Essay
Таблица перваја
Not translated into English
Synopsis
A sheet printed on one side only, made for pupils who were beginning to read and write: moral and didactic thoughts arranged in two columns. The sheet was hung on the classroom wall, and the pupils read it together, aloud. Its author composed it in the language his pupils spoke, taking inspiration from a Serbian primer.
Context
The sheet measures forty-four centimetres by thirty-two. It belongs to the family of wall tables then used in the schools of Greece, Romania, Serbia and Bulgaria, and employed in Macedonia for several decades. Its text follows closely a Serbian primer by Dositej Obradović, whose link with it Haralampie Polenaković studied in 1973. It is its author's first work, and it was in use in schools in 1845.
Who it is for
A single sheet, with no translation. It helps to know that such an object was not read in the hand but hung on the wall, the whole class reading from it in one voice.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as the first reading book in the vernacular of the country, and the first work of a master whom his country ranks among the founders of its theatre.