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Samuil's Inscription

Samuil's Inscription is a medieval text that was found on the tombstone of Samuel of Bulgaria's parents, erected in 992/3 CE. One of the oldest preserved Cyrillic Slavic inscriptions, it was made in the First Bulgarian Empire by the order of Tsar Samuel. The text mentions the names of Samuel's parents as well as of his brother David.

The inscription was discovered in 1888 in the village of German, near Lake Prespa, now Greece, during the construction of the new church of the village. In 1916, it was taken by Bulgarian occupation authorities to Bulgaria, where it is currently stored at the National Historical Museum in Sofia. Its original location is thought to have been in the town of Prespa on the island of St. Achilles, from where it was subsequently transferred to the old church of German, which dates back to 1006. The dimensions of the tombstone are 125–130 cm high, 52–67 cm wide, and 7–10 cm thick. The inscription has been cited by historians such as Fyodor Uspensky, Yordan Ivanov, and Nicholas Adontz.

Inscription

Original text with reconstructed parts in square brackets and modern-style spaces, capital letters and punctuation (hyphens, commas, two dots and a colon) added:

The following is the French translation of the inscription by Adontz:

In English, translated from the French:

The year 6501 since the creation of the world corresponds to 992-993 CE.

Notes

See also

Literature

  • Успенскiй, Ф. И. ( UspenskiÄ­, Fedor I., 1845-1928) Надпис царя Самуила, Известия Русского Археологического Института в Константинополе,1898, III, с. 184 - 194.
  • Иванов, Йор. (Ivanov, Ĭor.) Български старини из Македония. София, 1931, с. 25.
  • Ivanov, Ĭordan (1872-1947). BÅ­lgarski starini na Makedoniia, 1970.
  • Кос, М. (Kos, Milko) О натпису цара Самуила, Гласник српског научног друштва 5, 1929, с. 203 - 209.
  • Степанос Таронеци-Асохик (Asoghik, Stepanos T., 10th - 11th c.). Всеобщая история Степаноса Таронского - Асохика по прoзванию, писателя ХІ столетия. Перевод с армянскoго и объяснения Н.Эминым. Москва, Типография Лазаревского института восточных языков. 1864. XVIII, 335 стр.
  • Asoghik (Stepanos de Taron). L'histoire universelle, Paris, 1859. Translation in German, Leipzig, 1907.
  • Stepanos, Tarōnetsi (Stepanos Asoghik Taronetsi, 10th-11th c.) Tiezerakan patmutyun, Erevan, 2000, Pp. 455 (303 - 304).
  • Adontz, Nikoghayos. Samuel l'Armenien, Roi des Bulgares. Bruxelles, Palais des academies, 1938, Pp. 63.
  • Adontz, Nicolas. Etudes Armeno-Byzantines. Livraria Bertrand. Lisbonne, 1965, pp. 347–407 (384).
  • Lang, David M. The Bulgarians, London, 1976.
  • Lang, David M. The Armenians. A People in Exile. London, 1981, Pp. 203 (55, 105).

External links