Printing machine Nebiolo Export Societa Augusta

Manufacturer: Nebiolo & Urania

Place and time of production: Turin, Italy, 1908–1918

Dimensions (cm): 245 . 150 . 158

Inventory number: Т:19.4

When printing machine Nebiolo Export Societa Augusta, donated by the Belgrade School of Graphics in 2005, arrived at the Museum, along came a story that the machine was nicknamed Solunka because during the First World War it shared the destiny of the Serbian Army and the Government that had withdrawn to Greece. In 1916, Serbian Royal State Printing Office began operating in military wooden barracks in Corfu, using equipment that was procured in France and Italy. That same year, Milutin Bojić (1892–1917), poet and author of one of the most famous Serbian patriotic poems Plava Grobnica (Blue Tomb), was sent to Turin, as a civil servant, to negotiate the purchase of printing machines with the Nebiolo Factory. It is possible that Solunka was procured on that occasion.

Around 350 issues of Srpske Novine and 18 numbers of its supplement Zabavnik have been printed at the State Printing Office in Corfu. Both publications have been edited by distinguished journalists and writers. Apart from war reports, news, official proclamations and announcements, they have also published literary supplements, translations, reviews of foreign press, articles by foreign correspondents, thus serving for relaxation and education of soldiers and the injured.

For now, it is not possible to say for sure that this machine is one of the machines that Bojić had negotiated over. Still, that does not diminish the value of Solunka. Research into its history preserves the memory of an important historical event and the people that participated in it.