“PETER I – THE LIBERATOR KING” BOOK LAUNCHED

The monumental monograph by Dusan M. Babac “Peter I – The Liberator King”, published by the Belgrade publishing house Evro Book, was presented yesterday, at the ceremonial hall of the Belgrade City Assembly, once the court of King Peter I Karadjordjevic.

The guests at the promotion were greeted by HRH Crown Prince Alexander, and other speakers, besides the author, were Professor Cedomir Antic, a Serbian historian, Professor Cedomir Vasic, Master of Arts Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade, and the book’s publisher, Gordana Subotic.

“It is a great pleasure to greet you at the promotion of the book “Peter I – The Liberator King”, by the member of the Privy Council, Dusan Babac. The reign of my great-grandfather, His Majesty King Peter I, is remembered as the golden age of parliamentary democracy. King Peter I was remembered as the most beloved ruler and as the Liberator King. I congratulate Dusan for giving us this book, through his devoted work. I am very grateful to him for this and I warmly recommend his book to everyone!”, said the Crown Prince in his short address.

Professor Cedomir Antić estimated that for the past 100 years since the end of the First World War an impressive number of monographs about Peter the First were published, but that this one, by Dusan Babac, represents a unique political and historical analysis of the circumstances that accompanied the life and reign of one of the most prominent figures of the Serbian history.

Professor Cedomir Vasic noted that the visual material is a special feature of this significant book, in which over 300 paintings and photographs have were published, and that many of them have been unknown to the public so far.

Also, for the needs of the monograph, portraits of King Peter I were collected, which are kept in all museums in Serbia and the Republic of Srpska, but also in the wider area of the former Yugoslavia, as well as in private collections. In this way, he said, readers of the book will be able to see the portraits by the artists Arsenije Petrovic, Uros Predis, Vlaho Bukovac, Nikola Milojevic, Spiro Bocaric, Vsevolod Gulevich, Vladimir Becic, Bogosav Vojnovic – Pelikan, Frances Owen Salisbury, Valdo Berbe and others.

For the first time in this monograph, photographs of some personal items of King Peter were published, such as the wedding crowns of Prince Peter and Princess Zorka from Cetinje from 1883, the triptych of the icon that King Peter received as a gift from the Russian Emperor Nicholas II, two prayer crosses that the King gave to the monastery Hilandar during his visit in 1910, the first X-ray in Serbia in 1905, which shows King Peter’s hand with a bullet fragment from the French-Prussian War, the book by the Bishop of Zica Sao of Decani “The Ruler and the People – Coronation and Anointment of the Ruler and the Duties of Him and the People”, with a dedication to King Peter, court menus, invitations to the Patron Saint’s Day celebrations, ex libris, and of course, the coronation regalia from 1904 and much more.