Украсата на старобългарските ръкописи до края на XI век (= Кирило-Методиевски студии. Кн. 12)
The Ornamentation of the Old Bulgarian Manuscripts up to the End of the 11th Century (= Cyrillo-Methodian Studies. 12)

Author(s): Vera Ivanova-Mavrodinova, Lilyana Mavrodinova
Subject(s): Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Visual Arts, History of Art
Published by: Кирило-Методиевски научен център при Българска академия на науките
Summary/Abstract: The study deals with the ornamentation – initials, head-pieces, tail-pieces and miniatures – in the Old Bulgarian manuscripts of the First Bulgarian Kingdom and the continuation of the same tradition in the manuscripts of the 11th century. This is the first specific study of the decoration of each of the preserved Bulgarian written monuments of the Early Middle Ages. For outlining the circle of models from which the Old Bulgarian copyists and miniaturists had drawn inspiration were used stylistic and iconographic parallels testifying to links above all with pre-iconoclastic art and the art of the eastern provinces of the Byzantine Empire. As a result of this are predated some manuscripts such as the "Savina Book", the Codex Suprasliensis and Dobromir's Gospel. For amplifying the picture were studied also the more recent Russian copies, which copied not only the text but also the ornamentation of the Old Bulgarian protographs, translated and decorated in the palace scriptorium of the Bulgarian King Simeon in Preslav in the 10th c. Moreover the subject has been specified of the four miniatures on a whole leaf before the two parts of the so-called Svetoslav's Florilegium, as depictions of the first four Ecumenical Councils. The study was the last scholarly work of Vera Mavrodinova, the chief director for many years of the excavtions in the first Christian Bulgarian capital of Preslav. It was completed in 1979 with the assistance of senior research associate Liliana Mavrodinova who tried to bring up to date to a certain degree some formulations.

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