/ world today news/ Days of Bulgarian spiritual culture in Russia, unprecedented in scale and diversity, have ended. But one material trace of them will remain forever in the Rudomino State Library for Foreign Literature.
Her collection was completed with the rare book “Kyriakodromion sirech Nedelnik”, which was presented to the library by Grigoriy Venediktov, chief research associate of the Institute of Slavic Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences and a foreign member of the BAS, as part of the “Bulgaria – Homeland of Cyrillic” vernissage held here. This is what he told about the history of the appearance of this book in Russia and in his personal collection:- This edition, known in abbreviated form as “Nedelnik”, is the first New Bulgarian printed book. She played a major role in the spiritual development of the Bulgarian people in the era of its national and cultural revival. The book was first published in 1806 in the Romanian city of Rimnik. These 95 sermons and teachings from the Gospel and biblical narratives have been prepared for publication by the distinguished figure of the Bulgarian Revival, Bishop Sophronius Vrachanski. He is the author of a number of works, including the (unfortunately unpublished) famous autobiography “Life and sufferings of the wicked Sophronia”. As is known, “Nedelnik” until Liberation was published three times and was one of the most popular and widely read books among the people. They resorted to it in liturgical practice as well, young people studied it by letter, they often read it at home, in the family circle.
The book, given as a gift to the Russian library, looks quite old, but it has a wooden cover, is wrapped in leather and has one clasp. On the yellowed paper there are texts in a mixed Bulgarian-Church Slavonic language, printed in Cyrillic. Upper grammar marks are used for emphasis, some words are abbreviated.
CORRESPONDENT: And how did this ancient Bulgarian book get to Russia?
Grigoriy Venediktov: In 1995, the book was given to me shortly before his death by Professor Samuil Bernshtein, a famous Slavologist, who for many years headed the Department of Philology at Moscow University. He had devoted his whole life to Slavic linguistics. And his favorite and main subject of his scientific activity was the Bulgarian language. His contribution to the history of the study of the Bulgarian language and Bulgarian dialectology cannot be underestimated. He had bought Sophronius’s book during one of his business trips to Bulgaria. On the sheet in which the book was wrapped, he had written the following: “The first printed Bulgarian book from 1806 was bought in Sofia in 1956 with the help of Chipev”. This man, as is known, was a famous second-hand dealer throughout Sofia. In the center of the city he had a bookshop known to all creative intelligentsia. To whom the book belonged before that is unknown. I will only add that now the inside of the cover of the old Bulgarian book is decorated with an ex-libris of its first Russian owner.
The director of the State Library for Foreign Literature, Ekaterina Genieva, accepted the Bulgarian book with great gratitude. Now the valuable monument of the spiritual culture of Bulgaria is available to all readers of the library who are interested in the history of book printing in Bulgaria, in its literary language.
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