Medieval Bulgarian Art and Letters in a Byzantine Context. Collected papers

     This is the second of a two-volume set of recent Bulgarian articles on medieval studies proposed in 2010 by the American Research Center in Sofia Foundation. The purpose of these two volumes is to present select studies by Bulgarian medievalists to the English-reading international scholarly community. While the first volume, entitled State and Church: Studies in Medieval Bulgaria and Byzantium (2012), focused on medieval history and historiography, this collection represents studies in the literature, religious philosophy and arts of medieval Bulgaria and the Balkans.

     This volume contains 24 papers on the history of art and letters in medieval Bulgaria that focus mainly on the Bulgarian-Byzantine cultural dialogue. These papers were written by Bulgarian scholars during the period of 1991—2012, and most of them were previously published in Bulgarian periodicals. A few of the papers were written specifically for this volume, and all of the material originally written in Bulgarian was translated into English especially for this publication. The book is divided into three topical sections, and each section begins with an overview of the contribution of Bulgarian scholarship to the study of medieval Bulgarian and Byzantine cultural ties in that particular subject. The first section contains nine papers on art and architecture. Section two includes four papers on Byzantine philosophy and theology. The third section is dedicated to medieval Bulgarian and Byzantine Greek manuscripts and texts. The volume ends with an annotated bibliography of selected publications in Bulgarian concerning medieval Bulgarian and Byzantine art, culture, and literature.

Table of contents

Preface

List of abbreviations

List of illustrations

Contributors

I. Art

E. Bakalova. Studies in Byzantine and Medieval Bulgarian Art: A Historiographical Study

G. Gerov. Approaches to Studying the Mural Decoration of the Entrance Spaces of Orthodox Churches

I. Doseva. Early Byzantine Ambos on the Territory of Present-Day Bulgaria: Models and Adaptations

K. Totev. Brozne Processional Crosses from Constantinople Found in Bulgaria

B. Penkova. On the Commemorative Character of the Frescoes in the Second-Story Chapel of the Church at Bojana

I. Gergova. Hreljo’s Doors in Rila Monastery as Gates to Paradise

D. Fokas. A scene from the Ohrid Doors ant Its Significance for the Understanding of Zoomorphic Imagery in the Middle Ages

M. Kuyumdzhieva. Visualizing God’s Eternity: The Ancient of Days in Orthodox Art from the Byzantine Era

Y. Boycheva. The Functions and Iconography of the Aer-Epitaphios: Byzantine Aeres-Epitaphoi of the 14th—15th Century Preserved in Bulgaria

II. Philosophy and Theology

G. Dineva. The Study of Byzantine Philosophy in Bulgaria

G. Kapriev. Arithmology in the Work of Maximus of Confessor

I. Christov. Fragments of an Unknown Anti-Palamite Treaties in the Library of Bachkovo Monastery

S. Ribolov. The Relationship between Sin and Mortality in the History of Mankind: Insights from Theodore of Mopsuestia’s Theology

III. Philology

M. Dimitrova. Bulgarian Studies on the Reception of Byzantine Literature in Medieval Bulgaria

D. Getov. Six Slavo-Byzantine Palimpsest Fragments

I. Hristova-Shomova. Early Slavonic Theological Terms: Symmetry and Asymmetry in Comparison with Greek Theological Terms

M. Yovcheva. Medieval Bulgarian Liturgical Poetry (9th—10th Century): Byzantine Models and the Specifics of Slavonic Works

I. Dobrev. The Canons to St. John of Rila by George Skylitzes

A. Miltenova. Translations of Monastic Florilegia in Medieval Bulgarian Literature (10th—14th Centuries)

K. Popkonstantinov. The Letter of King Abgar to Jesus Christ and the Byzantino-Slavic World: According to Sources from Philippi, Genoa and Bulgaria

V. Velinova. An Itinerant Motif in the South Slavonic Literary Tradition: Amulet Bearing the Name of St. Sininnios

K. Ivanova. The New Redaction Turnovo Collections and the Role of Patriarch Evtimii in their Translation

E. Dikova. Notes Relating to the Rhetorical Device πλοκή (“Weaving”) in the Hagiographical Works of Saint Evtimii, the Patriarch of Turnovo

B. Hristova. The Exegeses of Old and New Testament Books in Medieval Bulgarian Culture

Selected Annotated Bibliography

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