FRANJO KSAVER PEJAČEVIĆ A-T-IL ÉCRIT UNE HISTOIRE DES BULGARES?
Did Franjo Ksaver Pejačević write a history of the Bulgarians?
Abstract: The paper tries to answer the question if Franjo Ksaver Pejačević (1707-1781), an erudite Jesuit and theologian, who was also Bulgarian, born in Chiprovtsi, wrote a work devoted to the Bulgarian history, and if he did, whether it was preserved or lost, where is it today and when was created. Having studied three volumes in manuscript, entitled Excerpta historica historiam Slavorum concernentia, Penka Danova gives affirmative answer to this disputable question.
That "History of the Bulgarians", or rather "History of the Bulgarian Rulers" is in the second volume of the manuscript. In addition, clues to a fantastic genealogy of the Knežević family have been found in all three volumes, being their author someone from the Pejačević's followers or from the Knežević-Parčević family.
The thesis that Excerpta historica contains a "History of the Bulgarians" is supported by codicology arguments, by the structure and content of the text, as well as in comparison with the content of the printed "History of Serbia" (1797, 1799) and with some of the sources used in both historical works.
Danova claims that it is possible some of the Pejačević's historical notes about Bulgarian rulers to be made as early as 1758.
Abstract: The article provides an overview of the outcomes of research mission trips of Bulgarian scholars to Italian and other archive repositories in the 1970s and 1980s, whose main objective was to study, collect and promulgate the Italian sources from the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period (14th-18th century) containing evidence of the history of the Bulgarian nation and its neighbours. This review of the efforts over the twenty-year period which resulted in the collection of a substantial amount of Italian sources is followed by a narrative tracing the fate of the accumulated documentary material in the past two decades as well as the research of Bulgarian scholars associated with it.