SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

    The collecting of books in manuscript, Bulgarian historical archive, literature from the Bulgarian National Revival period, rare and valuable editions, portraits and photographs began immediately after the foundation of the library and in 1949 all the materials were organized in special collections.

    BOOKS IN MANUSCRIPT - Slavonic and foreign, dating back to 12th-17th century. Written on parchment and paper. Most valuable among those are: the Slepchanski Book of the Apostles (12th c.), the Tetraevangelia (14th c.), Alexandria (the History of Alexander the Great) of 1810, etc. - a total of about 350 volumes. An analytical inventory list is made available to readers.

    BULGARIAN HISTORICAL ARCHIVE - amounting to about 11 000 documents. This considerable archival treasure covers the period from 17th to 20th century. Valuable and rich archival collections are those of "Yoakim Gruev", "Nikolay Pavlovich", "Dr. Alexander Peev", "Eastern Roumelia", etc. Alphabetical, chronological and alphabetical subject catalogues are being kept up for them.

    BULGARIAN NATIONAL REVIVAL LITERATURE - over about 3 000 volumes, published in the period of 1806-1878. Among those are the following: Kiriakodromion - Sofronii Vrachanski's Nedelnik (1806); Petar Beron's Reader with various instructions (1824); Bulgarian Grammar by Neophit Rilski (1835); the periodicals "Nezavisimost", "Zname", "Svoboda", "Tsarigradski Vestnik", "Lyuboslovie", etc. They are alphabetically catalogued in two series - books and periodicals.

    RARE AND VALUABLE EDITIONS - most of them are the only, second or third copies in Bulgaria. The collection contains incunabulae editions, first editions of classics of Bulgarian and foreign literature, first translations, books of antique and original binding or of unusual print, editions of unusual format. Among these are: Strabo's Geographical Sketches (Venice, 1516), Christopher Zhepharovich's "Stematography" (1741), Jean-Jacques Rousseau's "Musical Dictionary (1768), Diderot and D'Alembert's "Encyclopaedia" (1778-1779) in 38 volumes, etc. Part of the Rare and Valuable Editions is also a very interesting collection of engravings and prints, printed before the Liberation. They are catalogued in two series in a Cyrillic and Roman alphabetical and subject catalogue.

    PORTRAITS AND PHOTOGRAPHS - over 3 600 items, group and single portraits of people related to the history of our country. The first acquisitions date back to 1884. There are photographs of people and towns and villages that took part in the April Uprising, portraits of eminent Bulgarians, photographs of natural sights and phenomena, such as the disastrous earthquake in South Bulgaria in 1928, etc.

The department has its own reading room and a reference collection.
Head of Department: Veneta Ganeva
Tel.: +359 32/622 915, Ext. 154
e-mail: nbiv@plovdiv.techno-link.com