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Bulgarian Literature – Meetings and Dialogues with the World

Photo: Maria Peeva
The National Gallery for Foreign Art in Sofia is hosting an exhibition under the motto “Bulgarian Literature – Meetings and Dialogues with the World” throughout the month of February. The display contains valuable manuscripts, books, documents, works of art, personal effects and photographs related to the wide topic of the spiritual connections between the Bulgarian, European and world culture.
Letters, notes and articles traciing the bridges to world literature


At the onset of those meetings was the creation of the Cyrillic alphabet by the saint brothers Cyril and Methodius in the 9th century. Their disciples spread the new script through out the Slavic nations. Here is more on the exhibition from its organizer Ms. Katya Zografova, who is director of the National Literary Museum in Sofia.
“The topic about the Bogomils is one of the most interesting in our exhibition. Few people know that the Catholic Inquisition originated as a means to fight the followers of the Bogomils, the French Cathars and Albigenses, when in the 10th c. it spread like a heresy and reached Western Europe. Comparativists have established a similarity between the secret books of the Bogomils and Dante Alighieri’s “Inferno”, which can be interpreted as a Bulgarian contribution to European culture.”

Old time translations in Bulgarian of world classics

The display aims to demonstrate that the Bulgarian writers at the turn of the 20th century were not only admirers of the great European men of letters but part of the modern tradition. The exhibits feature some of the first translations of European fiction and textbooks into Bulgarian, as well as letters, photographs, and diaries serving as spiritual bridges toward European culture. A good case in point is the great Bulgarian poet Geo Milev, who in 1914 used to sign his personal notes from Leipzig, Bulgarischer Weltbürger, Bulgarian Citizen of the World.

“Another interesting topic is the Bulgarian descendancy of some of Europe’s renowned authors. There has been an argument over the origin the great French Renaissance poet Pierre de Ronsard, ‘the poets’ prince’. In one of his works he describes the homeland of his predecessors in the following manner: “There, where the cold Danube passes by the land of Thrace, way south of Hungary.” The exhibition contains a document from the French National Library that attests to the Bulgarian descent of his family. We can also claim for sure that the poetess countess Anna de Noailles, who became the first woman in France decorated with the Legion of Honour, was a blood relation of the great early 19th century Bulgarian enlightener Sofronii of Vratza,” Katya Zografova says in conclusion.

English version by Radostin Zhelev
По публикацията работи: Maria Peeva


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