Размисли за търновския книжовник Лаврентий от XIV в.
Considerations About the fourteen-century tĂrnovo man-of-letters Laurentios

Summary/Abstract: CONSIDERATIONS ABOUT THE FOURTEEN-CENTURY TĂRNOVO MAN-OF-LETTERS LAURENTIOS ЕVGUENI ZASHEV (BRATISLAVA) (Summary) The article is focused on the personality of the mediaeval Bulgarian man-of-letters Laurentios. According to the author, along with the colophon to the so-called John Alexander’s codex from 1348, some other MSS (recently identified by K. Ivanova, D. Karadžova and A. Turilov as belonging to Laurentios’ legacy) could serve as important source for a partial reconstruction of his biography. Laurentios’ work presents him as a man-of-letters and editor who knew equally well the literary heritage and the contemporary literature, who had active social and moral position, who was distinguished for his great calligraphic skills, and who specialized in copying predominantly books for individual reading. It could be presumed that Laurentios worked in a hesychastic milieu that was related to institutions close to the Tsar, as well as to the Patriarch (it is quite possible that Laurentios was a member of a scribal community, supported financially by the highest representatives of the secular and church authorities). The author puts forward the hypothesis that Laurentios was approximately of the same age as Tsar John Alexander and belonged to the social stratum which is close to the court in Tărnovo. Zashev also suggests that Laurentios took care of a public library in the immediate proximity of the capital city and that the Sbornik of 1348 was a handbook used for the education of ruler’s children.

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