The Dubrovnik Prayer Book (Дубровачки молитвеник|Dubrovački molitvenik) is "liber horarum" type of prayer book. This type of prayer book was the most popular religious book for the laity until the beginning of 17th century. The prayer book was printed in August 1512, in Venice. It is printed in Cyrillic. The book was first revealed to the public in modern times in 1932.
Milan Rešetar made an analysis of script, content, spelling, and language, and concluded that "the Cyrillic alphabet which is used in the manuscript was not intended for the Orthodox Church or the Orthodox faith, Cyrillic alphabet which is part of that manuscript was regularly used by our Catholics and Muslims".[1]
In 1512 Frančesko Micalović printed two Catholic prayer books in Venice, in the printing house of Giorgio Rusconi (Zorzi Ruskoni) of Milan. One of them being Dubrovnik Prayer Book (Officio Sanctae Brigittae). Both books were printed in Cyrillic script with elements of Glagolitic in Shtokavian dialect after being translated from Chakavian.[2] In the contract signed by Micalović the language of the prayer book was referred to as in littera et idiomate serviano 'English: in the Serbian language and letters'.On 18 September 1512, immediately after his return to Ragusa, Micalović stated that two cases of Slavic books belonged to Đuro, father of Petar Šušić.[3]
The four-part icon from church in the Orthodox Monastery of Virgin Mary's Birth in village of Sogle, (near Veles, North Macedonia) have decorative elements painted under influence of Cyrillic Prayer Book printed by Micalović.[4] According to Dejan Medaković, renaissance decorative elements of this 16th-century icon are directly copied from Prayer Book printed by Micalović.[5]
In his reissue in 1938, Rešetar thought this was a historical and literary monument that was especially valuable because it revealed the Slavic culture in Dubrovnik as Serbian (even though it is Catholic).[6]
"Franjo Ratković Micalović (Franciscus Ratchi Mizalovich) i sam Dubrovčanin. ... da je Molitvenik dubrovačko štokavsko-jekavski spomenik unatoč tomu što se u njemu nalaze tragovi čakavsko-ikavske redakcije iz koje je potekao."
"Osamnaestog septembra 1512 izjavio je Micalović, čim je prispeo u Dubrovnik, da dva sanduka slovenskih knjiga (in idiomate Sclavo) pripadaju Đuri Šušiću, ocu Petra koji je sklopio prvi ugovor sa Micalovićem, isto ..."