Books and Boots: Bulgarian Early Modern Publishing Between the Austrian and Ottoman Empires

Abstract

This paper presents the rapid and dynamic transition of the Bulgarian book from the Late Middle Ages to Modernity between 1806 and 1878. Special attention is paid to the work of Hristo G. Danov—one of the founders of modern Bulgarian book publishing, book printing and book trade. His business spread within the vast geographical area of Central and Eastern Europe, between the Austrian and Ottoman Empires’ capitals. The research focuses on topics such as transnational book communication, book travel from place to place and multilingual printing book context. It presents how the printed book as a new means of text dissemination was used during the Bulgarian Revival—the difficult process that had to balance with many geopolitical, religious and social factors, as well as characteristics of daily life in the Ottoman Empire. Besides the Bulgarian national context, this paper refers to the organization of book publishing in geographical and economic aspects, the pursuit of an intellectual project through an active search for authors, texts and ideas, and the relation between book publishing and politics.