First written heritage from present Montenegro date back from the second half of the 12th century. Miroslav’s Gospels, from that period,   written for the needs of Miroslav, the Principle from Zahumlje, Stefan Nemanja’s brother, is the most important Cyrillic monument from the Middle Ages. It has 3 hundred miniatures and initials, as a mixture of Byzantine and Romanesque style.  In the second half of the 12th century Chronicle of Doclean Priest was written. In this chronicle, whose author is anonymous catholic Priest from Bar, the story which is about the rulers goes back to the time when the Slavs moved to the Balkans till the time when the Chronicle was written. The other part of the Chronicle is a beautiful love story, devoted to the king Vladimir and his wife Kosara, which according to poetic and psychological features of its characters is not far behind from the knights’ literature, which followed several centuries later. The first printing house in Montenegro was founded in 1493, forty years after Gutenberg Printing House. Its founder was Djuradj Crnojevic, the last mediaeval ruler of Zeta. Hieromonk Makarie ran the printing house. Five books were printed in it, Oktoih was the most important one. It was the first Cyrillic printed book of the South Slavs, in two colors, with Renaissance letter style of initials.  The “Oktoih” was  the model for most of the Slavic printing houses of the time. One of the most important printing houses, in terms of keeping Montenegrin spiritual heritage was Bozidar Vukovic Podgorican Printing House, founded early XVI c. in Venice. In time of the Petrovic Dynasty, social life and the very idea of existence of Montenegro were linked to the Cetinje Monastery. This is how it became spiritual, social and the center of literature. Almost all the rulers from this theocratic dynasty were writers and the most important ones in Montenegro at that time, in two genres: epistles and historical chronicles telling about the time of peace and war in Montenegro. Among these epistles, not only in sense of literature, the most important ones are those of Petar I Petrovic Njegos (around 1747-1830). These epistles were written in the language of national wisdom to meet bishop’s or ruler’s purpose, an experience and drama of existence. Petar I Petrovic left behind him uncompleted Short History of Montenegro. His  predecessor Vasilije Petrovic Njegos (1709-1766) also wrote a short history of Montenegro. His book,  titled History of Montenegro, was published in Moscow in 1754. Until mid 19th century, literature in Montenegro is mainly verbal. Talented individuals wrote poems and stories, fairy tales, fables, proverbs and legends. In this case, verbal literature is not only story about some event but evidence that the event really happened. Parallel to verbal literature, on coastal towns in the 16th and 17th century, which were more under influence of Europe and part of other counties, works of literature appear which were, more or less, catching up with the developments in Europe. These writers such as  Andrija Zmajevic wrote books which had touch of Baroque. In history of literature, it is usually said that the most important event in the history of Montenegrin literature before Njegos, was the stay of Simo Milutinovic Sarajlija here (from 1827 till 1830). He is Nejogos’s teacher and he contributed to developing literal activity in Montenegro. He collected  national poems and came up with an anthology Poems from Montenegro and Herzegovina, while , on the other hand, he wrote History of Montenegro or wrote works of literature Montenegrin Virtue, Serbian Woman or The Tragedy of the Obilics. Milutinovic is predecessor of many renowned writers who in the second half of the 19th century lived in Montenegro and thus influenced the development of literature (Laza Kostic, Ljuba Nenadovic, Sima Matavulj etc.). Petar II Petrovic Njegos (1813-1851) is the greatest writer in the history of Montenegrin Literature. Following non-written forms of literature, Njegos combined the force of verbal literature and his own knowledge of European literary tradition, personifying in himself practically the entire epoch of romanticism. He started by collecting epic national poems from Montenegro which resulted in anthology called Serbian Mirror (1846), and then after classics,  such as  The Hermit of  Cetinje (1834) and Svobodijada (1835), he wrote great romantic epics The Ray of Microcosm (1845), Mountain Wreath (1847) and the False Czar Stephen the Small  (1851). The Ray of Microcosm is a philosophical epic on cosmic issues of man’s place in the world, the False Czar Stephen the Small presents an event from Montenegrin history about a self-titled person, while his major work is Mountain Wreath which is a blend of history and poetry, existence and wisdom, the drama of creation. Greatness of Njegos goes beyond his time. Of great importance for history of Montenegrin literature is Stefan Mitrov Ljubisa (1822-1878). He was born on the coast, he is from Budva, he is known as people’s deputy in Vienna’s Parliament and as a writer. Ljubisa is a writer who put together the values of verbal national literature with he best European tradition he knew, in the first place Italian and English. On the other hand, his long stories are in between the romanticism that he belongs to and realism that he is striving for. Ljubisa wrote two books of long stories the Tales from Montenegro and the Coastal Area (1875) and The Tales by Vuk Dojcevic (1877-1879), and his famous story is "Kanjos Macedonovic". Marko Miljanov (1833-1901) turned to literature after he did away with his war and political career. As he learned to read and write in his fifty, he devoted himself to writing by depicting events from his turbulent life. Thus he wrote Examples of Chivalry and Bravery (1901) the mixture of ethical permanence and fate of history.

Reference:  www.visit-montenegro.com