Summary
Serbian printed books, referred to as old books, appear in the last decade of the 15th century. The last book in this category was issued in 1638. Revolutionary features of the printing phenomenon in the history of civilization is the reason why, in our bibliology, when speaking of this period, we almost never use the qualitatively different term publishing. Thus printing, as an essentially service activity, has in theory prevailed over publishing as a comprehensive process of dealing with books. Therefore, it is necessary to finally give priority to the latter. Change of balance in favor of the latter concept changes bibliological perspective and gives a different insight into the problems of the old Serbian printed books. Starting from the premise that copying books by hand in the previous period represents the earliest form of publishing, with the argumentation that it was often being performed within the detailed organizational process, particular attention has been paid to the additional texts of the old Serbian printed books as successors of introductory or closing records in manuscript books. Obligatory forewords and/or afterwords in the new printed books, besides being the first-class historical sources, reveal to us not only the motivation of the first Serbian publishers, but using a sort of literary analysis show the internal relationships within the publishing process, deconstructing it into initial, organizational, financial, professional and technical aspect. With the appearance of the concept of edition, which includes the entire number of copies of a publication issued at one time, the personal, historical and eschatological publishing motivation mingled with the mercantile, while different and separated roles of financiers, professional text editors and typographers became clearer and more logically highlighted. Although they have specific functions within the publishing process, they are all united by the missionary idea of supplying books for collections of monasteries and churches destroyed during the Turkish conquests, as well as by personal soteriological inspiration. It has been found that the texts of these books have a two-level feature, wherein the additional texts, even though being secondary, are the primary bibliological source. There are two levels in them as well, since firstly they give a literary word of the publisher (financier), followed by a word of the typographer, who is most likely their author. This practice indicates the birth of a new consciousness in the history of Serbian culture.

Keywords:
publishing, printing, Middle Ages, Serbian printed books, 1494-1638, additional texts, editing, authorial responsibility

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