Byzantino-Slavic and Bulgarian middle ages in the recent works by scholars from the university of Lodz

The review considers the recent works by Polish academicians from two departments of the University of Lodz - History of Byzantium and Slavic Philology dedicated or related to the history and culture of medieval Bulgaria and the entire Byzantino-Slavic community of the 10th - 15th c. aiming to represent them to Russian audience, to reveal their contributions to the mentioned fields and to appreciate the current achievements of the forming academic school of the University of Lodz. Its beginning cannot be divided from the name of the disciple of prominent Polish Byzantinist Professor Halina Ewert-Kappesowa (1904-1985), Professor Waldemar Ceran (1936-2009), whose research and organizational activities led to the establishment of “Byzantina Lodziensia” book series (39 volumes published in 1997-2020), and in 2003 - to the Department of the History of Byzantium opening. These foundations met resonance and support from a new trend of the research activities in the University of Lodz - Old Slavonic literature studies - initiated by highly skilled paleoslavist Professor Georgi Minczew who began his work at the Department of Slavic Philology in the middle of the 1990s. The growing synergy of the Byzantine and Slavic trends resulted in the creation in 2011 of Ceraneum - the Centre of Research in History and Culture of Mediterranean and South-Eastern Europe named after W. Ceran (Centrum Badań nad Historią i Kulturą Basenu Morza Śródziemnego i Europy Południowo-Wschodniej im. prof. Waldemara Cerana, Ceraneum). Under its aegis the University of Lodz is editing annual scholarly journal “Studia Ceranea” (10 issues in 2011-2020) and since 2019 convenes in the historical venue of Bidermann Palace, the residence of the centre, annual international colloquium “Colloquia Ceranea” which attracts leading Polish and international scholars in Byzantine, Slavic and Bulgarian medieval history and culture. The author critically reviews monographs and miscellanies published by academicians of the University of Lodz in the recent five years and concludes upon the main research directions, results and perspectives of the University of Lodz school of Byzantine, Medieval Slavic and Bulgarian research.