SS. Cyril and Methodius National Library

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A front view of the library building

The SS. Cyril and Methodius National Library (Народна библиотека „Свети Свети Кирил и Методий“) is the national library of Bulgaria, situated in the capital city of Sofia. Founded on 4 April 1878, the library received the status of Bulgarian National Library three years later and the Bulgarian National Revival Archive was merged into it in 1924.

Notable collections

• Slavonic Scriptures, a collection of more than 1,500 originals dating from the 11th to the 19th centuries.
• Greek and other Foreign Scriptures with around 200 monuments, 9th to 19th century.
• Eastern Scriptures, containing around 3,100 Arabic, 500 Ottoman, and 150 Persian codicies, dated 11th to the 19th centuries.
• Various archives of Ottoman, Arabic, and Persian documents, catalogued under the Collection of Oriental Archives and the Newer Turkish Archives and 328 separate funds, each sorted by geographical criteria, covering a period from the 15th until the first quarter of the 20th century. Both collections contain over 500,000 units, 714 registers (defters) and 168 sidjals.
• Old Print, Rares and Valuables, a collection of about 30,000 volumes in Old Church Slavonic, Bulgarian and foreign languages, covering a period from the 15th until the 20th century, plus a collection of Bulgarian Renaissance press from the period before 1878.
• Old Print Books from the Orient, a collection of around 2,000 volumes in Arabic, Turkish and Persian, covering a period from 1593 to the first quarter of the 20th century.
• Bulgarian Historical Archive with over 1.5 million documents under 700 separate archives covering the work of Bulgarian revolutionaires, economic, cultural and public people from the 18th until the beginning of the 20th century, as well as the history of the independence struggle in Macedonia and Eastern Thrace (see History of Bulgaria).
• Portraits and Photographs, a collection of over 80,000 photographs and illustrations.

External links

• Official website of the National Library
• Web catalogue of the National Library
• Oriental Collections Department