Official first anniversary celebration of the establishment of the Class of Slavic Studies at the Ambrosiana
On 26 and 27 May 2010 in the most impressive arts gallery in Milan – Pinacoteca “Ambrosiana” took place an official celebration of the first anniversary of the establishment of the Class of Slavic Studies at the Academia Ambrosiana with the participation of international scholars competent in Slavic Studies among whom Bulgarian researchers in the lead of Prof. Dr. Aksiniia Djurova – Director of the Centre for Slavo-Byzantine Studies at the Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”.
The Slavic Class was established in 2009 within the Academy which includes 6 more classes. The Managing Board, consisting of six people, includes Prof. Dr. Aksiniia Djurova and Krasimir Stanchev who teaches in the Roma Tre University in Rome, and the academic body includes Bulgarian researchers like Alexander Naumov from the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Vassya Ivanova from the “Ivan Dujchev” Center in Sofia, and Victor Zhivkov from University of California – Berkeley.
Academia Ambrosiana is established in 2008 under the patronage of the archbishop of Milan Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi. It combines the heritage of two former academies – “St. Carlo Borromeo” Academy established by Cardinal Martini in 1963 and “St. Ambrose” Academy established by Cardial Tettamazi in 2003. St. Ambrose is the most important saint in the history of Milan, city’s patron, like the Basilica of Saint Ambrose built in the year 386 is the seat of the Archbishop of Milan and is the second most important church in the capital of the Lombardia region.
This year the main theme of the presented scientific reports was “The Ambrosian traditions and Slavs”. The findings from studies on the historical ties between the Slavonic peoples and the church of St. Ambrose from 16th century to present were presented.
At the official opening Prof. Djurova presented a report titled “Slavonic manuscripts and paleotypes in Ambrosiana” containing interesting facts from the Slavic studies. It is of special scientific interest the availability of 207 original Slavs’ manuscript, 149 of which are written in Cyrillic and 21 – in Glagolic in the Vatican Library. Most of them are of Croatian origin and 33 manuscripts are in Latin. An ancient Bulgarian dictionary has been preserved written with Greek letters as well as two manuscripts in Polish. Even Slavonic manuscripts in Hebrew exist. Prof. Djurova said that new Slavonic manuscripts of huge historical value are being constantly found out within the libraries of the Vatican and Italy.
The first by its origin exposition in the Pinacoteca “Ambrosiana” called “ The Bulgarian orthodox tradition – icons, manuscripts, and manuscripts from the XIV and XIX century” was organized in 2008 by the Consulate General of the Republic of Bulgaria in Milan and the National Gallery of Arts with the cooperation of the State Cultural Institute. The great success of this initiative achieved thanks to the cooperation for many years of the Centre for Slav-Byzantine Studies “Prof. Ivan Dujchev”, its director Prof. Aksinia Djurova and her team remarkably contributed to deepening this cooperation.