinismus zwischen den Regimen: Eduard Winter, Fritz Valjavec und die zentraleuropäische Historiographie im 20. Jahrhundert, ed. Fillafer, Franz Leander and Wallnig, Thomas (Vienna, 2016), 259–85Google Scholar.

28 Both the table and the following text are based on information from Mihailović, Srpska bibliografija 18. veka. The titles of the books are also given in the shortened format he provided. When there were two imprints of a book with the same publication date and identical texts but different title pages, they were considered as one edition. The table does not include Greek Catholic or Romanian books published by Kurzböck.

29 There is only one book, a Gospel Lectionary for the period from Maundy Thursday to Easter Saturday, for which I have not been able to find an ecclesiastical recommendation. However, it is highly unlikely that Kurzböck would have decided to publish such a specific book without a suggestion from someone from the Orthodox Church.

30 MPA, Collection “A,” 162/1776.

31 For an excellent short overview of the complexities of the language used by the Habsburg Serbs in the second half of the eighteenth century, see Unbegaun, Boris, Les Débuts de la Langue Littéraire chez les Serbes (Paris, 1935), 37–55 Google Scholar.

32 Ivić, Aleksa, “Teodor Janković—Mirijevski u odbranu ćirilice,” Južnoslovenski filolog 11 (1932), 197–216 Google Scholar.

33 As part of the state-introduced reforms, and in an attempt to reduce an excessive number of Orthodox priests, new ordinations were not allowed (at least in principle) throughout the 1770s and 1780s. Marija Petrović, Josephinist Reforms and the Serbian Church Hierarchy in the Habsburg Lands, 106–17.

34 Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv, Vienna [HHStA], Illyrico-Serbica, box 6/1781.

35 Adler, “Habsburg School Reform,” 32–34.

36 Regulament (Vienna, 1770); Regulament (Vienna, 1777).

37 Petrović, Marija, “Josephinist Reforms and the Administrative Reorganisation of the Metropolitanate of Karlovci,” in Habsburgs and the Orthodox World in the 18th Century, ed. Heppner, Harald (Bochum, 2012)Google Scholar.

38 The same Rajić refused the position of the censor in Kurzböck's printing shop, see page 28 above. Rajić, Jovan, Katihizis malii (Vienna, 1776)Google Scholar.

39 Schwicker, Johann Heinrich, Politische Geschichte der Serben in Ungarn (Budapest, 1880), 315–20Google Scholar.

40 HHStA, Illyrico-Serbica, box 6/1778; Kirilović, Dimitrije, Srpske osnovne škole u Vojvodini u 18. veku (Sremski Karlovci, 1929), 68Google Scholar.

41 Mihailović, Srpska biografija 18. veka; Kirilović, Srpske osnovne škole, 68–69.

42 Arhiv Vojvodine, Collection “Ilirika,” 1284, 15, no. 11.

43 de Gaya, Philippides, Josif II—Imperator rimski (Vienna, 1773)Google Scholar.

44 Skerlić, Jovan, Srpska književnost u 18. veku (Belgrade, 1966), 157Google Scholar.

45 Kovijanić, Risto, “O Pavlu Julincu,” Zbornik Matice srpske za književnost i jezik 1 (1953), 38–48 Google Scholar.

46 Skerlić, Srpska književnost u 18. veku, 242–43.

47 Mesnard, Pierre, “Rollin forge l'esprit de l'enseignement secondaire,” in Les grandes pedagogues, ed. Chateau, Jean (Paris, 1956), 145–67, esp. 150–51Google Scholar.

48 Timotijević, Miroslav, Radjanje moderne privatnosti; Privatni život Srba u Habsburškoj monarhiji od kraja 17. do početka 19. veka (Belgrade, 2006), 122–23, 209–10Google Scholar.

49 John Renwick, Marmontel, Voltaire and the Bélisaire Affair, Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century 121 (Oxford, 1974).

