site.btaBulgarian Centre for Slavo-Byzantine Studies Marks 30th Anniversary

Bulgarian Centre for Slavo-Byzantine Studies Marks 30th Anniversary

Sofia, June 2 (BTA) - A conference marking the 30th anniversary of the Ivan Dujcev Centre for Slavo-Byzantine Studies brings together in Sofia renowned medievalists from all over the world. The conference on "Cultural Bridges. Past and Present" is held June 2 to 4. It was co-organized by the Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia, where the Dujcev Centre belongs structurally, and the Accademia Ambrosiana in Milan, the Centre said in a statement for the press.

The Dujcev Centre was an active participant in the establishment of the Accademia's Classe di Slavistica.

Among the participants are 66 top experts in various fields of medieval studies from all over the world. In keeping with the legacy of its patron to preserve, study and popularize BulgariaТs cultural and historical heritage, and continuing its contacts with centres of medieval studies, the conference will be attended, among others, by the former President of the Macedonian Academy of Sciences, Academician Cvetan Grozdanov, Academician Vassil Gyuzelev, Corresponding Member Prof. Axinia Djurova (who headed the Centre for many years), and Prof. Peter Schreiner (who headed the International Byzantine Association for ten years).

The conference has several panels for the various fields of medieval studies: history, archaeology, literature, philology, art history, archives and cultural heritage.
The Prof. Ivan Dujcev Centre for Slavo-Byzantine Studies was established on May 14, 1986, as an independent unit at the Rector's Office of the University of Sofia on grounds of the will of the renowned Bulgarian medievalist Prof. Ivan Dujcev.
Along with the professor's house, the centre has inherited his library in medieval history, culture and art, his collection of manuscripts, as well as rich scientific and personal archives.

Born in 1907, Ivan Dujcev went to study history at Sofia University under the most distinguished specialists in medieval studies. They obviously saw his potential and in 1932-1936 he was sent to specialize in Rome on a Bulgarian government scholarship. He studied Byzantine history and philology at the University of Rome with Prof. Silvio Mercatti (later to become cardinal Mercatti). Still in Rome, Dujcev wrote a Ph. D. thesis on the Bulgarian Dynasty of Asen in Byzantium (1934). At the same time, he studied and subsequently graduated from the School of Archivistics and Paleography at the Vatican Secret Archive.

Throughout these years, thanks to his studies at the Manuscript Department of the Vatican Apostolic Library, he published a number of scientific reports mostly focused on Bulgarian medieval history, the history of the 17th century and more specifically the Catholic propaganda in Bulgaria.

In 1936 Ivan Dujcev became assistant professor and then associate professor in Bulgarian history at Sofia University, and then headed the university chairs of Byzantine and Balkan history.

His academic career in Bulgaria took a downward turn in the years of communist rule. In 1946 he was removed from his academic post at the University of Sofia and in 1949 he started work at the Institute of History at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. He became a professor only in 1967 and was finally elected academician in 1981 - long after he became a member of the Academy of Science in Palermo (1967) and of the Institute of Byzantine Studies in Palermo (1974), Naples (1974), Spoletto (1978), of the British Academy of Sciences (1976). He was also a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences (1980) and the Pontifical Academy of Archeology in Rome (1984).

Prof. Dujcev's work was highly acclaimed abroad. He published a number of books and over a thousand scientific studies in 15 languages. He was a regular associate and an editor-member of the most outstanding European and American specialized periodicals in the field of Byzantine Studies and Slavonic philology.