The international peer-reviewed journal PALAEOBULGARICA / СТАРОБЪЛГАРИСТИКА was founded in 1977 in order to meet the needs for publishing of the research works dedicated mainly to Bulgarian medieval language, literature, art, culture, and history and to their relations with the other Slavonic cultures. The published studies cover a wide chronological and geographic span: they concern the problems of Bulgarian medieval literary culture from the creation of the Slavonic alphabet in the 9th c. to the period of the Bulgarian National Revival (18th c.), as well as the problems of the Cyrillo-Methodian traditions in Europe and in the world to the present day. Since 1990 the journal has been expanding its thematic scope: there the problems of medieval Bulgarian literary culture, created by means of the Slavonic alphabets (the Glagolitic script, invented by the Thessalonica brothers Cyril and Methodius in Byzantium in the middle of the 9th c., which was used until the 13th c., and the Cyrillic script which was created in Bulgaria in the last quarter of the 9th c., which is still being used, with various modifications, in a number of Slavic and non-Slavic countries) and the Cyrillo-Methodian traditions in their different aspects (manuscripts, literature, language, art, and history) are closely related with the cultural development of Orthodox Slavic and non-Slavic nations, with the Byzantine and Western European culture in the Middle Ages and in modern times. PALAEOBULGARICA / СТАРОБЪЛГАРИСТИКА is a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary journal.
Since its establishment PALAEOBULGARICA / СТАРОБЪЛГАРИСТИКА journal has been published regularly without any delay or interruption in a fixed periodicity of 4 issues per year.
Between 1977 and 2017 164 issues have been published, amounting to a total of 19 636 printed pages. They comprise 1786 studies, of which 1155 articles, 510 reviews and recensions and 121 articles about prominent Bulgarian and foreign scholars. The publications were made by 640 authors. Beside Bulgarian scholars the journal published materials by scholars from Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Israel, India, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine, USA. Since its establishment, the journal has been publishing the articles not only in Bulgarian but also in French, German and Russian, with summaries in English and Bulgarian. An important fact is that since the journal’s start until today not only the Bulgarian authors but also many foreign scholars have chosen to publish their materials in Bulgarian language. Because of this and because of the specific terminology related with the subject-matter, which is hard to render in other languages (especially in the field of linguistics), a significant share of the studies are published in Bulgarian, but all the materials are accompanied by summaries in English.
PALAEOBULGARICA / СТАРОБЪЛГАРИСТИКА is founded by Acad. Emil Georgiev, who was also the first Editor-in-Chief in the period 1977–1982.
Acad. Emil Georgiev (1910–1982) is a Bulgarian literary historian. His research activities lie in the field of comparative Slavic literary studies and history of Bulgarian medieval literature (9th-17th cc.) and the literature of the period of the Bulgarian National Revival (18th c. - 1878). Corresponding Member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) (1967) and Academician since 1977. Head of the Department of Slavic Literatures at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” (1947–1976). Head of Bulgarian Encyclopedia with the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) (1958–1960). Chairman of the Slavic Association in Bulgaria (1968–1973). Director of the Center for Bulgarian Studies with the Presidium of the BAS (1976–1982).
In the period 1982–1992 the Editor-in-Chief of PALAEOBULGARICA / СТАРОБЪЛГАРИСТИКА journal was Prof. Kuyo Kuev.
Prof. Kuyo Kuev (1909–1991) is an expert in the field of medieval Bulgarian manuscript tradition, Bulgarian medieval literature, history of Polish literature and Polish-Bulgarian literary relations. He is among the best specialists of Bulgarian medieval manuscript heritage. Cultural attaché in Warsaw (1948–1951). Vice Dean (1962–1965) and Dean (1972–1976) of the Faculty of Slavic Studies of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”. Head of the Summer Colloquium of Old Bulgarian Studies in Sofia (1978–1982). Director of the Center for Bulgarian Studies with the BAS (1982–1984).Prof. Kuev’s major research is dedicated to the history of Bulgarian literature and culture in the 9th-10th cc. A central place in his research occupy the work of the Old Bulgarian man of letters Chernorizets Hrabar (1967), the fate of the Old Bulgarian manuscripts through the centuries (1979, 1986), the study and the scientific publication of the book written for the Bulgarian King Ivan Alexander (1331–1371 ) by Laurentius in 1348 (1981).
