Emanuil Vaskidovich (; 1795 – 30 September 1875) was a

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

National Revival National revival or national awakening is a period of ethnic self-consciousness that often precedes a political movement for national liberation but that can take place at a time when independence is politically unrealistic. In the history of Euro ...

enlightener, the founder of the first

secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin , or or ), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. The origins of secularity can be traced to the Bible itself. The concept was fleshed out through Christian hi ...

school in the Bulgarian lands.Енциклопедия „България“, Издателство на БАН, том 2, 1978. Vaskidovich was born under the name Manolaki Vaskidi in the city of Melnik and he was of

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

origin. He studied at the

school in his hometown and at the Greek high school on

Chios Chios (; , traditionally known as Scio in English) is the fifth largest Greece, Greek list of islands of Greece, island, situated in the northern Aegean Sea, and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, tenth largest island in the Medi ...

island. Vaskidovich finished the Bey's Academy in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

. In 1815, he founded the first Hellenic- Bulgarian school in the Bulgarian lands in the

Danubian The Danube ( ; see also other names) is the second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest south into the Black Sea. A large and historically important riv ...

town of

Svishtov Svishtov ( ) List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, is a town in northern Bulgaria, located in Veliko Tarnovo Province on the right bank of the Danube river opposite the Romanian town of Zimnicea. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous S ...

. He later organized the first school library in Bulgaria, to which he left his 800 volumes of literature. In 1832, Vaskidovich introduced the

Bell-Lancaster method The Monitorial System, also known as Madras System, Lancasterian System/Lancasterism or the Bell System of Instruction, was an education method that took hold during the early 19th century, because of Spanish, French, and English colonial education ...

to the Svishtov school, where

grammar In linguistics, grammar is the set of rules for how a natural language is structured, as demonstrated by its speakers or writers. Grammar rules may concern the use of clauses, phrases, and words. The term may also refer to the study of such rul ...

arithmetic Arithmetic is an elementary branch of mathematics that deals with numerical operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. In a wider sense, it also includes exponentiation, extraction of roots, and taking logarithms. ...

and

geography Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...

were taught. Until 1845, he was the head teacher of Svishtov; in that year, he was expelled under the pressure of the

Grecoman Grecomans or Graecomans (; ; ; ; ; ) is a pejorative term used in Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Romania, and Albania to characterize Albanian-speaking, Aromanian-speaking, and Slavic-speaking people who self-identify as ethnic Greeks. In the region ...

party in the town only to return to his post between 1854 and 1863. In the interim, he worked as a teacher in

Pleven Pleven ( ) is the seventh most populous city in Bulgaria. Located in the northern part of the country, it is the administrative centre of Pleven Province, as well as of the subordinate Pleven municipality. It is the biggest economic center in ...

. Vaskidovich aided

Neofit Bozveli Neofit Bozveli () (c. 1785 – 4 June 1848) was a Bulgarian cleric and enlightener and one of the leaders of the Bulgarian Church struggle. He was born in the lively sub-Balkan town of Kotel. Bozveli completed his basic education there and may w ...

in his publishing of the pedagogical book ''Slavenobolgarskoe Detevodstvo'' in 1835. He was the author of 15 textbooks and books, as well as grammar of the

Ancient Greek language Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

. He was also an active public figure, representing the Svishtov municipality in

Wallachia Wallachia or Walachia (; ; : , : ) is a historical and geographical region of modern-day Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians. Wallachia was traditionally divided into two sections, Munteni ...

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

and

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

Honours

Vaskidovich Ridge in

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

is named after Emanuil Vaskidovich.

References

1795 births 1875 deaths 19th-century Bulgarian educators Educators from the Ottoman Empire Bulgarian male writers Linguists from the Ottoman Empire Bulgarian people of Greek descent People from Blagoevgrad Province {{bulgaria-writer-stub