An exhibition featuring texts and images of the two main religions in the Balkans, Christianity and Islam, opened on Wednesday at the National Library of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Sofia.

"We decided to show the role of the holy verbal presence in people's lives, regardless of their background or faith," said the director of the National Library, Krasimira Alexandrova.

The exhibition includes 16 panels of manuscripts, archival documents, old books and original graphics focusing on the role of speech in Christianity and Islam. They belong to the collections of the National Library and have a chronological range from the 13th to the 20th century, said Bojana Minchev, head of the Department of Manuscript Conservation and Documentary Heritage at the Library.

Miniature editions of the Bible and Koran, prayer books and more are placed in three display cases. The exhibition does not claim to be exhaustive, she added.

A book by Hristo Trendafilov entitled "Parapet. The topic of Suotvetstvia", was presented at the exhibition. The volume includes 30 articles and studies written over 25 years and published in various Bulgarian and foreign journals, series and collections.

Hristo Trendafilov was born in the village of Anton. His scientific interests are Bulgarian literature and literary schools. He lectured on Bulgarian philology at the University of Saint Petersburg. Trendafilov is the author of monographs, textbooks and reference books. Among them are Studies in the Poetics of History, New Poetry: 1975-1989, John Exarch of Bulgaria among others. /BTA