The Wendish Research Exchange - Černý, Marcel: Czech Roots of Bulgarian Sorbian Studies

Lětopis Abstract 2010 2: Černý, Marcel: Czech Roots of Bulgarian Sorbian Studies

From the last third of the 19th century until 1945 Czech scholars have played a substantial part in informing the Bulgarian public about the Sorbs, as well as arousing the interest of Bulgarian Slavists in the subject. One of them was the Czech mathematician, translator and journalist, Vladislav Šak (1860-1941), who, in addition to a number of articles on the subject, published in 1907 in Sofia a popular scientific book under the title “Лужицките сърби” (Lusatian Sorbs). Even before the First World War a number of Bulgarian historians and Slavists published essays and treatises about the Sorbs in Bulgarian periodicals. The three brothers, Stefan, Nikola and Ilija Savov Bobčev were especially prominent in this respect. In the inter-war period it was above all the works of the Czech Slavist and Sorbian specialist, Josef Páta (1886–1942), that were published in Bulgarian. St Ognjanov translated Páta’s monograph, “Lužice” (1919) into Bulgarian. This broad survey of Lusatia and the Sorbs appeared in 1924. Over the following years the Slavist Boris Jocov, the Germanist Dorič and the brothers Bobčev translated further works by Páta into Bulgarian and also published their own works on Sorbian topics.