Božidar Vuković. Tra storia e immaginazione

Among the figures that marked the period from the final fall of the medieval Serbian states (1459–1496) to the restoration of the Serbian Patriarchate with its seat in Peć (1557), a special place belongs to Božidar Vuković, originally from Podgorica, in the medieval region of Zeta. His multifarious activities, which, according to the available sources, seem to have spanned almost a quarter of a century (1516–1540), unfolded on many levels, ranging from developing trade and intelligence networks to publishing Serbian Cyrillic books in Venice to managing the Confraternity of the Greeks and the Serbs. Particularly important aspects are his ties with the Serbian church hierarchy and institutions and his efforts to contribute to the liberation of the captured Serbian territories and the preservation of the state-political traditions embodied in the Serbian title of despot, which he sought to acquire after having received confirmation of his status as a noble under the auspices of the Holy Roman Empire. It is precisely this thematic diversity that led to the key methodological challenges in defining the scope of this research, and approaching the subject from a phenomenological position, along with using the findings and methods of different humanities and social sciences and drawing on historical sources, has allowed a more comprehensive assessment of the personality of Božidar Vuković. • • • Scholarly interest in Božidar Vuković emerged at the turn of the 18th into the 19th century, primarily among early Slavists and bibliographers. These early perceptions of Vuković were shaped under the influence of the Enlightenment, which had made their way into the Serbian milieu via Dositej Obradović, who, in the preface to his book Ethics or Moral Philosophy (Етика или философія наравоучителна), listed Božidar Vuković among notable and admirable figures in the field of education and culture. Directly influenced by the colophons of his editions, which repeatedly refer to him as the person who was not only responsible for printing but also “cast the letter molds,” the image of Vuković as a printer was accepted as fact rather than a fabrication initially launched by Vuković and later adopted by many researchers whose conclusions were informed by their ideological, political, cultural, methodological and other views. However, recent years have seen the publication, besides numerous texts and articles, of several studies that, critically approaching those colophons and using archival sources, challenge the deep-seated views on the motives, profile, and nature of Božidar Vuković’s publishing career. Although the earliest epigraphic and archival sources that mention, among others, a person called Dionisio della Vecchia were published as early as the 19th century in the works of some international scholars, these authors were unaware that the name was an alias of Božidar Vuković. Since there was no apparent connection with Vuković, this information long remained unknown in Serbian historical scholarship and broader Slavist circles, even though, in 1851, Ivan Kukuljević Sakcinski proposed, based on the notes in some colophons, that the Italian version of the last name of Božidar’s son Vicenzo might have been Della Vecchia. With the development of specialized academic disciplines, the last two centuries have seen the publication of many studies that, from the vantage point of various professions and methodological approaches, endeavored to explore different aspects of Vuković’s life and work, with most of those focusing on his publishing opus. Stand-alone studies by historians, literary historians, linguists, and other scholars usually investigated more specific bibliographic and archaeographic topics, whereas art historians tended to focus on the stylistic and morphological aspects of Božidar Vuković’s paleotypes. Many of those texts, primarily interested in identity questions but also other matters that transcended the framework of classic bibliography, archaeography, and history of visual and applied arts, were deeply informed by ideological and political views of their time. On the other hand, the writings of many authors were directly influenced by the ideology propagated by the ruling political structures, which aimed to create an ideologized historiography to support the creation of collective consciousness and the construction of a desirable memorialization discourse. Božidar Vuković was born c. 1470 or slightly later in Ottoman-ruled Podgorica, an important commercial center and the former administrative seat of the Serbian governors of the Coastlands, and grew up in the part of Zeta that had fallen under Ottoman control shortly after the Serbian authorities retreated from the nearby Medun (1456). In time, Podgorica developed into one of the most significant Ottoman strongholds toward the border with the neighboring state ruled by the Crnojević noble family, which included the western part of upper Zeta with the mountainous