The first secular book - Riben Bukvar celebrates its 200th anniversary with a new edition

published on 9/16/24 8:55 AM

Photo: БГНЕС

This year, 2024, marks the 200th anniversary of the so-called "Book of Miscellaneous Instruction". This is the original title of the book, better known as "Riben Bukvar" (The Fish Primer) by Dr Petar Beron - a prominent figure of the Bulgarian Revival period. It is the first Bulgarian textbook written in colloquial language with secular content. Experts describe it as revolutionary and the first step towards modern Bulgarian civic education.

The Fish Primer, published in 1824, was more of a small encyclopaedia for children, giving basic knowledge of the Bulgarian language, physics and arithmetic. It also contained prayers, moral teachings, good advice, fables and 12 beautiful, if slightly naive, illustrations of animals. The last page of illustrations shows a whale and a dolphin, which is why the book was called The Fish Primer, as people at the time thought they were fish.

"This is the first book in the then modern Bulgarian. The text gives priority to secular education, to things related, for example, to arithmetic, physics, biology... Church prayers and things related to faith are included in only one of its 8 sections" - explained in an interview for BNR "Horizon" Theodor Borisov, doctor of history. He is the editor of the luxury edition of the Fish Primer, recently released on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the book.

The new edition is published by the Bulgarian History Association. It is notable for the fact that, alongside the original texts, an updated text has been added so that the reader can easily follow and compare what has been written line by line.

"This is a phototype edition of the very first version of the primer, printed in 1824 in Brasov or Kronstadt, as the city was then called," says Theodor Borisov. - Our idea was to publish this textbook with a translation into modern Bulgarian.

The preface by Dr Iva Trifonova of the Cyril and Methodius Scientific Centre at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences introduces us to the personality of Dr Beron - an outstanding Bulgarian Renaissance man who, unfortunately, in the minds of many people is only associated with his face on the 10 leva note. And we hope that this publication will arouse interest both in the book itself and in the personality of its author".

Petar Beron, Bulgarian educator and enlightening figure

Dr Petar Beron was one of the most highly educated Bulgarians of his time. He was the first to look to the new European education as the basis for the rapid and successful development of the emerging New Bulgarian society. His commitment to Bulgarian schools, to the publication of textbooks in Bulgarian and to Bulgarian education can be seen in the epilogue to The Fish Primer.

"The truth is that the knowledge they had then was of course much narrower, more concentrated, than in today's information age. However, for a man like Dr Petar Beron to write such a book was a great and significant undertaking for his time. A medical doctor himself, he had specialised in Heidelberg and Munich, and his dissertation was on obstetrics and gynaecology. Over the years, he wrote more than 30 volumes of scientific literature and spoke 8 languages, writing in 5 of them, including Latin and French. And in the Fish Primer you can find reflections on some of his research. And I think that the Fish Primer is a must for every Bulgarian home".

Text by Veneta Nikolova based on an interview by Natalia Ganchovska, BNR-Horizont

Photos: bulgarianhistory.org

Translated and posted by Elizabeth Radkova

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