Literature

Literature in medieval Bulgaria developed across the changing territories of the First Bulgarian Empire, conventionally dated from 681 to 1018, and the Second Bulgarian Empire, established in 1185 and conquered by the Ottomans in the late fourteenth century. These were medieval polities of the Danube and the Balkans, not states bounded by the borders of modern Bulgaria. The Byzantine interval between the empires, from 1018 to 1185, brought political and cultural change, but did not erase every form of Slavic writing.

The literary history of these centuries is closely tied to Christian worship, translation, and the work of writers and copyists at several regional centers. Preslav and Ohrid became influential in the First Empire; Tarnovo later took a central role in the Second. Their writing communities helped form and circulate a Slavic Christian book culture, using both Glagolitic and Cyrillic scripts and producing translations as well as original works.

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Christianity, language, and translation

The adoption of Byzantine Christianity in the ninth century created a need for religious texts and worship. At first, Greek was used in Bulgarian church services. A new phase began when disciples of the Slavic teachers Cyril and Methodius arrived in Bulgaria in 886. They brought a tradition of writing and translating Christian works into a Slavic language. That literary language is often called Old Church Slavonic; in accounts of Bulgarian writing, it is also called Old Bulgarian. It was a learned language for worship and books, not simply another name for modern Bulgarian.

Translating made Christian teaching and services available in Slavic, while also giving writers a basis for composing new works. Greek religious texts supplied many models, and translators had to find Slavic terms and forms suited to those texts. By the late ninth and tenth centuries, work included biblical and liturgical books, sermons, hymns, saints’ lives, and theological writing. The literary culture was predominantly religious, but it also encompassed legal, historical, and explanatory texts.

Preslav and Ohrid in the First Bulgarian Empire

The Preslav literary center began at Pliska, the First Empire’s capital, in 886 under the patronage of Boris I. In 893, during the reign of Simeon I, its main activity moved to the new capital, Preslav. “Literary school” is a useful name for this community and its wider network of writers, translators, and manuscript-producing centers, rather than evidence of a single institution organized like a modern academy. Its work was also carried out at churches and monasteries across northeastern Bulgaria.

Preslav became especially associated with translation from Greek and with the development and use of Cyrillic. Among the writers connected with its literary life were Constantine of Preslav, John the Exarch, and Chernorizets Hrabar. Constantine’s Didactic Gospel brought together sermons, while Hrabar’s On the Letters defended Slavic writing. The center also supported poetry and artistic work, including painted ceramics.

Ohrid, in the southwestern part of the empire, was another important center. Clement of Ohrid established its literary activity in 886 under Boris I; after Clement became a bishop in 893, Naum took a leading role. The name Ohrid Literary School also refers to a broader regional network, with activity associated with places including Devol. Ohrid’s writers translated and copied Christian works and composed new ones. The center is particularly associated with the use of Glagolitic, though Cyrillic also came into use in the wider literary world.

Two scripts and the making of books

Glagolitic, the earlier Slavic alphabet associated with Cyril and Methodius, was used by their disciples in Bulgaria. Cyrillic, shaped in part on Greek letter forms and adapted for Slavic, gained a strong foothold in the Preslav region. Early Cyrillic inscriptions survive in northeastern Bulgarian centres, including Preslav and nearby religious sites. This evidence links Preslav closely with the script’s development, although the precise circumstances of its creation are not settled. In practice, the scripts overlapped for a time, and their use varied by region.

Books were made by translating, compiling, writing, and copying texts by hand. Monasteries and churches served as places of literary work, while royal and church patrons supported the creation and keeping of books. A manuscript might combine works by several authors or gather texts for worship and instruction. The need to preserve and correct existing translations also meant that copying was not always a matter of reproducing words without change.

Written evidence survives in more than manuscripts. Inscriptions found at Preslav and nearby monasteries record the use of Cyrillic, while a large group of graffiti at Ravna includes writing by lay people as well as churchmen. Such remains show that scripts appeared in varied settings, even though the production of literary books depended heavily on religious communities and patrons.

Religious writing and other kinds of literature

Religious works formed the largest part of the surviving literary tradition. Hymns and sermons served worship and teaching; hagiographies, or saints’ lives, presented models of Christian conduct; and praise speeches honored saints or rulers. Translations and compilations also brought together theological explanations and material from Byzantine authors. Many works were intended to be heard in church, so literary culture reached people through spoken readings as well as through the limited number of readers able to use manuscripts directly.

Historical and explanatory writing broadened the book culture. Constantine of Preslav’s Istorikii drew on Byzantine chronography, the ordering of past events through dated accounts. John the Exarch’s Hexaemeron explained the six days of Creation and discussed the natural world through Christian learning. The Law for Judging the People adapted Byzantine legal material into Slavonic; its place of composition remains disputed between Bulgarian and Moravian settings.

From Byzantine rule to the literary center at Tarnovo

Byzantine campaigns damaged the earlier centers. Preslav was captured in 971, after the Byzantine conquest of northeastern Bulgaria; the Bulgarian Empire as a whole came under Byzantine rule by 1018. Literary activity declined during the following interval, but Slavic texts continued to be written. With the restoration of Bulgarian rule in 1185, Tarnovo became the capital and, over time, the leading center of literary activity in the Second Empire.

Literary activity grew during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Under Ivan Alexander, richly decorated books included the Sofia Psalter of 1337 and the Tomić Psalter of about 1360. A psalter contained the biblical Psalms, used in prayer and worship. The Gospels of Ivan Alexander, copied in 1355–1356, brought the four Gospel texts together with extensive illustrations and royal portraits. Such commissions required patrons, prepared writing materials, scribes and painters.

Evtimiy’s reform and the movement of books

In the late fourteenth century, the Tarnovo literary school became closely associated with Patriarch Evtimiy. Its writers produced original works, translated Greek texts, and assembled collections. Evtimiy also led a reform of spelling and literary language, correcting religious books and seeking more reliable, consistent texts for church use. The reform established a learned written standard. It did not attempt simply to reproduce everyday speech.

The influence of these centers travelled with books and with people. Earlier Bulgarian writing helped carry Old Church Slavonic and both Slavic scripts into other regions, including medieval Serbia, Croatia, and Kievan Rus’. Later, Tarnovo’s corrected texts and literary practices became models in Serbia, Wallachia, Moldavia, and Russian lands. Writers associated with Evtimiy, including Gregory Tsamblak and Constantine of Kostenets, worked beyond Bulgaria and helped transmit these traditions. Political upheaval and the Ottoman conquests dispersed literary figures and changed the circumstances in which books were produced, but the texts and practices formed in medieval Bulgarian centers continued to circulate elsewhere.