Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Romanian Academy Sign New Cooperation Agreement

Tatiana Marinova, Andrei Kyuchukov, Diana Dukovska

RAS President Ioan-Aurel Pop (left) and BAS President Julian Revalski signing cooperation agreement, Bucharest, Sept. 17, 2024 (BTA Photo/Biser Todorov)

Bucharest,

17.09.2024 20:32

(BTA)

The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) and the Romanian Academy (RA) Tuesday signed a new cooperation agreement at a ceremony in Bucharest. The agreement is part of the initiative to celebrate BAS’s 155th anniversary.

BAS President Julian Revalski said this is not just a renewal of the cooperation agreement between the Bulgarian and Romanian academies, but a new beginning. In his words, of all similar institutions, BAS has the biggest number of common projects with the Romanian Academy. "Both academies were founded as literary societies. Both were founded in Romania. The entire career of Peter Beron, one of the first Bulgarian enlighteners who laid the foundations of education in Bulgaria during the National Revival, was also linked to Romania," Revalski added.

RA President Ioan-Aurel Pop said that he is proud that BAS's history is connected to Romania. He recalled that both academies were founded at the time when Romania was switching from the Cyrillic to the Latin alphabet. "We are proud that BAS was founded in Romania and that our country supported such an important event," Pop said.

An exhibition dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the first edition of Petar Beron's Fish Primer opened at the RA Library in Bucharest. The exhibition tells the story and part of the content of the book. Beron's life was linked to Romania: he studied at the Princely Academy in Bucharest, was fluent in nine languages, and authored about 20 scientific works.

Published in Kronstadt (now Brasov, Romania) in 1824, Dr Beron's Fish Primer (its full title is Primer with Various Instructions) is the first textbook (and first book) to be printed in modern Bulgarian and also Bulgaria's earliest secular print publication. With its encyclopaedic coverage of various fields of science, the Fish Primer was a cultural milestone of the National Revival.

Revalski said the exhibition showed there was more to the primer than the alphabet. The Fish Primer features so many things that it can be described as the first Bulgarian encyclopedia, the BAS President said.

The Bulgarian delegation, which includes BTA Director General Kiril Valchev and Bulgaria's Ambassador to Romania Radko Vlaykov, will visit Braila on September 18, where a memorial plaque dedicated to the founding of the Bulgarian Literary Society (today's BAS) on October 12, 1869 is placed in the courtyard of the Church of the Ascension of Christ.

/VE/