The Fish Primer

Primer with Various Instructions, or the Fish Primer, is the first Modern Bulgarian textbook, written by the Bulgarian National Revival figure Petar Beron. It was published in Brașov in 1824 with the assistance of Anton Yoanovich, under the auspices of the trustees Vasil Nenovich and Yordan Hadzhigenovich.
The primer contains a preface, eight sections, an address to the reader and an appendix with twelve drawings of animals.
In the preface, Petar Beron explains his reasons for creating the textbook. The first section is the primer itself, including the alphabet, the pronunciation of letters and explanations of nouns, adjectives, verbs, pronouns, prepositions, adverbs and other topics.
The second section contains prayers, including the Lord’s Prayer. The third, entitled “Good Advice”, includes 64 questions and answers about children’s upbringing. Further sections present wise answers, fables, assorted stories and “Physical Accounts”, introducing various animals and products in an encyclopaedic format.
The final section is devoted to arithmetic and includes examples of division. The book became extremely popular and was called the Fish Primer because of the drawing of a whale at its end. Petar Beron was held in high regard, and the primer went through six editions over twenty years. Although it became the last book for learning, it is regarded as an important symbol of Bulgarian education during the National Revival.