site.btaOldest Textbook Printed in Modern Bulgarian Presented in Paris 200 Years after First Edition

The Bulgarian Embassy in France is playing host to the exhibition The Unknown Fish Primer, marking the 200th anniversary of the oldest textbook printed in Modern Bulgarian. The exhibition has been arranged by the University of Library Studies and Information Technologies (ULSIT) in Sofia, the university said in a press release on Saturday.

The display presents the seven editions of Dr Petar Beron’s Fish Primer kept at Bulgaria’s National Library. Emblematic pages of Bulgarian literature are featured in 12 posters. National Library Director Krasimira Alexandrova is among the curators.

ULSIT Rector Irena Peteva thanked Bulgarian Ambassador in Paris Radka Balabanova for embracing the idea to present a piece of Bulgarian history in present-day France.

Visiting the exhibition, Bulgarian-French singer Sylvie Vartan received an honorary doctor’s title from ULSIT. Vartan was with her husband, American actor and TV and film producer Tony Scotti.

Reading the full title of the Fish Primer out loud in a halting Bulgarian, Vartan said: "I want to learn things as kids did in the past.” Obviously moved by the honour she had just received, she spontaneously sang “Ya kazhi mi, oblache le byalo”, the unofficial anthem of migrant Bulgarians. 

The exhibition will move to UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, where it will open on December 10.

On the eve of the event at the Bulgarian Embassy, ULSIT academics held a roundtable at the Bulgarian Cultural Centre in Paris about Petar Beron as a European scholar.

The observances of the 200th anniversary of the Fish Primer are taking place under the auspices of the Bulgarian National Commission for UNESCO and the Bulgarian Culture Ministry.