Austria's National Library is devoting an exhibition to Bulgarian books printed in Vienna between 1845 and 1878 on Thursday.
Bulgaria's Deputy Culture Minister Ina Kileva will officially open the exhibition in the Parade Hall of the library on Thursday.
The exhibition includes textbooks and manuals from the different field of knowledge, most of them printed in Bulgarian, grammars as well as textbooks of history, geography, mathematics, anatomy and logic among other things.
The event is organized by the two countries' Culture and Foreign Affairs Ministers, the national libraries of Bulgaria and Austria and the Bulgarian Culture Institute Dom Wittgenstein in Vienna.
During the Revival period Vienna was the centre for Bulgaria's book printing. In the 1845-1878 time period 334 Bulgarian books were printed in Vienna.
The event is dedicated to Bulgaria's accession to the European Union. It is also dedicated to the celebrations of the 200 anniversary of the first printed Bulgarian book, Nedelnik (Sunday Book).
The author is Bishop Sofronii Vrachanski. The book was first edited in Bucharest in 1806 wit the title "Kiriakodrumion, videlicet Nedelnik". The book is a collection of precepts and sermons on all Sunday and holiday days throughout the year.
This is Sofronii Vrachanski's only printed work. The book has a great historical meaning - it gives the beginning of the modern Bulgarian printed editions and sets the spoken language as a norm of the literary.