Българите в агиографията от XIII-XV век. Общество, бит и култура
The presentation and analysis of the evidence about the Bulgarian society, lifestyle and culture in the hagiography from the thirteenth through the fifteenth century give diverse types of information that refers to different areas. The strong idealization of the lives of saints, propagated political ideology and the great number of legendary motifs make it difficult to discern what is real in the hagiographic texts. This does not affect their value as sources of information; it just requires that they be used with the necessary attention due to the specifics of this type of works. They are undoubtedly rich in evidence about the spiritual world of the Bulgarians, curious details of their everyday life, and especially in information that we can derive for the Bulgarian society, the attitude towards certain social groups, their functions and position. Hagiography definitely deserves a place at least as an additional source for the medieval Bulgarian history, although there are issues such as education and religious life, for example, where hagiographic works should be considered primary sources par excellence. The evidence derived from the hagiographic literature in this book by no means exhausts all the topics one can find data about in it. It contains also information about political events, about the economy of monasteries, as well as data about towns and villages. Collecting and summarizing this information can reveal interesting new details from the Bulgarian history and can be of help when dealing with other sources.
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