In the period 1992–2020 the Editor-in-Chief of PALAEOBULGARICA / СТАРОБЪЛГАРИСТИКА journal was Prof. Svetlina Nikolova. Since 2021 she has been the Honorary Editor-in-Chief.
Prof. Svetlina Nikolova is a Bulgarian literary historian, specialist in the field of Bulgarian medieval literature and its sources: Slavic and Greek medieval manuscripts. Her interests are mainly related with the problems of the work of Cyril and Methodius and their disciples who worked in Bulgaria in the 9th-10th cc. and with the medieval cultural heritage of Bulgaria and the Orthodox nations in Southeastern and Eastern Europe. Author of research in the field of literary history, Old Bulgarian textology, Slavonic paleography and codicology, history of medieval Slavonic Eastern Orthodox texts and literature, Byzantine studies and Biblical studies. From 1971 to 1982 she was research associate at the Cyrillo-Methodian Research Center (CMRC) with the BAS; from 1982 to 2012 she was senior research associate and in 2012 she became professor. In the period 1993–2011 she was Director of the CMRC. Vice President of the Bulgarian National Committee of Slavic Studies since 1991. Vice President and member of the Slavic Biblical Committee with the International Committee of Slavic Studies since 1988. Representative of Bulgaria in the Program Committee for Socio-Economic Studies and Humanities of the 7th Framework Program of the European Commission (2007–2013) and of the Standing Committee for the Humanities of the European Science Foundation in Strasbourg (2007–2012). Member of the steering committee of the project Medieval Europe. Medieval Cultures and Technological Resources – Medioevo Europeo, 2011–2014 under the COST Program of the European Commission in the field Individuals, Societies, Cultures and Health – ISCH, action IS 1005 with participants from 23 European states and leader Prof. Agostino Paravicini, President of the Society for the Study of Medieval Latin Culture (SISMEL) – Florence. Member of the editorial board of PALAEOBULGARICA / СТАРОБЪЛГАРИСТИКА since 1991. Member of Early Slavic Studies Association – USA since 1995. Among the greatest contributions of Prof. Nikolova are the studies of the Patericon stories in medieval Bulgarian literature, the sources on Cyril and Methodius, the work of Old Bulgarian writers from the 9th-10th cc. Clement of Ohrid and John the Exarch of Bulgaria, the non-liturgical Old Bulgarian translation of the Old Testament, the catenae to the medieval Bulgarian translation of the Psalter. She is the general editor of the series The Old Bulgarian Translation of the Old Testament, published by the Cyrillo-Methodian Research Center since 1998.
Since 2021 the Editor-in-Chief of PALAEOBULGARICA / СТАРОБЪЛГАРИСТИКА journal has been Prof. Veselka Zhelyazkova.
Prof. Veselka Zhelyazkova is a Bulgarian Slavist. Her research is in the field of Cyrillo-Methodian studies, Bible Studies, medieval Slavic-Byzantine textology and translation techniques, publication of medieval texts, Slavic historical lexicology, lexicography and terminology, hagiography, Cyrillo-Methodian bibliography. She is a co-author of the books „Simeonov sbornik (po Svetoslavovia prepis ot 1073). Tom 2. Rechnik-indeks“ (1993); „Stanislavov (Lesnovski) prolog ot 1330“ (1999); „Balgarska kirilo-metodievska bibliographia“ (2003, 2010); „Slavyano-russkiy prolog po drevneyshim spiskam. Sinaksar’ (zhitiynaya chast’ Prologa kratkoy redaktsii) za sentyabr’–fevral’“ Tom 1. Tekst I kommentarii (2010), Tom 2. Slovoukazateli. Issledovania (2011). She works at the CMRC of BAS since 1999, since 2003 as an associate professor, and since 2018 – as a professor. She is a member of the Biblical Commission of the International Committee of Slavists (since 2014). Since 2020 prof. Zhelyazkova is a member of the editorial board of PALAEOBULGARICA / СТАРОБЪЛГАРИСТИКА. She is a member of the Editorial board of „Referativnyy zhurnal. Sotsial’nye i gumanitarnye nauki. Seria 6. Yazykoznanie“. INION RAN and „Chelovek: obraz i sushtnost’“. INION RAN.
