A Recently Discovered Central Rhodope Manuscript in the Greek Alphabet from the National Revival Period

Abstract

The article deals with the recently discovered Ustovski sbornik, a written monument from the Central Rhodope region. The collection was compiled and owned by Kiryak Byalkovski, a prominent figure in the Central Rhodopes. The texts included in the collection are written in the local Rhodope dialect using the Greek alphabet. In addition, they contain features of South-western Bulgarian dialects, as well as vocabulary distinctive of Church Slavonic. The collection comprises sections of Damaskin sermons and gospel texts, among others. The article presents a set of guidelines for exploring the graphical, grammatical and lexical characteristics of this manuscript as part of the Central Rhodope literary tradition of the Bulgarian National Revival period.