area known as Crna Gora (Montenegro). With the fall of the Venetian city of Skadar (Scutari) to the Ottomans in 1479, Podgorica became one of the most important cities in the newly established Sanjak of Scutari and also the center of the Kadiluk of Podgorica (1485). After the final fall of the Crnojević state (1496), the Ottomans expanded their control to include the western part of upper Zeta, bringing the Turkish feudal system to these areas, and the position of the Christian population in the broader region of Zeta gradually deteriorated. During the Ottoman–Venetian war of 1499–1502 and its aftermath, the Christian inhabitants of Turkish-controlled Zeta launched several anti-Ottoman uprisings, leading to Turkish reprisals and violence, which are referenced in the colophons of Vuković’s early editions. To consolidate their rule, in 1513, the Turks established a separate sanjak called Crna Gora (Montenegro) in the northwestern reaches of the Sanjak of Scutari. Although the Ottoman Crna Gora did not include Vuković’s hometown of Podgorica, which remained a part of the Sanjak of Scutari, his departure from this area probably coincided with these events or, alternatively, took place slightly earlier, in the first years of the 16th century, marking the end of the first chapter in Vuković’s life. Božidar’s brother Nikola left with him for Venice. There is no information about their father, Luka, apart from passing references in their wills and other sources. The name of their mother is unknown. Although the circumstances and exact date of Vuković’s relocation to the capital of the Republic of Venice are unknown, there is no doubt that it took place in 1516 at the latest when he is mentioned, for the first time, as a member of the Confraternity of the Greeks and Serbs, under his Italianized pseudonym of Dionisio della Vecchia. No later than the mid-1510s, Božidar Vuković married Apollonia, with whom he had a son, Vicenzo, and three daughters – Lucija (Lucia), Jelena (Elena), and Marina. The sources report that, in 1532, he bought a house on Calle del Remedio in the parish of Santa Maria Formosa with his brother Nikola. He died sometime between 6 November 1539, when he dictated his last will, and 12 April 1540, when his family gave a donation to the church of San Giorgio dei Greci for the salvation of his soul. According to the Epistle of Vicenzo Vuković, already in 1540, Božidar’s earthly remains were brought and buried in the Church of the Holy Savior at Starčeva Gorica. Like Andrija of Zeta and Nikola Kalojko, Božidar Vuković played a prominent role in the Scuola dei Greci (Confraternity of the Greeks), occupying high positions in this association through the last years of his life and serving, from 1536, as its gastaldo (chairman). Another segment in the biography of Božidar Vuković concerned his intelligence and political work in the 1530s, when Charles V confirmed his status as a noble in recognition of his services to the imperial palace. Those activities reached their peak at the time of the formation of the Holy League (1538), an anti-Ottoman alliance formed by Charles V and Pope Paul III and later joined by Venice and France. Božidar Vuković became a prominent member of Charles V’s intelligence network in southeastern Europe, maintaining contacts with Radu Paisie, Prince of Wallachia, and Petru Rareş, Prince of Moldavia. It was then that he hatched his political plans to capture Skadar and liberate his homeland, citing the traditions of the medieval Serbian state, as attested by his aspiration to acquire the title of the Serbian despot. Božidar and his brother Nikola belonged to the circle of notable merchants in Venice, which, besides Greeks and Ragusans, also included Andrija of Zeta and Nikola Kalojko, as well as their compatriot Marko Žila (Ksila/Xilla). This status among Venetian merchants allowed Božidar’s brother Nikola to marry Dionora Gabiano, daughter of Giovanni Bartolomeo Gabiano, the head of one of the most influential merchant and bookseller families in Venice, with branches in Lyon and Flanders. The Vuković brothers traded in various types of goods – textiles, precious stones, grain, and other items, but they were also money lenders. In the 1530s, together with Božidar’s close friend Venturino della Vecchia, they owned a store (bottega) not far from the Rialto, called Della Vecchia after the Italian adaptation of their last name that they used in Venice. In the elaborate trade network of Božidar, Nikola, and, later, Vicenzo Vuković, which stretched from London to the Adriatic Coast to the Levant and Constantinople, their ties with the cities on the eastern shore of the Adriatic, such as Dubrovnik (Ragusa) and Kotor (Cattaro) were particularly close. The later sources also include Šibenik (Sebenico), where Božidar’s son Vicenzo had a store. The sources compiled after their deaths mention the collection of unpaid debts, supporting the premise that the Vuković brothers’ commercial network

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