site.btaThe Book of Boril Sheds Light on History of Medieval Bulgaria

The Book of Boril, or Boril’s Synodicon is a 13th century Bulgarian document. Several copies of it survived, shedding light on the history of the medieval Bulgarian Empire. 

Since the time of the Bulgarian National Revival, up to until the present, it remained a historical source of paramount importance, for illustrates the history of the medieval Bulgarian Empire, medieval heresies, the development of Bulgarian language and literature.

On November 3, 2017, the earliest copy of Boril’s Synodicon (manuscript registered in the St. Cyril and Methodius National Library in Sofia under No 289) was inscribed in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register.

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The document was compiled by Byzantine sources on the occasion of the anti-Bogomil Synod, convened by Tsar [King] Boril in 1211 in the Bulgarian capital of Tarnovo. Numerous additions and editions were made to the Synodicon. The text was revised several decades later (at the time of Tsar Ivan Assen II) and complemented in the late 14th century at the time of Patriarch Euthymius (c. 1325-c. 1403). “It is a testimony of the official attitude against the heresies in Medieval Europe and of the liturgical use of this specific political and religious instrument in the medieval Slavic societies, as it influenced the Serbian and Russian redactions of the Synodicon”, reads the presentation on UNESCO’s website.

And indeed, anathemas against priest Bogomil’s and other heretical teachings are formulated verbosely and meticulously, touching rituals and practices, hierarchy and leaders, concepts and attitudes, habits and ways of the heretics. Ironically, it is because of this style, prolific in details, that historians learn important elements about beliefs and teachings of the heretics and the Bogomils in particular.

Bogomilism, founded in the First Bulgarian Empire by the priest Bogomil during the reign of Tsar Peter I in the 10th century, is still subject to controversial interpretations. The movement spread quickly in the Balkans, gradually expanding throughout the Byzantine Empire, reaching Kievan Rus, Dalmatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Italy, and France.

At the time of Tsar Boril Bulgarian lands maintained active contacts with both the Western and Byzantine worlds. (Boril launched military campaigns against the Latin Empire and the Kingdom of Thessalonica. After an uprising broke out against him in Vidin, he sought the assistance of Andrew II of Hungary, who sent reinforcements to suppress the rebellion.) Heretical teachings were an important element of the all-European medieval spiritual development. They still attract the attention of scholars and the general public because of their great impact on the religious and everyday life in different parts of Europe.

The document is in fact a 14th century version of the non-extant original Boril’s Synodicon. The importance of this later version is greatly increased by additions made by the compilers of the copy, e.g. beadrolls of Bulgarian rulers and clerics. Few medieval Bulgarian documents survived the turbulent centuries of Ottoman rule, and such details increase the high historical value of the text. There are names of persons unknown from other sources (such as Plenimir, a ruler from the First Bulgarian Empire).

Four unique hymns, notated according to the late-Byzantine music system (also called Koukouzelian) make Borils’ Synodicon a priceless source about the spreading in the Balkans of the Byzantine melismatic singing. Notated chants written in Greek and Bulgarian are supplied with liturgical glossae, indicating that “here singers are singing in voice”. (Accepted as testimony that these instructions have been provided for professional singers.)

To quote UNESCO’s presentation, „It must be stressed also that three of the musical texts are transcribed in Western European notation and are being performed at concerts in Bulgaria and abroad. They are high professional compositions of exceptional artistic value, which have outlived their own time and nowadays are studied in the academies of music as unique works.“

All these details justify Bulgarian scholar Prof. Marijana Tsibranska-Kostova’s opinion that “it is a monument of the Christian identity of the Bulgarian folk and state, which has documented their past and present up to the moment of the Synodicon’s compilation. Thus we are confronted with an encyclopaedia of Bulgarian Christianity.”