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Sava Sivriev
Athanasiy Neskovich and his History Of The Slav-Bulgarian People
(Budum, 1801)
Summary
This article presents an unsufficiently studied text -
History of the Slav-Bulgarian People by Athanasiy Neskovich printed in
Budim (Budapest) in 1801. This is the first printed book on Bulgarian
history.
The author aims to prove that the History of Neskovich
is not a revision of History of Various Slavonic Peoples by Jovan
Raich, as is usually thought in literary historiography, but it is an
independent work, in which Raich was used as a main source. Neskovich’s
History investigates only Bulgarian history in a “simple” (i.e.
vernacular) language different from the Latin and Church Slavonic
languages, in which historical works were then written.
The paper examines the connections between the History
and the novel ideas of the 18th century, the social
situation in the Austrian Empire in the late 18th century and the
Bulgarian colony established in the empire. The book of Neskovich was
written for their intellectual needs and awakened national identity.
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