The study of 17th- and 18th-century Balkan Catholic historiography, exemplified by Petar Bogdan‘s De antiquitate paterni soli et de rebus Bulgaricis (On the Antiquity of the Fatherland and the Deeds of the Bulgarians), is a key challenge in researching Balkan historiography. Rediscovered in 2017, Bogdan‘s work is the first historical treatise of the Bulgarian Pre-Renaissance period, blending various genres – history, chronicle, apology, report, and essay. Its complexity lies in its multilingual and multilayered source base. Writing in Latin for a European audience, Bogdan, a Franciscan archbishop of Bulgarian origin, drew on exceptionally diverse sources ranging from ancient authors such as Aristotle and Cicero, through the Church Fathers and medieval chroniclers, to contemporary Renaissance historians like Caesar Baronius and Mauro Orbini. His use of loci communes commonplace books) and legal compilations blurs the line between the author‘s own text, direct quotations, and second-hand citations, often merging quotations seamlessly with his own narrative. The work is also strongly confessional: Catholic writers like Bogdan sought to defend the ‘honor of the fatherland’ and the ancient roots of Catholicism in the Balkans against ‘de-tractors’ and ‘schismatics’. This apologetic aim requires scholars to critically deconstruct quotations, separating theological or political motivation from historical fact, while verifying references in multiple languages – Latin, Italian, and the Bulgarian vernacular – and distinguishing between published works, unpublished archival documents, personal correspondence, and oral testimony.

Tsvetan Vasilev is Associate Professor of Classical Languages at the Department of Classical Philology at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski,” where he teaches (Medieval) Latin language and literature. His research focuses on Medieval Latin and Greek, Post-Byzantine Greek epigraphy, and Latin Catholic literature by Bulgarian intellectuals of the 17th–18th centuries. After graduating from the National High School of Ancient Languages and Cultures in Sofia, he studied Classical and German Philology at Sofia University, earning a doctorate in Post-Classical Greek in 2016. His dissertation examined linguistic features of Greek inscriptions in 17th-century bilingual churches in Bulgaria. Vasilev has contributed to projects on inscriptions on icons, Balkan icon painters, the Gutenberg Revolution and Post-Byzantine art in Bulgaria. He has published widely on Neo-Latin studies and Post-Byzantine Greek epigraphy. His major works include a twovolume critical edition of Petar Bogdan’s 17th-century treatise De antiquitate paterni soli et de rebus Bulgaricis, published in 2020 after its rediscovery in 2017.