THE TRAVELOGUES OF FOREIGN TRAVELERS FROM THE 15TH-19TH CENTURIES AS A SOURCE FOR LOCAL STUDIES AND LOCAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abstract

The travelogues of foreign travellers who passed through the Balkans have been in the field of research interest of Bulgarian scholars since the first years after the liberation of Bulgaria from Ottoman rule. The present study aims to examine the earliest publications of Bulgarian periodicals with a scientific profile, such as the Periodical Journal of the Bulgarian Literary Society, the Collection of Folk Minds, Science and Literature, the Archive for Settlement Studies, etc., and to trace the more important books and collections of travelogues published to date on the subject.

The focus of the study is mainly on the importance of this travel literature for the informative illumination of the history of a large number of settlements in Bulgaria, and for filling in the white fields in local history bibliography. Emphasis is also placed on the names of well-known scholars of the past who devoted considerable efforts to illuminating the subject of foreign travelogues, such as Konstantin Irecek, Ivan Shishmanov, Lyubomir Miletich, Vasil Mikov, Hristo Kesiakov, Atanas Shopov, Dimitar Gadzhanov, and in more recent times Strasimir Dimitrov, Bistra Tsvetkova, Mikhail Ionov, Petar Miyatev, etc.