Tesla’s Služebnik / Теслин Служебник

Tesla’s Služebnik Facsimile Edition of the Oldest Known Serbian Liturgical Artifact in North America, published by Sebastian Press, presents a scholarly facsimile edition of Tesla’s Služebnik, a 490-pages liturgical volume recognized as the oldest known Serbian printed book in North America. Originally printed in 1519 in Venice by Božidar Vuković—a Montenegrin Serb and pioneering printer who fled the Ottoman conquest— this Služebnik is one of the earliest Cyrillic-printed editions of the Divine Liturgy and associated euchological texts. This rare volume, of immense historical and cultural significance for Serbian and broader Slavic ecclesiastical heritage, is housed in the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri. Preserved and restored by the Library in 1977, it stands as a testament to the enduring legacy of Orthodox liturgical tradition and early Slavic printing in the diaspora.

Ideal for scholars of Slavic studies, liturgical history, and early printing, this edition offers critical access to a landmark in the spiritual and cultural history of the Serbian people.

490 pages hardbound, 2025