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In
long and fierce battles with the Turks, Montenegrins seized a number
of Turkish army flags. From late eighteenth century, the seized
flags were brought to Cetinje as precious war trophies. Many of the
contemporaries of Bishops Petar I and Petar II provide interesting
testimonies as to the respect and treatment these flags were given.
The current museum collection, the biggest in the Balkans and one of
the biggest in the world, is of a remarkable and manifold importance
for the cultural-historical heritage of Montenegro. It includes 44
Turkish war flags (barjak), won on the battlefields, in
life-and-death struggle. The flags of all Turkish troops have been
preserved, both regular and irregular ones, from all the corners of
the then huge Ottoman Empire. From among them, it is necessary to
point out the green flags of the Prophet under which the believers
gathered when going to the holy war for the defence of Islam
(jihad), and the marshal (mushirs’) flags of Turkish army
commanders. The museum also has a collection of Montenegrin war
flags (battalion - alaj barjak and company colours), the
collection of which started only from the battle at Grahovac (1858).
Losing
a flag in battle meant a moral defeat, and they were therefore
guarded with life. This is best illustrated by the death of several
flag-bearers. It is possible to track down the continuity of state
symbols of Montenegro based on the preserved samples of royal and
national flags. The two-headed eagle or lion, taken over from
Byzantium and Venice, are main state symbols.
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Montenegrin
and Turkish flags exhibited in the "fireplace room" together
with the old Montenegrin currency Perper
Till
1906, in everyday circulation Montenegro used the currency of the
neighbouring Austria-Hungary, as well as the golden currencies of
almost all European countries. That way, the state was not only
financially and economically, but also politically dependent of the
neighbouring empire; therefore the need to introduce its own
currency emerged as an imperative. It began as smaller denominations
of 1 and 2 paras as part of basic monetary unit Perper.
The
Museum exhibition includes also a collection of Montenegrin stamps
issued between 1874 and the end of World War I.
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Montenegrin
stamps
..
Court
library, founded in late eighteenth century, was systematically and
expertly enhanced concluding with 1916. This exceptionally rich
collection – more than 10,000 copies – today makes an integral
part of the museum exposition. Besides fiction, it includes a broad
selection of books on humanities and natural sciences in all global
languages. The collection also comprises extremely valuable copies
of unique antique books, various publications of European academies,
and bibliophile rarities with personal inscriptions by the authors
and editors, in rich and luxury special edition bindings. Thus, the
Turkish sultan sent to Princess Milena a luxury album of
Constantinople in silver (Subsequently Obtained Manuscripts –
Dispatched Letters, f. XXXI, doc.no.189, dated 24 September, 1883).
..
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Court
library: The
Eight Voice Octoechos and one of the hand ornate diplomas
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On
view are the oldest copies of incunabula from the Crnojevići
printing house: Oktoih Osmoglasnik (The Eight Voice
Octoechos) printed in Cetinje in 1493 (the first printed book
in Southern Slavs) and one page from the illustrated book of Oktoih
Petoglasnik (The Five Voice Octoechos) – unfortunately,
the whole book was not preserved (this is the first Cyrillic book
with illustrations). Montenegrin incunabula are characterized by
beautiful and rich decoration, plenty of initials, flags and
illustrations, which confirm the refined manufacture and technical
perfection of the first state printing house in the world; as a
“manufacture of new weapons”, it had a strong influence on
Montenegrins’ spirituality in the centuries to come. At the
exhibition in Meinz in 1908, devoted to old printed books, The
Octoechos was declared jewel of the exhibition and attracted the
attention of eminent world experts.
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Albums
exhibited in the court library
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King
Nikola’s Museum possesses extremely valuable archival materials
(over 100,000 documents, various papers, records and letters. These
materials span the period from the beginning of the thirteenth
century to the effective termination of existence of independent
Montenegrin state (1916). Similar to other museum collections, it
was not spared from devastation and diminishing. It was Bishop Petar
II that used to say with bitterness: “with the lack of paper,
pages of holy books often were used for powder-charge”. The latest
devastation of the collection happened during World War I, after the
exile of the royal family. At the time of leaving Montenegro, King
Nikola I wanted to take these precious materials with him. However,
precisely at the time of boarding the cases filled with archives on
a boat in Lake Shkodër, enemy planes started bombing and prevented
this attempt to take the archives out of the country. The boat
drifted on the lake for a few days, until it was spotted by some
Albanians, who turned the cases over to Duke Božo, the Governor of
Shkodër. When he saw the contents of the cases, Duke Božo
dispatched them to Kruševac, to Prince Mirko. After the Prince left
for Vienna, the archives were buried in utmost secrecy in the palace
garden in Cetinje, where they were exposed to most dire conditions
for five years. The ruin of valuable archives represents an
irreplaceable loss for the overall picture of Montenegrin history.
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One
of the medieval charters from the court archives
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The
oldest documents are the medieval charters. Around twenty charters
were preserved from the archives of Saint Nicolas Monastery at
Vranjina – these are vranjicke charters and provide
information on the monastery and the medieval Zeta. One of the
charters from 1296 contains the first mention of Montenegro
The
preserved materials include those from the times of bishops from
different tribes (1517-1696), the correspondence
between
the
bishops and the secular rulers from the Montenegrin dynasty
Petrović Njegoš (1696-1918).
The
library displays the international agreements of Montenegro
regarding delimitation of frontiers with Austria and Turkey, the
Concordat with the Vatican (1886), passports and legal papers
– Stega (1796) and The Code of Danilo (1855).
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