the church Slavonic. The
first printed work in the vernacular appears to have been the
_Kyriakodromion_, a translation of sermons, also by Sofronii, published in
1806. The Servian and Greek insurrections quickened the patriotic
sentiments of the Bulgarian refugees and merchants in Rumania, Bessarabia
and southern Russia, and Bucharest became the centre of their political and
literary activity. A modest _bukvar_, or primer, published at Kronstadt by
Berovitch in 1824, was the first product of the new movement. Translations
of the Gospels, school reading-books, short histories and various
elementary treatises now appeared. With the multiplication of books came
the movement for establishing Bulgarian schools, in which the monk Neophyt
Rilski (1793-1881) played a leading part. He was the author of the first
Bulgarian grammar (1835) and other educational works, and translated the
New Testament into the modern language. Among the writers of the literary
renaissance were George Rakovski (1818-1867), a fantastic writer of the
patriotic type, whose works did much to stimulate the national zeal, Liuben
Karaveloff (1837-1879), journalist and novelist, Christo Boteff
(1847-1876), lyric poet, whose ode on the death of his friend Haji Dimitr,
an insurgent leader, is one of the best in the language, and Petko
Slaveikoff (died 1895), whose poems, patriotic, satirical and erotic,
moulded the modern poetical language and exercised a great influence over
the people. Gavril Krstovitch, formerly governor-general of eastern
Rumelia, and Marin Drinoff, a Slavist of high repute, have written
historical works. Stamboloff, the statesman, was the author of
revolutionary and satirical ballads; his friend Zacharia Stoyanoff (d.
1889), who began life as a shepherd, has left some interesting memoirs. The
most distinguished Bulgarian man of letters is Ivan Vazoff (b. 1850), whose
epic and lyric poems and prose works form the best specimens of the modern
literary language. His novel _Pod Igoto_ (Under the Yoke) has been
translated into several European languages. The best dramatic work is
_Ivanko_, a historical play by Archbishop Clement, who also wrote some
novels. With the exception of Zlatarski's and Boncheff's geological
treatises and contributions by Georgieff, Petkoff, Tosheff and Urumoff to
Velnovski's _Flora Bulgarica_, no original works on natural science have as
yet been produced; a like dearth is apparent in the fields of philosophy,
criticis