Members of the Editorial Board of PALAEOBULGARICA / СТАРОБЪЛГАРИСТИКА journal since its establishment to the present day:
Prof. Svetomir Ivanchev (Bulgaria), 1977–1991
Prof. Svetomir Ivanchev (1920–1991) is a Bulgarian Slavic Studies Scholar, specialist in Slavic linguistics. Dean of the Faculty of Slavic Studies (1966–1970), Head of the Department of Slavic Linguistics at the Sofia University (1974–1990), Director of the Institute of Bulgarian Language with the BAS (1976–1977).
Acad. Dimitar Angelov (Bulgaria), 1977–1997
Acad. Dimitar Angelov (1917–1996) is a Bulgarian historian, specialist in the history of medieval Bulgaria and Byzantium and in the history of Bulgarian-Byzantine relations. Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and History of Sofia University (1960–1963, 1968–1970). Rector of the Institute for Foreign Students (1963–1966). Head of the History of Bulgaria Department of the Faculty of History at Sofia University (1966–1973), head of the Section of Medieval Bulgarian History in the Institute of History with the BAS (1966–1978). Director of the Archeological Institute with Museum, BAS (1971–1986), and director of the Center for Bulgarian Studies (1986–1988).
Prof. Roger Bernard (France), 1977–1997
Prof. Roger Bernard (1907–1997) is a French linguist, eminent researcher of Bulgarian culture. Specialist in Bulgarian language, Bulgarian literature, Bulgarian ethnography, history of Old Bulgarian language and Old Bulgarian literature. In 1961 he was elected a foreign member of the BAS and in 1997 he became Doctor honoris causa of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”.
Acad. Dmitry Likhachov (Russia), 1977–1999
Acad. Dmitry Likhachov (1906–1999) is a Russian philologist and culturologist. His studies are focused on Byzantine and Slavonic literatures and art. He studied also Bulgarian medieval literature and art, more specifically the work of the holy brothers Cyril and Methodius, the literary school of Turnovo (14th c.) and its influence on Russian literature. Since 1963 Acad. Likhachov is a foreign member of the Bulgarian Academy of Science. In 1988 he was elected Doctor honoris causa of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” and of the Georg-August University of Gottingen, Germany. In 1989 he was awarded the European Award for Cultural Activity.
Prof. Franciszek Sławski (Poland), 1977–2000
Prof. Franciszek Sławski (1916–2001) is a Polish linguist, specialist in the field of Slavonic languages. The main contributions of his research are in the field of the history of Bulgarian language, etymology of Polish language, and problems of Proto-Slavic language. A central place in his academic work is occupied by the problems of Old Bulgarian language. Professor at the Jagiellonian University (1954–1986) in Kraków. Director of the Institute for Slavic Philology with the Jagiellonian University (1974–1986), Vice Dean (1956–1958) and Dean (1966–1969) of the Philological Faculty. Long-lived member of the Senate of the Jagiellonian University. Corresponding Member of the Polish Academy of Sciences (1969) and of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (1981), foreign member of BAS (1979), Doctor honoris causa of the University of Lodz (1995) and of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” (1996).
Prof. Angelina Mincheva (Bulgaria), 1986–2016
Prof. Angelina Mincheva (1933–2016) is a Bulgarian linguist, specialist in the field of history of Old Bulgarian language and its relations with the languages of the peoples in the Balkan Peninsula. Her scientific interests span the problems of the language of Cyril and Methodius, the history of literary Old Bulgarian language and its Balkan-specific aspects, the research and the publishing of Slavonic medieval manuscript heritage, the textological problems of Old Bulgarian translated works, the problems of the norm and codification of Bulgarian literary language of the 14th c., as well as the history of Modern Bulgarian literary language. Associate Professor (1981) and Professor (1985) at the Department of Cyrillo-Methodian Studies of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”. In 1993–1996 Prof. Mincheva was involved as consultant and participant in the international research Project The Great Reading Menaia of Metropolitan Macarius of the Slavic Seminar of Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg, Germany. In 1999 she was elected Doctor honoris causa of the above-mentioned university for her great merits to the German Slavic Studies.
Prof. Mihail Bachvarov (Bulgaria), 1991–1997
Prof. Mihail Bachvarov (1929–1997) is a Bulgarian scholar and philosopher with pronounced scientific interests in the research of Old Bulgarian written culture. His studies are focused in three main directions: history of Bulgarian philosophic thought, history of Bulgarian science and culture, and methodology of history of philosophy and history of science.
