Ivan Dmitrov Shishmanov

Born June 22, 1862, in Svishtov; died June 22, 1928, in Oslo, Norway; buried in Sofia. Bulgarian literary scholar, folklorist, and cultural historian. Member of the Bulgarian Literary Society (1902; now the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences).

In 1884, Shishmanov went abroad to study, attending over the years the universities of Jena, Geneva, and Leipzig. He became a professor at the University of Sofia in 1894. From 1903 to 1907 he served as Bulgaria’s minister of education. Shishmanov was the first Bulgarian scholar to study literature from the point of view of culture and social history. He did considerable research on writers and cultural figures of the Bulgarian national renaissance of the period 1750 to 1878. His works include writings on Bulgaria’s literary ties with Russia and the Ukraine and a series of lectures on comparative Western European literatures in the 18th century.

Shishmanov was the author of the fundamental work I. Vazov: Memoirs and Documents (1930). He undertook the publication of the series Sbornik za narodni umotvoreniia, nauka, i knizhina (from 1889) and served as its first editor; the series, which was later published under the auspices of the Academy of Sciences, was devoted to the folklore, science, and literature of the Bulgarian people.

Shishmanov’s works marked the beginning of Bulgarian folklore studies and ethnography.