He worked as a teacher at Serb elementary schools in Tešanj and Tuzla, in the north-east of the Ottoman province of Bosnia.

Lazar Jovanović was born in the village of Plakalovići in the district of Vlasenica, in the east of the Ottoman province of Bosnia.

[2] Many of the physicians recorded in the retinues of Ottoman dignitaries in Bosnia had a questionable level of medical education; they hailed from various countries and regions.

[5] Ѡбнови ѡву книгу хаћи Лазаръ Їѡанновићъ уч: туз: назыратєлъ сколє и єћимъбаша пашинъ.

У Тузли мѣсєца їулия 7го днє на 1847 лѣта.— "This book was renovated by Hadži Lazar Jovanović, the Tuzla teacher, school supervisor, and pasha's physician-in-chief.

It was a čitulja, an obituary booklet containing names of deceased members of a family to be mentioned by a priest at church services.

[2] In 1841 Jovanović wrote, illuminated and bound his first book, which was commissioned by Serb members of the guild of goldsmiths in Sarajevo.

[7][12] A particular guild in Sarajevo could include people belonging to different religions, Muslims, Orthodox Christians, Catholics, and Jews.

The covers are made of wooden boards coated with leather of dark wine colour, measuring 160 by 120 millimetres.

[12] The central section of the book (f. 12v–25r) directly addresses the future master, often calling him "dear brother" (драги братє).

Beside general advice of piety, hard working, righteousness, honesty, respectfulness, spiritual and physical purity, charity, temperance, etc., it more specifically calls for loyalty and obedience to the guild.

Preceding the central section are instructions on proper behaviour in a church and correct performance of ritual gestures there.

[12] The book is illustrated with a headpiece representing the archangels (f. 1r), a whole-page miniature with standing figures of Saints Constantine and Helena (f. 3v), a headpiece depicting the Deesis (f. 12v), a tailpiece (f. 25r), and a whole-page miniature showing Saint Nicholas in the upper part and the archangels below (f. 25v).

[12][16] Inscriptions in Sobornik name the guild members who engaged Jovanović to write it: Nikola Gabelić, Teodor Mijić, Staniša Vasilijević, Periša Smiljanić, and Andrija.

The other advisory was composed for the Serb members of the guild of tailors and published in 1869 by the Vilayet Printing House in Sarajevo, as part of a calendar.

The manuscript was commissioned by the Church of the Annunciation in the village of Osječani in the Doboj area, and Jovanović wrote it in Tešanj.

[8][9] This epistle is found in a great number of versions written in many languages within traditions of both Eastern and Western Christianity.

[C] It was first mentioned in AD 584 in a letter by Licinian, the Bishop of Cartagena (in the Byzantine part of Spain), in which he strongly condemned it.

[16] In Epistolija, the text of the epistle is preceded by an introductory section, a kind of abstract, titled "Edification of the Serb People" (Поучєниє народа србскога).

After Saint Peter and the Patriarch of Jerusalem prayed with bishops, monks and priests before the stone for three days and nights, it opened up and the letter within it was taken to a church and read before the congregation.

[9] The letter contains condemnations of various kinds of sins, disregard for precepts of the Church, and bad conduct, depicting vividly the harsh punishments for these transgressions.

[27] The epistle ends in f. 19v, and the remaining leaves of the book were reserved for writing the names of persons to be prayed for at services in the Osječani church.

[28] One of them, written in the early 18th century and showing traces of the Ijekavian accent,[29] shares with Epistolija the condemnation of tobacco smokers.