Два новоразкрити гръцки надписа от параклиса „Св. Архангели“ в Бачковския манастир и тяхната контекстуализация
Two Newly Discovered Greek Epigraphs from the Chapel of the Holy Archangels of the Bachkovo Monastery and Their Contextualisation

Summary/Abstract: This article deals with the existing assumptions about the occurrence and the layers of murals and construction works at the Chapel of the Holy Archangels in the Monastery of Bachkovo. Two Greek inscriptions found while carrying out restoration work are published for the first time: one above the window in the south wall, and the second inscribed on the basement of the drum on which the dome rests. The former is a donor’s inscription and the author deems it to have contained the name of the founder along with that of the painter, while the latter is hymnographical/liturgical and though surviving and uncovered fragmentarily until mid-2020, its content refers to the Archangels. Both inscriptions are palaeographically dated to the fourteenth century and are associated with the donation activities of King Ivan Alexander in the cloister. The deciphered inscriptions confirm the correctness of the assumption of some researchers that by the mid-fourteenth century the church was dedicated to the Archangels. The author inevitably addresses the question of the function of the chapel in the medieval period and how it correlates with the lower floor, the catholicon and the old gates. Here once again he argues that the Chapel of the Holy Archangels was not a mortuary one. In addition to the overall argumentation, Emmanuel Moutafov draws a number of parallels from the historical, theological, philosophical and artistic contexts of the age.

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