Medieval Bulgarian Short Chronicles

The paper examines short chronicles as an essential aspect of medieval Bulgarian literary culture, one that reflects changes in the perception of history by Bulgarian society during the Middle Ages. The Bulgarian short chronicle of the Tsar Simeon period, which is represented by Istorikii (“Histories”) of Constantine of Preslav and the “Short Chronicler”, initiated the evolution of the Bulgarians’ historical consciousness to the gradual perception of Bulgarian history as part of universal Christian history. The Bulgarian short chronicle of the 14th сentury, which took the form of appendices to the Chronicle of Constantine Manasses, underlines the idea that the Bulgarians and the ruling Bulgarian dynasty are God’s chosen people. The short chronicles of the 15th–16th centuries are the result of a Serbo-Bulgarian cultural synthesis; they symbolize the unity of Orthodox southern Slavs and their history under the conditions of Muslim Ottoman domination.