Istorija slavjanobolgarskaja [Slavo-Bulgarian History] by monk Paisij of Hilandar is an emblematic text for the period of Bulgarian National Revival. It was composed in 1762, initially in Hilandar Monastery and later was finalized in Zograf Monastery in which the autograph of its author, Paisij, is housed now. At the end of the 18th and in the 19th century this history was disseminated by copies made by later scribes, teachers, priests, disciples in various places where Bulgarians lived. Most of the extant manuscript copies are held in Sofia: most of them are housed in the National Library "St. Cyril and Methodius ", but there are also copies in the Scientific Archives of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, in the Church-Historical and Archival Institute of the Bulgarian Patriarchate, and in the National Museum of History. The first edition of the autograph was made in Sofia in 1914 by Jordan Ivanov (Иванов 1914). Later editions also were produced in Sofia, as the edition by Bozhidar Rajkov (Райков 1989). In 2012, 250 years of the History was composed by Monk Paisij, a new edition was prepared by a team of scholars working at St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia, in which are combined a facsimile of the autograph, its transcript accompanied with variant readings culled from six early copies of the History that give idea how looked like the copies brought by the Athonite monk to his compatriots living in the Ottoman Empire. The 2012 edition contains also a new translation of Paisij’s text into the present-day standard Bulgarian language produced by Dimităr Peev accompanied with numerous comments. This two-volume book opens with an introductory study on the role and ideas of Paisij's text in the context of the history of Christian Church, written by monk Atanasij, the librarian of Zograf Monastery. After 2012 five editions were made of this book by Zograf Monastery (Паисий Хилендарски. История славянобългарска. Критическо издание с превод и коментар. Текста подготвиха за печат Д. Пеев, М. Димитрова, П. Петков. Превод Д. Пеев. Славянобългарска Зографска обител, Света гора, Атон).
a) the places where these manuscripts are held now - mostly in Sofia, but also in Bansko, Veliko Tărnovo, Kalofer, Stara Zagora in Bulgaria and abroad: in Zograf Monastery and in Hilandar Monastery on Mount Athos, in Belgrade, Bucharest, Columbus (Ohio), Moscow;
b) the places where manuscripts are known/ likely to have been produced, such as Mount Athos, Besarabia, Chirpan, Elena, Gabrovo, Kotel, Mokresh, Pazardzhik, Pirdop, Pchelishte, Rousse, Rila Monastery, Samokov, Svishtov, Veliko Tărnovo ...; and
c) places in which the manuscripts are likely to have been kept and read for a certain period. We hope that the availability of this e-map will encourage the users to find out more information about these manuscript copies of the History Slavo-Bulgarian and to send us materials about their routes, about places and people who might have copied, read, and preserved them.
Thus, the project aims to present the copies of Istorija slavjanobolgarskaja from the point of view of their origins, distribution and preservation - not in the traditional cataloging but through an electronic product that visualizes the traveling t of the manuscripts and brings together the scribal colophons and notes, shedding light on “life” of the text and that puts together the most recent bibliography. Papers on the manuscript copies of Istorija slavjanobolgarskaja included in the crucial bibliographical work by Ilija Todorov were also included in the bibliography (Илия Тодоров. Паисий Хилендарски. Анотиран библиографски указател. София, 2003)
We have information about 70 copies of Istorija slavjanobolgarskaja made in the 18th and mostly in the 19th century: they belong to several text families representing both more or less exact copies of the text brought by Paisij of Hilandar to the Bulgarian lands and later revisions and compilations based on Paisij’s text and other historical works. Some of these manuscripts survive and are held in different libraries, while others are known to us only from written evidence. On this site, there is information only about those copies that survive and are held in different repositories, as mentioned, mostly in Sofia and Bulgaria, but also in Mount Athos (Greece), Romania, Russia, Serbia, and USA. Only some of them are published but most of them are studied. One of the main aims of the project "Istorija slavjanobolgarskaja: A quarter of Millennium" (2007-2012) was to collect digital copies of these manuscripts and to examine them. Scholars from Neofit Rilski Southwestern University and from St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia contributed to the project. It was inspired and consulted by Professor Nadezhda Dragova, a leading specialist in Paisij of Hilandar’s studies and directed by Professor Darinka Karadzhova, who has invaluable contributions to the elucidation of the character and fate of several copies of History Slavo-Bulgarian (Istorija slavjanobolgarskaja). The project was supported Bulgarian Scientific Fund, Ministry of Education and Science. In the framework of this project a list of the extant copies was made, updating the information on their shelfmarks, palaeographical, codicological and textual features, thus enriching the information in the studies by Manjo Stojanov (who made such a list of copies in 1962, see Стоянов 1962) and Ilija Todorov (who distributed the copies available to him in text-families, see Тодоров 1971, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1991). Also, the information in the detailed catalogue of the copies housed in Sts Cyril and Methodius National Library was used (Каталог 2008 = 250 години История славянобългарска от Паисий Хилендарски /Каталог на изложба/. Ред. кол.: Б. Христова – отг. ред., Ел. Мусакова, Е. Узунова, Б. Минчева, Р. Тодорова. София, 2008). After the editions of the Second Kotel/ Sofronij’s Copy (Романски 1938), the First Kotel/ Sofronij’s Copy by Bozhidar Rajkov (Райков 1972), of the Zograf autograph of by Rajkov (Райков 1989), Monk Nikifor’s Copy (Ангелов 1961), Rila Monastery Revision (Ангелов 1966), and the First Samokov Copy (Кръстев и Иванова 2004), in 2012 and a but later other copies were published, such as Gladichov’s Copy (Караджова и др. 2012), Pazardzhik Copy (Радев 2012), Ahtar’s Copy (Перчеклийски 2013), Gerov’s Copy (Кръстева 2012), Second Hariton’s Copy (Кръстева 2013), First Hariton’s Copy (Кръстева 2015). Many new studies appeared in the recent years, to mention a few: Радев 2012, 2012а, Драгова 2012, 2012а, Радева 2013, Димитрова, Пеев (2012), also the site Paisiada was created at Paisij Hilendarski University of Plovdiv (http://paisiada.com) that opened a new digital era in the study and representation of the text of the Athonite monk. All these achievements were used by scholars who made the very short descriptions of the 50 copies known to us today of Istorija slavjanobolgarskaja. On them worked Andrej Bobev, Antoaneta Dzheljova, Atanaska Tosheva, Darinka Karadzhova, Dimitar Peev, Lilia Ilieva, Lachezar Percheklijski, Ljubka Nenova, Margaret Dimitrova, Mariana Kurshumova, Mila Krasteva, Nija Radeva, and Petko Petkov teaching at universities in Bulgaria, Germany, and Italy.
The team of the project expands its gratitude to the institutions that kindly sent us photos of the manuscripts that they preserve: Zograf Monastery (Mount Athos), Regional Museum in Stara Zagora, and Hilandar Research Library at the Ohio State University, USA, or gave their permission such photos to be published here, such as Sts Cyril and Methodius National Library in Sofia, Church Historical and Archival Institute of the Bulgarian Patriarchate in Sofia, National Museum of History in Sofia, and Scientific Archives of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.
Our work with the copies of Istorija slavjanobolgarskaja is dedicated to the scholars who inspired us with ideas, advice, and knowledge, in particular to Professor Nadezhda Dragova, the driving force in the study of these manuscripts and their textual versions, also to Professor Ivan Dobrev, Corresponding Member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, and to Professor Elena Kotseva (Sofia).
