The Sonnet Collections of Stoyan Mihaylovski and Konstantin Velichkov, and the Petrarchist Model in the Western European Tradition
The Sonnet Collections of Stoyan Mihaylovski and Konstantin Velichkov, and the Petrarchist Model in the Western European Tradition

Summary/Abstract: This article examines the sonnet collections Philosophical and Satirical Sonnets (Filosoficheski i satiricheski soneti) by Stoyan Mihaylovski (1856–1927) and Constantinople Sonnets (Tsarigradski soneti) by Konstantin Velichkov (1855–1907), focusing on their relationship to the Petrarchist tradition – and more specifically, to the Petrarchist model of a poetry collection. Central to the discussion are the variations in sonnet form found in the works of these two Bulgarian authors, as compared to those seen in the sonnets of Petrarch, Lorenzo de’ Medici, Michelangelo, and Pierre de Ronsard, on one hand, and on the other – how motifs typical for Petrarchism function in new ways in the sonnet collections of Mihaylovski and Velichkov. Individual poems, “coupled” sonnets, and larger groups of works united by a significant motif are also analyzed. By juxtaposing Mihaylovski’s and Velichkov’s sonnet collections with key features of the Petrarchist literary tradition, the article reveals and outlines the similarities and differences not only between them and this tradition, but also between the two poets’ sonnet collections.

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