Prof. Bozhidar Raykov (Bulgaria), 1992–1994
Prof. Bozhidar Raykov (1939–1995) is a Bulgarian literary historian, specialist in acrcheography and paleography. His research activities lie in the field of Slavic paleography, the study of Cyrillo-Methodian sources, the Bulgarian literature of the Middle Ages and of the early Bulgarian Revival Period. Among his contribution is the development of a Bulgarian conception for description of Slavic medieval manuscripts and its practical application in revealing the specifics of Bulgarian manuscript literature from the period of the Middle Ages.
Assoc. Prof. Stefan Kozhuharov (Bulgaria), 1992–1999
Assoc. Prof. Stefan Kozhuharov (1934–2000) is a Bulgarian literary historian. He studies mainly the problems of medieval poetry: the relations and interactions between the original Slavonic and Byzantine hymnography, the artistic peculiarities of the genre, its place in the historic development of Old Bulgarian literature, its chronological boundaries, its productivity and periodization. His contributions lie in the discovery of the existence of hymnographic schools in medieval Bulgarian literature, the finding of unknown authors and works from the 9th c., to the transition to the literature of the Bulgarian Revival Period, the discovery of the only work of Naum of Ohrid (9th c.) known today. From 1976 on he was a part-time lecturer at the Academy of Theology “St. Kliment Ohridski”, from 1991 – Faculty of Theology of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”. Head of the Section of Old Bulgarian Literature at the Institute of Literature with the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (1989), Director of the Institute (1992–1999).
Prof. Ekaterina Dogramadzhieva (Bulgaria), 1992–2010
Prof. Ekaterina Dogramadzhieva (1933–2010) is a Bulgarian linguist, specialist in the field of Old Bulgarian language. Her scientific contributions lie in the field of Old Bulgarian compound sentence syntax, the composition and the structure of Slavonic manuscript gospels, the gospel calendars and the scientific terminology used to denote the oldest Slavonic written language. Scientific Secretary of the BAS and member of the Steering Committee of the BAS (1992–1993) and of the Council on the Publishing Activity of the BAS (1992–1998). Deputy Director of the Cyrillo-Methodian Research Center, BAS (1995 – 2007).
Prof. Charles Gribble (USA), 1992–2016
Prof. Charles Gribble (1936–2016) is an American linguist, expert in Slavonic and east European languages (Old Bulgarian and Modern Bulgarian, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Czech, Polish and Lithuanian). His research interest is focused on the problems of historic Slavic linguistics and philology. He was Chief of the Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures of the Ohio State University in Columbus, USA (1990–1996). He was honored with the Harlan Hatcher Arts and Sciences Distinguished Faculty Award in 2008 for his teaching, research and social activities. It is awarded „to lecturers of outstanding achievements as researchers and teachers who set an example for their younger colleagues and students“. In 2006 he was presented with the Marin Drinov Medal of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.
Prof. Klimentina Ivanova (Bulgaria), 1992–
Prof. Klimentina Ivanova is a Bulgarian literary historian, specialist in the field of Slavic archeography, textology and publishing of Slavonic medieval manuscripts. One of the central problems in her research work is the study and the analytical description of collections of Slavonic manuscripts from the Middle Ages, as well as the clarifying of major terminological questions related with the manuscripts’ orthography, language, origin, and redactions. She is author of important publications on the hagiographic production of the Turnovo Literary School of the 14th c., about the life- panegyric works of Patriarch Euthymius (14th c.). In the field of the Cyrillo-Methodian studies her contributions are focused on the work of Kliment of Ohrid, Constantine of Preslav, John the Exarch of Bulgaria(9th-10th cc.). In 2008 she published Bibliotheca Hagiographica Balcano-Slavica, a fundamental opus presenting the fullest so far picture of the spread of the copies of hagiographic and rhetoric works in South Slavic manuscript tradition (Bulgarian, Serbian), as well as in codices written in the principalities of Moldova and Wallachia.
