[THE EARLIEST BIOGRAPHY OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE IN BULGARIAN / TSARGRAD IMPRINT] Давидъ Ливингстонъ. Докторъ на правото, Шотландия; докторъ на правото, Англия; членъ на Царското дружество. Мисионеринътъ и изследователь

N. A.

V Pechatnitsata na A. H. Boiadzhian, Tsarigrad (Constantinople), 1887.

Complete title: [THE EARLIEST BIOGRAPHY OF DAVID LIVINGSTONE IN BULGARIAN / TSARGRAD IMPRINT] Давидъ Ливингстонъ. Докторъ на правото, Шотландия; докторъ на правото, Англия; членъ на Царското дружество. Мисионеринътъ и изследователь / Davidŭ Livingstonŭ. Doktorŭ na pravoto, Shotlandiia; doktorŭ na pravoto, Angliia; chlenŭ na Tsarskoto druzhestvo. Missionerinŭ i izsledovatel [i.e., David Livingstone. Doctor of law, Scotland; Doctor of law, England; member of the Royal Society. Missionary and explorer].

Original wrappers. Demy 8vo. (22 x 15 cm). Text in Bulgarian printed in pre-reform Bulgarian orthography (Old Bulgarian spelling), with a standard permission text for printing in Ottoman Turkish on the front cover. 28 p. Chipping on extremities and slight foxing on front and rear covers, dusty edges. Overall, a fair/good copy.

Uncommon Tsarigrad (Constantinople) imprint and possibly the earliest standalone Bulgarian-language traced (no earlier edition located) biography of the celebrated Scottish missionary and African explorer David Livingstone (1813-1873), in pre-reform Bulgarian orthography and issued only fourteen years after Livingstone's death. Published by the Armenian press of A. H. Boyadjian, one of the principal printers associated with the American Board's multilingual publishing programme in Constantinople, the work belongs to the vast educational and missionary network through which American Protestant missions supplied Bulgarian readers with religious, historical, geographical, and biographical literature. Intended as a popular account for a broad readership, the volume presents Livingstone not merely as an African explorer but as a model of Christian virtue, perseverance, scientific curiosity, and missionary dedication.

The book belongs to the Bulgarian-language Protestant literature produced in Ottoman Constantinople, where American missionaries worked with local printers to publish religious tracts, schoolbooks, and popular biographies for Bulgarian-speaking readers. Boyadjian's Armenian press was closely associated with the American Board's publishing activities, which continued to serve Bulgarian Protestant communities both within and beyond the Ottoman Empire after the establishment of the Bulgarian Principality in 1878. Livingstone's career as a missionary and African explorer made him a natural subject for this literature, which frequently presented the lives of Christian missionaries as examples of faith, perseverance, and service. The Ottoman Turkish printing-permission statement on the front wrapper also provides evidence of the regulatory conditions governing Bulgarian-language publishing in Constantinople.

As of June 2026, we couldn’t trace any copies in OCLC.