Manuscripts
The written objects the Second Bulgarian Empire left behind, from the rising of 1185 to the fall of Tarnovo in 1396: illuminated gospel books, royal charters, chronicles and inscriptions cut in stone. Each entry shows the object itself, gives its text in the original and in translation, and explains what it settles that nothing else does.
Books
Gospel books, psalters and miscellanies — the manuscripts made to be looked at as well as read.
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Radomir Psalter
13th c.
A psalter signed by the scribe Radomir, a witness to thirteenth-century Bulgarian book hands.
Zograf Monastery, Mount Athos
Dragan Menaion
late 13th c.
A festal menaion with musical notation, one of the earliest sources for Bulgarian chant.
Zograf Monastery, Mount Athos
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Lovech Miscellany
1331–1332
A miscellany copied at Lovech, dated by a colophon naming Ivan Alexander.
Sofia Psalter of Ivan Alexander
1337
A psalter copied for Ivan Alexander in the first years of his reign, with a portrait of the tsar and his first family.
SS Cyril and Methodius National Library
Tetraevangelia of Tsar Ivan Alexander
1355–1356
The most lavishly illuminated surviving Bulgarian manuscript, copied for Ivan Alexander and carrying portraits of the tsar and his family.
British Library
Tomić Psalter
c. 1360
An illuminated psalter of the Tarnovo school, with over a hundred marginal miniatures.
State Historical Museum
German Miscellany
1358–1359
A homiliary copied in the mid-fourteenth century, important for the history of Middle Bulgarian orthography.
Bdin Miscellany
1359–1360
A collection of women saints' lives compiled at Vidin for Tsaritsa Anna, wife of Ivan Sratsimir.
Ghent University Library
Chronicles and histories
The narrative sources: what Bulgarians wrote about their own past, and what was translated for them.
Synodikon of Tsar Boril
1211, with additions to the 14th c.
The acts of the anti-Bogomil council of 1211, followed by commemoration lists of Bulgaria's rulers and patriarchs.
SS Cyril and Methodius National Library
Vatican Manasses Chronicle
1344–1345
A Middle Bulgarian translation of Constantine Manasses' verse chronicle, illustrated with 69 miniatures — nineteen of them showing Bulgarian history.
Vatican Apostolic Library
Royal charters
Grants, privileges and confirmations issued by the tsars. Most survive only as copies; one survives as the parchment itself.
Dubrovnik Charter of Ivan Asen II
c. 1230
A grant of free trade throughout the empire to the merchants of Dubrovnik — the oldest surviving Bulgarian commercial charter.
State Archives of Dubrovnik
Vatopedi Charter of Ivan Asen II
1230s
A charter granting the Athonite monastery of Vatopedi rights over its estates in Bulgarian territory.
Vatopedi Monastery, Mount Athos
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Charter of Kaliman Asen
1240s
A charter attributed to Kaliman Asen I, of contested authenticity.
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Virgino Charter
attributed to 1257–1277
A charter for the monastery of St George at Virgino Brdo near Skopje, surviving in a later Serbian redaction.
Brașov Charter
14th c.
A trade privilege for the merchants of Brașov, preserved in Transylvanian archives.
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Zograf Charter of Ivan Alexander
1342
A confirmation of the Bulgarian monastery of Zograf's possessions on Mount Athos and in Bulgaria.
Zograf Monastery, Mount Athos
Mraka Charter of Ivan Alexander
1347
A donation to the monastery of St Nicholas in Mraka, listing its villages, boundaries and exemptions in detail.
SS Cyril and Methodius National Library
Vitosha (Dragalevtsi) Charter of Ivan Shishman
1371–1385
A grant to the monastery of the Mother of God at Dragalevtsi on Vitosha.
Rila Monastery
Rila Charter of Ivan Shishman
21 September 1378
A donation charter confirming the estates of Rila Monastery — the only Bulgarian royal charter that survives as a physical original.
Rila Monastery
Inscriptions
Text cut in stone — the public voice of the tsars, from the column that records Klokotnitsa to a boyar naming himself on a rock face.
Boženishki Inscription
13th c.
A rock inscription in which a boyar named Ivan records his own deeds and lineage.
Tarnovo Inscription of Ivan Asen II
after 1230
The column inscription in the Church of the Holy Forty Martyrs recording the victory at Klokotnitsa.
Church of the Holy Forty Martyrs, in situ
Stanimaka Inscription of Ivan Asen II
1231
A building inscription from the fortress of Stanimaka (Asenova krepost) naming Ivan Asen II.