From: Ivaylo Pandurski
List of Achievements of Simeon I Literary Schools
The period during the rule of Simeon I is referred to as the Golden Age of Bulgarian culture.
This is largely due to development of two literary schools the Preslav Literary School and
Ohrid Literary School. There were numerous authors working in both schools and by some
are referred to as the Simeon Literary Circle. Here is a list of the achievements of those
authors:
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Clement of Ohrid – The first Bulgarian bishop, reformed the Glagolitic alphabet
created by Cyril and Methodious and popularized another alphabetic system – the
Cyrillic. He is one of the first writers in Bulgaria and also translated the “Flower
Triode” containing church songs and is believed to be the author of many Holy
service songs, as well as of the oldest service dedicated to St. Cyril and St. Methodius.
Simeon I himself is believed to actively have participated in the translation and
writing of some works. He is known to be the author of the literary collection
“Zlatostrui” and two other collections.
John Exarch – the author of “Shestodnev” a work created on the basis of older
Byzantine essays. “Shestodnev” tells the story about the creation of the world and also
contains passages about astronomy, geography, Bulgarian history etc. Some historians
refer to “Shestodnev” as a medieval encyclopedia containing the scientific knowledge
of that age.
Constantine of Preslav - writer and translator, one of the most important men of
letters working at the Preslav Literary School. His most notable works are “The
Didactic Gospel” (Учително евангелие) which represents a compilation of lectures
about a number of church holidays and is the first systematic work treating sermons in
Slavic literature. He is also the author of and “Alphabet Prayer” (Азбучна молитва),
the first original poetry in Old Church Slavonic. Some historians debate whether
Alphabet Prayer is not written by Constantine Cyril the Philosopher.
Chernorizets Hrabar (pseudonym) - was a monk, scholar and writer, who worked at
the Preslav Literary School. He is an author of only one literary work, "An Account of
Letters” (За Буквите) where he defends the alphabet against its critics and proves not
only its right to existence but also its superiority to the Greek alphabet arguing that the
Greek letters are neither the oldest known to man, nor divine. He also makes
suggestions on how to improve the alphabet. There are some suggestions about
whether actually the person using this pseudonym was not Simeon I.
Naum of Ohrid (also known as Naum of Preslav) – a scholar writer and a teacher. It
is hard to indicate exact works of him but he participated in the translation of
numerous Christian texts and Holy service songs. A Holy service song considered to
be created by Naum is “Canon for St. Apostle Andrei Pyrvoznachni” („Канон за Св.
Апостол Андрей Първозначни”)
Translation of many works of religious importance. According to sources, Simeon I
ordered the translation of "Four words against the ariannes " (Четири слова против
арианите) written by Athanasius of Alexandria and translated by Constantine of
Preslav
Grigorii Mnih was ordered by Simeon I to translate part of the old testament and
Tudor Doskov a cousin of Simeon I, copied numerous books
With the official religious literature also developed the so called apocryphic literature.