хроника

The rich Bulgarian literature of the Middle Ages has not yet been sufficiently well presented to a wider circle of cultural readers and activists. The main reason for this is the fact that a large part of its most valuable works have not been published, which is why they remain inaccessible for direct scientific studies. And the difficulty becomes even greater when one takes into account the fact that most of these works are located abroad (USSR, Romania, Yugoslavia, Mount Athos, France, Germany, England, etc.). And therefore, a joyful fact for our cultural community is the printed appearance of one of the important monuments of old Bulgarian literature, namely the Manassian Chronicle, published under the title "The Chronicle of Constantine Manassi". The Vatican transcript of the chronicle has been published in phototype form, with an introduction and notes by Prof. Ivan Duychev. Thus, a long-standing dream of the Bulgarian public and Bulgarian scientists to see a complete edition of this valuable historical monument is realized. And it must be said right away that the fine initiative to publish old Bulgarian manuscripts (phototype or in block form) should continue, and be placed on a sounder organizational basis. The Chronicle is published as the first book in the well-conceived series "Monuments of Old Bulgarian Literature". It is desirable that the next issues of the series appear sooner. The institutes of literature, language and history at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences are directly interested in and responsible for the implementation of this task. The Manasseh Chronicle has long been known to science, especially through the publications of the Russian scholar A. D. Chertkov and the Romanian Slavist Ioan Bogdan, who published a later transcript from the 16th and 17th centuries. The Vatican transcript is valuable not only for being one of the ancient transcripts of the chronicle, but especially for being its only richly illustrated copy. After Prof. Duychev made a separate color edition of the miniatures of this chronicle, now a natural addition is its complete publication according to the Vatican transcript. The two latest editions, related to the Manasseh Chronicle, already greatly facilitate any kind of research not only on it, but on Bulgarian culture in general, literature and painting in particular. They also have an important place in the studies on our medieval historiography.

Along with other unresolved issues in the history of our old literature, there is also the question of the historiographical works that it had. That is why every initiative that has been noticed recently, related to Bulgarian medieval historiography, is commendable. I am referring to the studies of Goran Todorov "The Origin and Initial Development of Bulgarian Historiography (681-1018)" and "Bulgarian Historiography in the 11th-14th Centuries"1 and Konstantin Mechev "The Bulgarian Chronicle of the Early 15th Century (Historical Content, Ideological and Artistic Appearance, the Question of Its Authorship")2. The reason for these notes is given to me by the study of K. Mechev. I say notes, since I do not intend to dwell in detail on the issue touched upon by it; I would rather just like to take a position on the question posed - To what extent can the author's thesis be accepted, according to which the famous Old Bulgarian (South Slavic) writer Isai Serski also wrote the anonymous Bulgarian chronicle from the beginning of the 15th century? I want to take a position because our science still has so many important questions to solve, which is why there is no need to divert the efforts of the few scientific workers with publications that are insufficiently argued. It is better to direct these efforts to other issues. The answer is all the more compelling, taking into account the fact that the publication is published without an editorial note, it is not presented as a discussion one.