50 Kostić, Mita, “O prvom francuskom romanu u srpskom prevodu,” Prilozi za KJIF 2 (1922), 3–8, esp. 5Google Scholar.

51 Skerlić, Srpska književnost u 18. veku, 246–47.

52 Wangermann, Ernst, Die Waffen der Publizität: Zum Funktionswandel der politischen Literatur unter Joseph II (Munich, 2004), 11–19 Google Scholar.

53 Kostić, Mita, “Odjeci Ajblove knjige protiv papstva medju Srbima,” Godišnjak Skopskog učenog društva 1 (1930): 63–70, esp. 69Google Scholar.

54 Mihailović, Srpska bibliografija 18. veka, 184–89.

55 Kostić, “Odjeci Ajblove knjige protiv papstva medju Srbima,” 68.

56 Kostić, “Odjeci Ajblove knjige protiv papstva medju Srbima,” 68; Mihailović, Srpska bibliografija 18. veka, 167.

57 Skerlić, Srpska književnost u 18. veku, 368–69.

58 Vezilić, Aleksije, Kratkoje sočinjenije o privatnih i publičnih djela (Vienna, 1785), 344–45Google Scholar.

59 Vezilić, Aleksije, Kratkoje napisanije o spokojnoj žizni, vol. 2 (Vienna, 1788), 1–56 Google Scholar.

60 Vezilić, Kratkoje napisanije o spokojnoj žizni, vol. 1, 66–75.

61 Stajić, Vasa, “Jovan Muškatirović od 1769 do 1787,” Glasnik istoriskog društva u Novom Sadu 10 (1937): 413–20Google Scholar.

62 Forišković, Aleksandar, “Deset pisama Jovana Muskatirovića,” Zbornik Matice srpske za književnost i jezik 18 (1970): 354–62Google Scholar.

63 For a long time Muškatirović was also credited with writing another pamphlet about the harmfulness of fasting: Rasuždenije o postah vostočnija cerkve (Vienna, 1794); However, he was probably only the translator of this work. Ruvarac, Dimitrije, “Ispravak u bibliografiji Jovana Muškatirovića,” Brankovo kolo 11 (1910)Google Scholar.

64 The most complete study of Orfelin's life and work is still Tihomir Ostojić, Zaharija Orfelin: Život i rad mu (Belgrade, 1923), although Ostojić died before finishing the manuscript, which was prepared for publication by Vladimir Ćorović.

65 Orfelin, Zaharija, Žitije i slavnija djela gosudarja i imper. Petra Velikago (Venice, 1772)Google Scholar. For a complete bibliography of Orfelin's works, see Skerlić, Srpska književnost u 18. veku, 225–27.

66 Orfelin, Zaharija, Večiti kalendar (Vienna, 1783), 343–45Google Scholar.

67 Richter had published the first short version of his work in 1765. An extended edition appeared several years later (1772). Orfelin must have used an edition from 1776, which he had in his library. Ostojić, Zaharija Orfelin, 197–221; Adam Daniel Richter, Lehrbuch einer für Schulen fasslichen Naturlehre, zum Gebrauch bey Vorlesungen (Fulda, 1776).

68 Ostojić, Zaharija Orfelin, 195–96; Čurčić, Lazar, “Orfelinov Iskusni podrumar,” in Knjiga o Zahariju Orfelinu, ed. Čalić, B. (Zagreb, 2002), 330–34Google Scholar.

69 Skerlić, Srpska književnost u 18. veku, 226.

70 Gavrilović, Istorija ćirilskih štamparija, 199.

71 Gavrilović suggested that Kurzböck was disappointed because Leopold II decided to allow metropolitans to open a printing shop in Sremski Karlovci. However, as Gavrilović himself pointed out, that decision was revised at the suggestion of the Austro-Bohemian Court Chancellery and Kurzböck was allowed to continue working until his privileges expired (1796). Gavrilović, Istorija ćirilskih štamparija, 200–1. As Kurzböck died in 1792, his health probably was an important factor in his decision to sell the shop.

72 Radonić, Jovan, “Prilog istoriji srpskih štamparija u Austriji pred kraj 18. veka,” Spomenik SKA 42 (1910), 67–71, esp. 69–70Google Scholar.