site.btaPetar Bogdan's Manuscript to Be Exhibited in Bulgaria Next Year for First Time

The manuscript of Petar Bogdan Bakshev (1601-1674) On the Antiquity of the Father’s Land and on the Bulgarian Things will be exhibited for the first time in Bulgaria next year on the initiative of the presidential institution, the President's Press Secretariat reported here on Monday. President Rumen Radev discussed at his office the presentation of the historical work in Bulgaria at a meeting with Culture Minister Krastyu Krastev.

The discussion was also attended by the Director of the St. St. Cyril and Methodius National Library, Prof. Krasimira Aleksandrova.

The historical tractate was written by Petar Bogdan, an archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church in Bulgaria, historian and a key Bulgarian National Revival figure, who was born in the northwestern town of Chiprovtsi. The manuscript was discovered in Italy and is owned by the Municipality of Modena, where it is kept in a local gallery. "The presentation of Petar Bogdan's manuscript in Bulgaria is an extraordinary event for our history, culture and identity," the President said and pointed out that the success of the initiative requires good cooperation between all responsible institutions.

Since 2020, the presidential institution has been working to present the manuscript to the Bulgarian public, which is of great importance for the building of the cultural memory and national identity of the Bulgarian people. During the Head of State's visit to the Vatican in 2021, His Holiness Pope Francis and The Vatican's Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, expressed their support for the initiative during the audience with Rumen Radev. The President pointed out that he had also spoken with his Italian counterpart Sergio Mattarella, who had also accepted the initiative.

The manuscript "On the Antiquity of the Father’s Land and on the Bulgarian Things" was completed around 1667 and predates Paisii Hilendarski's "Istoriya Slavyanobolgarskaya" [Slav-Bulgarian History] of 1762 by about a century. For a long time neither the original manuscript nor a printed copy of the tractate were found, and it was not until the 1970s that the historian, Prof. Bozhidar Dimitrov, discovered the editor's notes related to the manuscript of Petar Bogdan.

At the end of 2017, Prof. Lilia Ilieva discovered the complete manuscript of the oldest history of Bulgaria in the University Library of the Italian city of Modena.