Publishing company BIGZ školstvo is the inheritor of the Belgrade Publishing-Graphic Institute (BIGZ), one of the former Yugoslavia’s largest and the most prestigious publishing companies.The BIGZ name is synonymous with good books – whether those books cover scientific literature, fiction, journalism or historiography
Publishing company BIGZ školstvo is the inheritor of a tradition dating back almost two centuries – from the 1831 founding of the first state printing house in the then Principality of Serbia, which developed over many decades and ultimately, by 1970, had grown to become the Belgrade Publishing-Graphic Institute (BIGZ).
The core business of BIGZ školstvo today relates to the publishing of textbooks. The development of the highest quality textbooks and teaching resources for primary schools includes, first and foremost, the participation of a large number of experts: authors and reviewers from various fields, copy editors, proof-readers, graphic designers and illustrators.
BIGZ školstvo’s publishing production also partly encompasses literature not intended exclusively for students and teachers. Included among such editions is historian Uroš Milivojević’s book Supruge srpskih vladara iz dinastija Karađorđević i Obrenović [The Wives of Serbian Rulers from the Karađorđević and Obrenović Dynasties], which addresses a period of Serbian history covering a century and a half viewed from the perspective of influential women.
The new book recently published by BIGZ školstvo, The Wives of the Serbian Rulers from the Karadordević and Obrenović Dynasties [Supruge srpskih vladara iz dinastija Karadordević and Obrenović] portrays the women who, each in their respective ways, influenced the course of the Serbian history during the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. The book contains the biographies of eight women-royal consorts from Serbia’s modern-day ruling houses of the Karadorđeviés and Obrenovićs.
Through the exciting, turbulent and often tragic fate of Princesses Ljubica and Julija, Queens Natalija, Draga and Marija, as well as other influential women of Serbia’s royal courts, you could see the way the history of Serbia was deflected, forming a grand, yet unsettled epoch.
The author’s intention is to emphasise the importance of the historical role of these strong and distinguished women, thus correcting the injustice which has most often seen them – in a predominantly masculine view of the past – unfairly overlooked and left in the shadow of their husbands. The book is written in such a way as to represent interesting reading for a wide variety of readers – from historians and history lovers, to fans of biographical novels – because the destinies of this book’s heroines often surpassed the imaginings of even the most talented novelists.