Damaskin ( bg, Дамаскин) is a chronicle of church-liturgical books. Later, the damaskins became church collections with teaching words and lives. They appeared at the end of the 16th century in the western Bulgarian lands and existed until the middle of the 19th century. For the most part, the damaskins were written in a simple, accessible language for ordinary people. Typically, ''damask'' is a type of decoration on a metal or leather handicraft whose etymology originates in the city of

Damascus )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...

. The name "damaskin" comes from the name of the first author of such a book - the Greek writer of the 16th century Damaskinos Stouditis, whose work "Thesauros" (Θησαυρός; 1558) contains 36 lives and teachings (printed in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

). It was first translated into Bulgarian by Bishop

Gregory Prilepski Gregory may refer to: People and fictional characters * Gregory (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Gregory (surname), a surname Places Australia *Gregory, Queensland, a town in the Shire of ...

in the Holy Trinity skete at the Great Lavra Monastery in

Athos Athos may refer to: Fictional or mythical characters * Athos (character), one of the title characters in the novel ''The Three Musketeers'' (1844) by Alexandre Dumas père * Athos (mythology), one of the Gigantes in Greek mythology * Athos Fadiga ...

. The first damaskins included only translations of Damaskinos Stouditis' works, and later, after the middle of the 17th century, they were combined with translations of works by other authors. In the 18th century, part of the damaskins were out of church practice and often turned into readable collections. The damaskins are written in an accessible, spoken vernacular and have a fascinating way of exhibiting. They contain works of different genre and with different themes - of modern Greek authors, ancient Bulgarian ones, different lives, teachings, apocrypha, historical works, religious stories, stories, aphorisms and others. The damaskins marks the transition from

Middle Bulgarian Middle Bulgarian language was the lingua franca and the most widely spoken language of the Second Bulgarian Empire. Being descended from Old Bulgarian, Middle Bulgarian eventually developed into modern Bulgarian language by the 16th century. ...

to New Bulgarian, which was standardized in the 19th century. The transition to analytical Bulgarian is also noted. Until the 16th century, the Middle Bulgarian was one of the four literary languages of the Ottoman Sultan's office. After that, from the 17th century it developed on a popular basis, and from the 18th century it gained Russian influence over the Bulgarian language through literature after the

reforms of Peter the Great The government reforms of Peter I aimed to modernize the Tsardom of Russia (later the Russian Empire) based on Western Europe, Western European models. Peter the Great, Peter ascended to the throne at the age of 10 in 1682; he ruled jointly with ...

References

{{Reflist Damaskins