Prof. Roland Marti (Germany), 2000–
Prof. Roland Marti is a Slavic scholar – linguist, textologist, literary historian. His scientific interests are focused on several directions in the research of Slavic languages, literatures and cultures: theoretical and concrete issues in the description and catalogization of Slavonic manuscripts; typology and history of the Medieval Slavic texts; problems of the work of Cyril and Methodius and their disciples and followers who worked in Bulgaria in the 9th-10th cc.; phonetics, phonology, and grammar of Medieval and modern Slavic languages. Among his major works are the studies of acrostic works in medieval Slavic literature, the abecedaries, and reconstruction of the original state of the Glagolitic alphabet. Professor at the Linguistics Department of the Faculty of Philosophy of the Saarland University in Saarbrucken (Germany) since 1989 where he is head of program Modern Languages and Literatures (1994–1996); Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy (1998–2000). Doctor honoris causa of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” (2011). In 2014 he was presented with the order of St. Cyril and St. Methodius for his merits in the popularization of Bulgarian culture and science by the President of Bulgaria.
Prof. Georgi Popov (Bulgaria), 2000–2022
Prof. Georgi Popov is a Bulgarian linguist, medievalist and textologist. Specialist in the field of Slavonic and Byzantine hymnography. His major contribution is in the discovery of a significant number of original Bulgarian hymnographic works of the 9th-10th cc. and the study of their dissemination among the Orthodox Slavs in Southeastern Europe. These discoveries are a breakthrough in Paleo-Slavic studies as regards the hymnographic activity of Old Bulgarian writers, in the knowledge about the organization of liturgy and the literary life in Bulgarian state after 886, about the concrete bearers of the Cyrillo-Methodian traditions, about the typology and the poetics of Old Bulgarian poetry. In the period 1988–1992 G. Popov was lecturer in Bulgarian language at the Institute of Slavic Studies at the Salzburg University, Austria. Professor at the Cyrillo-Methodian Research Center, BAS, and at the Faculty of Theology of Sofia University (2002–2010).
Prof. Slavia Barlieva (Bulgaria), 2012 –
Prof. Slavia Barlieva is a Bulgarian medievalist. Her major research is focused on the Latin, Greek and Roman-German sources on the work of Cyril and Methodius. Her contributions lie in the field of the Cyrillo-Methodian traditions in Western European and Central European Latin manuscript tradition, where she discovers unknown Cyrillo-Methodian sources and copies of Latin Cyrillo-Methodian sources, as well in the work with some Greek sources. Since 1981 she has been research associate at the CMRC, BAS, since 1998 – Associate Professor, and since 2018 – Professor. She specialized in Latin and Greek paleography in St. Petersburg (1986), Bari (1988), Venice (1990) and the Oxford University (2000), and in source studies at Monumenta Germaniae Historica (1991). Scientific Secretary of CMRC (2000–2007), Deputy Director of CMRC (2007-2011), Scientific Secretary of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in the field of Cultural and Historical Heritage and National Identity (2008–2012). From 2012 to 2019 she is Director of the CMRC.
Assoc. Prof. Tatyana Mostrova (Bulgaria), 2012 –
Assoc. Prof. Tatyana Mostrova is a Bulgarian linguist, specialist in the field of the history of Bulgarian language in the Middle Ages. Her contributions are focused on the historical lexicology and historical word-formation, biblical studies and textology on materials from the medieval Slavonic manuscripts, and in the description and study of concrete medieval Slavonic manuscripts and the analysis of the Old Bulgarian translation (9th c.) of the Book of Jeremiah. Since 1999 T. Mostrova is a Research Associate at the CMRC, BAS, Associate Professor at CMRC (2006–2016). Involved in the international project Die Grossen Lesemenäen des Metropoliten Makarij. Uspenskij spisok, funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, leader prof. Dr. Eckhard Weiher from the Slavic Seminar of Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg, Germany. (1999–2007). Scientific Secretary of CMRC (2008–2012). Member of the Slavonic Biblical Committee with the International Committee of Slavic Studies Scholars (2008–).
