PARALLELS BETWEEN THE BULGARIAN REVIVAL AND THE EUROPEAN RENAISSANCE IN THE INTERPRETATION OF IVAN SHYSHMANOV

Abstract

The article is devoted to a comparative analysis of the Bulgarian National Revival and the Western European Renaissance in the works of Ivan Shyshmanov. The five-century-long Ottoman domination had a profoundly negative impact on the historical and cultural development of the Bulgarian people, isolating them from the intellectual life of Europe. As a result, the concept of the “Renaissance” acquired a different meaning in the Bulgarian cultural context than in the Western European tradition. While the Renaissance in Western Europe was a period of artistic and scientific renewal, the Bulgarian National Revival was predominantly political and religious in nature.I. Shyshmanov considered the beginning of the Bulgarian National Revival to be marked by the appearance of “Istoriya Slavyanobolgarska” (1762) by Paisiy Hilendarski – a programmatic work that initiated the awakening of Bulgarian national consciousness.At the time when Torquato Tasso, Miguel de Cervantes, William Shakespeare, Raphael, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci were creating their masterpieces in Europe, no secular printed works had yet been published in Bulgaria. Instead, members of the Bulgarian clergy were mostly engaged in copying the lives of saints and painting icons.Among the Balkan peoples, as I. Shyshmanov noted, the Greeks were in the most favorable position for cultural development. Thanks to their advantageous geographic location and close economic ties with Europe, they were the first to come under the influence of the Italian Renaissance.Through the Greek cultural environment, this influence partially extended into Bulgarian society as well.Ivan Shyshmanov was the first among Bulgarian literary scholars to appreciate the figure of Paisiy Hilendarski not only as a national but also as a pan-European phenomenon. He examined his work in a broader, comparative context, emphasizing its importance both for the Bulgarian national awakening and for the historical and cultural dialogue with Europe.