Summary
Until the 18th century, Serbian monastery libraries had still contained mostly manuscripts and printed books of Serbian origin, but afterwards their identity gradually began to change, especially on the territory of the Metropolitanate of Karlovci. Along with the arrival of Metropolitan Vikentije Jovanović, in the year 1733 the regulation was introduced which imposed on monasteries the obligation to renew their libraries, but with Russian books exclusively, that were considered to be normative. This had far-reaching consequences for the monastery collections, which thus became increasingly Russian by their nature. The aforementioned transformation can be easily documented on the basis of visitation to the monasteries on Fruška Gora conducted by Metropolitan Pavle Nenadović, in 1753. The new books have brought with them the Russian recension of Church Slavonic language, that replaced its Serbian recension. The controversial consequences of this will show up later in the Slavonic-Serbian period of the Serbian literature, when the great philological battle flared up, the battle which in fact concerned the identity of the nation, but in which the voice of the old Serbian books did not take almost any part. In addition, at that time already, the Russian liturgical books were carriers of many dubious liturgical solutions that were not inherent in the original Orthodox tradition, which has been causing quite a number of theological and quasi-theological discussions ever since. Finally, the Russian theology has been contaminated with non-Orthodox additions long ago, as a consequence of pseudomorphosis caused by the Roman Catholic and Protestant influences present in Russia ever since the 16th century. Indeed, the transformation of the Serbian monastery libraries in the 18th century was not merely exterior: with the replacement of old and the arrival of new books one era was gone and a completely different one emerged. The elite that was born in this new spiritual and intellectual atmosphere, found in new libraries, will unintentionally interrupt the thread of the original traditions, changing the paradigm. In science, traditionally, the character of this transformation has been assessed differently. Whatever it was, it has got its revolutionary expression and likewise its symbolic illustration in the libraries of Serbian monasteries.

Keywords:
libraries, monasteries, the Metropolitanate of Karlovci, Serbian books, Russian books, identity, religious service, the 18th century

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