Prof. Georgi N. Nikolov (Bulgaria), 2012–
Prof. Georgi N. Nikolov is a Bulgarian historian, medievalist, specialist in the field of Bulgarian history of the Middle Ages, history of Byzantium, the sources on the history of Bulgaria. His main research works focus n the history of Bulgarian lands from the foundation of the Bulgarian state at the Danube River (681) to the end of the restored Bulgarian Kingdom (1396), the development of different Bulgarian regions in the period, the Bulgarian-Byzantine relations, the separatism and the centralism in the structures of power in medieval Bulgaria, the history of King Samuil’s Bulgaria. He specialized in Thessaloniki (1988), Leipzig (1996), Krakow (2002), and Köln (2003). Since 1990 he is Assistant Professor at the History of Bulgaria Department of the Faculty of History of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, Associate Professor since 2011, Professor since 2022. Vice Dean of the Faculty of History since 2015. In 2009 he became referent for the Bulgarian publications in Byzantinische Zeitschrift (München). Member of the Commission for the Historical Geography and Spatial Analysis of Byzantium at the AIEB since 2016. Founding member of the International Advisory Board of the Waldemar Ceran Research Centre for the History and Culture of the Mediterranean Basin and South–East Europe, Ceraneum (Łódź, Polska) (2011).
Prof. Marcello Garzaniti (Italy), 2017–
Prof. Marcello Garzaniti is an Italian philologist, Slavic studies scholar, specialist in the field of Slavic cultures (mainly languages and literatures, history of Slavic studies), Byzantine studies and biblical studies. His main works comprise the study of Slavic biblical and liturgical translations in the Middle Ages, the Old Bulgarian translation of the Gospel, the Slavonic archeographic texts in the Byzantine liturgical context, the biblical citations in medieval Slavonic literatures. Associate Professor (1992–2006) and Professor (2007) in Slavic Studies at the department of Languages, Literature and Intercultural Studies (Dipartimento di Lingue, Letterature e Studi Interculturali) at the University of Florence. Specialized in Germany (1997–1998), USA (2004). President of the Association of Italian Slavic Studies Scholars (2009–2014). President of the Slavonic Biblical Committee with the International Committee of Slavic Studies Scholars (from 2013).
Prof. Heinz Miklas (Austria), 2018–2023
Prof. Heinz Miklas is an Austrian Slavic studies scholar, a researcher in the field of Old Bulgarian and Palaeo-Slavonic Studies. His contributions are in two main lines: analysing and publishing the manuscript legacy of the Eastern Orthodox Slavs from the Middle Ages and research on the two writing systems of the Slavs from the earliest period of their development – the Glagolitic and the Cyrillic alphabets. The latter attracted his attention because of its characteristic peculiarities and mutual links with the Glagolitic alphabet as a system of writing. From 1977 till 1994 he was a lecturer at the Slavic Seminar of Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg, Germany, where he became associate-professor in 1988. Since 1994 he has been professor at the Institute of Slavic Studies of University of Vienna. In 1997 he was elected Doctor honoris causa of Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski". In 2006 he was awarded the honorary title of foreign member of Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Prof. Miklas is the author of a series of publications on some very important Slavonic manuscripts from the Middle Ages. He is a co-author of the catalogues of the Slavonic mediaeval manuscripts kept in Germany (1984) and in the library of the Zograph Monastery on Mount Athos (1994). He took part in the scholarly edition of the Berlin Miscellany from the end of the 13th and the beginning of the 14th centuries, published in phototype form in 1988 and in type-set form in 2006, as well as of some of the earliest Old Bulgarian monuments written in the Glagolitic alphabet: the newly-discovered (in 1975) part of the Psalterium Sinaiticum from the 11th C. (1997) and the Psalterium Demetrii Sinaitici from the 11th C. (2012). In 2017 under his editorship there came off the press the first scholarly edition of the full text of the Gospels of Tsar Ivan Alexander from 1356, which is in the International Register of UNESCO entitled "Memory of the World".
