The first volume
of the publication “Materials for the Montenegrin Biographical Lexicon, Volume
1, Montenegrin Coastline Region” by MA Dragica Lompar and Branislav Borilović, has
been published by the National Library of Montenegro “Đurđe Crnojević” and the
Ministry of Culture. The reviewers are academician prof. dr Šerbo Rastoder,
prof. dr Antun Sbutega, mr sci Ivan Jovović and doc. dr Srđa Martinović.
As the authors
specify in the introduction, “this volume presents about 1200 important
personalities, arranged in alphabetical order, from the area of today's urban
municipalities of the Montenegrin coast (including the areas of Grbalj, Krtola,
Crmnica)… The publication aims to unite and present famous personalities who
have marked the Montenegrin coast, its spirituality, history, tradition,
maritime skills, art, science... included are all those who, through their
work, contribution, dedication, scientific achievements, courage, and therefore
lasting values, have left a significant mark, regardless of their national or
religious affiliation. A number of persons are accompanied by a photograph,
while each unit also contains bibliographic data with the names and years of publication
of monographs, if the mentioned persons have published their works in the field
in which they were engaged. Also, each unit contains a source (one or more)
from which the data was extracted. Due to limited possibilities, articles in proceedings
and serial publications were not taken into account. The works were listed
chronologically, according to the year of publication, and the years of
reprints were also included in the list. The local electronic catalog of the
National Library, the common catalog of all Montenegrin libraries COBIB.CG, as
well as electronic catalogs and databases of libraries in the region and the
world were used for bibliographic search. Over 300,000 pages of printed and
online editions of encyclopedias, lexicons, bibliographies, manuals,
monographs, collections, magazines and newspapers were reviewed.
The lexicon
covers the period from the earliest times to 1945, as the year of birth, and
the territorial and national principle is applied: authors who were born on the
Montenegrin coast and authors who originate from that area, and lived and
created anywhere in the world. The upper time limit was taken because a certain
time distance is required for historiographical processing, which means that
the largest number of persons are those who have completed their life's work.
Prof. dr Antun
Sbutega, in his review, stated that the authors completely succeeded in their
intention to create the first part of the “self-portrait of a country, its
cultural and scientific achievements, which presents lasting values that
individuals have woven into its culture and civilization”.
Also, Prof. dr
Šerbo Rastoder pointed out that similar projects “are mostly realized as projects
of scientific institutions with a large number of associates, and in that sense
the effort of two well-known employees of the National Library is unusual for
several reasons. First, the implementation of similar projects requires
enormous effort and comprehensive knowledge of different sources. Secondly, the
practice in the culture of Montenegro is unfortunate, where care about uniting
the already modest intellectual resources in the development of similar
projects is not taken, and each such individual intervention is worthy of each
kind of support”.
Ivan Jovović, MA,
wrote that this publication “aims to enable readers to expand their views in
the simplest possible way and certainly get verified data on the subject, which
is extremely important for our circumstances, given that the presented
personalities were for the first time treated as an integral part of the Montenegrin
cultural context”, and dr Srđa Martinović stated that “this book of
encyclopedic character is based on a broad heuristic basis, in search of
numerous personalities, and that the authors managed to consult many bibliographic
units and search through the inconceivable fund of the Central Library. Lompar
and Borilović had enough courage and persistence to succeed in what not entire
institutes have succeeded for decades.”
The first volume of the publication “Materials for the Montenegrin Biographical Lexicon, Volume 1, Montenegrin Coastline Region” by MA Dragica Lompar and Branislav Borilović, has been published by the National Library of Montenegro “Đurđe Crnojević” and the Ministry of Culture. The reviewers are academician prof. dr Šerbo Rastoder, prof. dr Antun Sbutega, mr sci Ivan Jovović and doc. dr Srđa Martinović.
As the authors specify in the introduction, “this volume presents about 1200 important personalities, arranged in alphabetical order, from the area of today's urban municipalities of the Montenegrin coast (including the areas of Grbalj, Krtola, Crmnica)… The publication aims to unite and present famous personalities who have marked the Montenegrin coast, its spirituality, history, tradition, maritime skills, art, science... included are all those who, through their work, contribution, dedication, scientific achievements, courage, and therefore lasting values, have left a significant mark, regardless of their national or religious affiliation. A number of persons are accompanied by a photograph, while each unit also contains bibliographic data with the names and years of publication of monographs, if the mentioned persons have published their works in the field in which they were engaged. Also, each unit contains a source (one or more) from which the data was extracted. Due to limited possibilities, articles in proceedings and serial publications were not taken into account. The works were listed chronologically, according to the year of publication, and the years of reprints were also included in the list. The local electronic catalog of the National Library, the common catalog of all Montenegrin libraries COBIB.CG, as well as electronic catalogs and databases of libraries in the region and the world were used for bibliographic search. Over 300,000 pages of printed and online editions of encyclopedias, lexicons, bibliographies, manuals, monographs, collections, magazines and newspapers were reviewed.
The lexicon covers the period from the earliest times to 1945, as the year of birth, and the territorial and national principle is applied: authors who were born on the Montenegrin coast and authors who originate from that area, and lived and created anywhere in the world. The upper time limit was taken because a certain time distance is required for historiographical processing, which means that the largest number of persons are those who have completed their life's work.
Prof. dr Antun Sbutega, in his review, stated that the authors completely succeeded in their intention to create the first part of the “self-portrait of a country, its cultural and scientific achievements, which presents lasting values that individuals have woven into its culture and civilization”.
Also, Prof. dr Šerbo Rastoder pointed out that similar projects “are mostly realized as projects of scientific institutions with a large number of associates, and in that sense the effort of two well-known employees of the National Library is unusual for several reasons. First, the implementation of similar projects requires enormous effort and comprehensive knowledge of different sources. Secondly, the practice in the culture of Montenegro is unfortunate, where care about uniting the already modest intellectual resources in the development of similar projects is not taken, and each such individual intervention is worthy of each kind of support”.
Ivan Jovović, MA, wrote that this publication “aims to enable readers to expand their views in the simplest possible way and certainly get verified data on the subject, which is extremely important for our circumstances, given that the presented personalities were for the first time treated as an integral part of the Montenegrin cultural context”, and dr Srđa Martinović stated that “this book of encyclopedic character is based on a broad heuristic basis, in search of numerous personalities, and that the authors managed to consult many bibliographic units and search through the inconceivable fund of the Central Library. Lompar and Borilović had enough courage and persistence to succeed in what not entire institutes have succeeded for decades.”