The First – and what turned out to be the only – Annual Hilandar Research Project Conference was held May 3-4, 1984. The major goals of the conference were to provide an update of the Hilandar Research Project’s activities and financial status, and to offer concrete proposals for the expansion and development of the Hilandar Research Project. Among the future goals enumerated by the Very Rev. Dr. Mateja Matejic were: “(1) the continuing acquisition and development of the collection of microform and reference materials; (2) the publication of a Supplemental and Cumulative Checklist of the holdings of the Hilandar Room (now over 2,000 items); (3) the publication of a detailed description of the Slavic codices of the Great Lavra Monastery on Mount Athos…” (Polata knigopisnaia 13: 71).
Sofia: CIBAL, 1989
Among the ten presentations given, Robert Mathiesen (Brown University) reported on “The Present Status of Medieval Slavic Studies in the USA and Canada,” and concluded, among other things, that “North American scholars should concentrate on the treatment of problems less actively treated elsewhere in the world, such as Biblical textology” (Polata knigopisnaia 13: 27).
The report on the conference ends with the announcement that “On 5 May 1984, following the conclusion of the Conference, a new and completely furnished and reequipped Hilandar Room was dedicated by Robert Rade Stone, President of the Serb National Federation, and presented with the first original manuscript, a late XVIIIth century copy of Paisij Hilandarskij’s Istoria slavjanobǎlgarskaja by Mrs Esther N. Clarke” (Polata knigopisnaia 13: 74).
Image source: Cover of the book, M. Matejic and D. Bogdanovic, Slavic Codices of the Great Lavra Monastery: A Description (Sofia: CIBAL, 1989).
The Very Rev. Dr. Mateja Matejic presented an update on the Hilandar Research Project, representatives from various countries reported on the status of Slavic and medieval studies, and recommendations regarding the future work and development of the Hilandar Research Project were made by working groups composed from 45 scholars of 31 institutions of higher education in North America and Europe.