Prof. Marie-Hélène Blanchet (France), 2018–
Assoc. Prof. Marie-Hélène Blanchet is a French scholar, expert in the field of research of intellectual theory and history of religion in Byzantium in the 14th-15th cc. as well as of Byzantine written culture of the early period of the Ottoman rule. Doctor of the University of Toulouse (2005). Specialized in Byzantine studies in Greece (2008–2009) and at the Institute of Byzantine Studies of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna (2010–2012). Since 2014 she is associate professor at the Center for History and Civilization of Byzantium (Centre d’Histoire et Civilization de Byzance) with the National Center for Scientific Research (Centre national de la recherche scientifique) in Paris, in the East and Mediterranean Department, a joint research structure, implementing high-level, significant research uniting the scientific potential of France in this field, led by the National Center for Scientific Research, the Sorbonne (l’Université Paris-Sorbonne, l’Université Paris 1-Panthéon-Sorbonne), the Higher School of Advanced Studies (l’École Pratique des Hautes Études) and Collège de France. This department is comprised of six research groups and Marie-Hélène Blanchet is member of the team of Byzantine World group, based at Collège de France, which studies Byzantium as well as topics related with its neighbors thus carrying out multidisciplinary research on different types of texts (literary, historical, epigraphic, documentary, archive). Her major scientific research is focused on the problems of the relations of the Orthodox and the Catholic churches in the 13th-15th cc., on the issues of ecumenism and the history of Byzantine church after the Council of Florence (1439–1445), on the anti-Latin polemics in the Byzantine church, the Greek and Slavonic texts on this matter, the personality and the work of Gennadios Scholarios (ca 1400 – ca 1472) – a Byzantine theologian and the first Еcumenical Patriarch of Constantinople (1454–1456), and his relation with the Turkish authorities.
Prof. Boyka Mircheva (Bulgaria), 2020 -
Prof. Boyka Mircheva is a Bulgarian medievalist. The main object of her research are the Slavonic sources on the work of Cyril and Methodius. Her contributions lie in the field of the original Old Bulgarian hymnography, the bibliographic inventory of the copies of the Slavonic Sources for Cyril and Methodius and their disciples, the Assumption of Cyril the Philosopher. Since 1996 she has been a research associate at the CMRC of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, since 2006 – Assistant Professor, since 2019 – Professor. She specialized in Cyrillo-Methodian studies in Moscow (1988). Deputy Director of CMRC (2012–2019). During the period 2019–2023 she is Director of the CMRC.
Prof. Alessandro Maria Bruni (Italy), 2024–
Prof. Alessandro Maria Bruni (Rome 1978) is Full Professor of Slavic Studies at the University of Naples “L’Orientale”. He has made major scholarly contributions to Palaeoslavistics with a special focus on textual criticism, Cyrillic palaeography and codicology, Historical linguistics, as well as on the comparative study of manuscript traditions in different languages. He has published extensively on the Byzantine and Slavonic Corpus of the Homilies (λόγοι) of Gregory of Nazianzus, including three monographs and several papers in international peer-reviewed journals and volumes. Moreover, he was able to develop new approaches in the study of the Slavonic translations of the Old Testament that made it possible to demonstrate their text-critical value for philological inquiry into the Septuagint and the Hebrew Bible. His method involves a comprehensive investigation of the Slavonic manuscript traditions combined with the study of both their Greek originals and other traditions of Eastern Christianity (such as the Old Georgian). During his career he has received prestigious research awards, such as the "Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship" (2006-2008) and the "Membership" of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, USA (2012–2013). In 2021–2022 he was granted the status of Visiting Scholar at the University of Oxford (Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies and Wolfson College). Since 2023, he has been the Principal Investigator of the research project "The Transmission of Old Church Slavonic Texts", funded under the "PRIN 2022", a grant scheme awarded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research.
Assoc. Prof. Aneta Dimitrova (Bulgaria), 2024–
Assoc. Prof. Aneta Dimitrova is a scholar in the field of Bulgarian studies and classics, with a PhD in Old Bulgarian Studies. Her research is focused on Old Church Slavonic translations and their Greek originals, diachronic syntax, lexicology and textual criticism, with an emphasis on translation techniques, multiple translations and revisions of hagiographic and homiletic texts, and editing of the medieval manuscript heritage. Among her publications are the books “Sintaktichna struktura na prevodnata agiografia [Syntactic Structure of Translated Hagiographical Texts]” (2012) and “Zlatostruyat v prevodacheskata dejnost na starobulgarskite knizhovnici [Chrysorrhoas / Zlatostruy in the Translation Activity of the Old Bulgarian Men of Letters]” (2016). She works as an Assistant Professor (since 2008) and Associate Professor (since 2017) at the Department of Cyrillo-Methodian Studies, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”. She teaches Old Church Slavonic language, Byzantine Greek and Textual Criticism. She specialized in the universities of Vienna (Austria, 2005–2006, 2013–2014), Regensburg (Germany, 2010), and Lodz (Poland, 2021). She is a member of the editorial boards of the journal Starobulgarska literatura (since 2015), the Annual of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” – Faculty of Slavic Studies (since 2020), and the journal Palaeobulgarica (since 2024).