“PARTITURA MUNDI” is a large-scale, long-term work by the Bulgarian architect Dimitar Varbanov (1926–1990) that has no parallel in world literature, history, or cultural studies. It was written between 1972 and 1982, and in its completed form, the study covers information ranging from the Big Bang and geological eras to the beginning of the 20th century. At the end of 2019, “PARTITURA MUNDI” was published in Bulgarian in a limited edition, presented as a nine-meter-long scroll depicting the history of the world in graphic form.

In the 1980s, architect Dimitar Varbanov described his idea in a Bulgarian Television documentary as well as in articles for various newspapers and magazines, and in personal notes. Here is what they contain:

“The seeds of the idea for this project were sown on a modest scale to meet personal needs. My interest in the development of the arts, alongside the sociopolitical development of nations, suffered from a lack of visual material that, given my limited time, could connect me to the field toward which my inclinations were directed.

The idea came about through the interplay of two fundamental elements—architecture and music. When experiencing the performance of great symphonic works, the association often leads us to thoughts and feelings analogous to those we have when perceiving the multifaceted development of world history and culture. Are not the nations a vast “orchestra” performing the grand symphony of human development? If, in the score, instead of the staff lines for individual instruments, we were to plot the continuous development of nations with their historical and cultural manifestations, and if the decades and centuries were to become the “bar lines” of this unique score, the result would be an astonishingly clear, concise image that speaks directly to the eye.

Further along in the creation of this chronological image—which I call “textography”—the language of my profession—architecture, or more precisely, large-scale graphic representation—came into play. The scale of 1 mm = 1 year proved to be extremely convenient. Thus, a map 1 meter long encompasses a thousand years of development. At the same time, this created a wonderful opportunity for vertical cross-sections through time, which in turn makes it possible to track the synchrony of events.

As “building material,” I used data from authoritative historical books, encyclopedias, and reference works, which lay silent and lifeless within the pages of numerous volumes. Brought out of their lair and incorporated into this specific structure, they came to life through their arrangement, their duration, and their frequency. And instead of being scattered across numerous pages, they now convey information instantly, clearly, and unequivocally. In addition, I used the techniques of painting to color-code the different ethnic groups and highlight the names of significant figures and events with distinct typefaces. This significantly improved the clarity and readability of the data, making the textography easy to comprehend.”

Back in 1979, architect Varbanov offered his explanation of the concept of textography and the benefits of this type of information presentation:

"Textography is a concise form of information with great potential, primarily because of its conciseness. The dynamic age in which we live requires that the means of cultural information be restructured so that they do not consume our precious and almost always scarce time. In it, the method of future information becomes apparent. With its expansive scope, it essentially represents a punch tape that opens the doors to electronics in the service of cultural information. Textography serves as a foundation for a close alliance between philosophy and the historical and art-historical sciences. Through it, a community of information is created that eliminates the autonomous

conceptual constructs of scientific approaches within the individual sciences. This information, achieved with minimal means through a new model, is capable of facilitating the discovery of common processes of synthesis throughout the entire spiritual realm.”

 
The digital version of “PARTITURA MUNDI”, which you see on this website, just like the print edition, will not remain a project frozen in time upon its completion. This is especially true of the digital version, which offers unlimited possibilities for corrections, updates, the addition of new information, the inclusion of new countries not included in the original version, the expansion of the history beyond the 20th century (also not included in the original version), a wide range of options for comparing facts, interactive use, and so on. The information will be available in the original language (Bulgarian) as well as in English, and other languages may be added later.

The idea of developing PARTITURA MUNDI into a digital platform has its deep roots in the vision of its author, architect Dimitar Varbanov. In his lectures and notes, he expressed ideas and predictions regarding the use of technology in the fields of science and the arts as early as the late 1970s, when such technologies were still in their infancy and long before the widespread use of the Internet as we know it today.

The publication of the first printed edition of PARTITURA MUNDI was delayed considerably, appearing approximately forty years after the original work had been completed. During that period, new communication technologies advanced rapidly, and the time for their practical application arrived almost unnoticed. In numerous discussions with people familiar with the work, the possibility of creating an electronic edition—and later a fully digital version—was frequently raised. This step forward has become not only desirable but essential in an era when digital technologies have transformed nearly every sphere of modern life.

Our most extensive discussions and reflections on this subject were held with Julian Simeonov, the engineer who created the prepress design and supervised the first printing of the book. Subsequently, the development of the digital platform was entrusted to Nikolay Petrov, a data engineer with extensive international experience in the IT industry.

One of the essential prerequisites for introducing PARTITURA MUNDI to an international audience was its translation into English. This task was entrusted to Professor Blagovest Mollov of St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia. The digital project is designed to launch simultaneously in its original Bulgarian language and in English, with additional language versions planned for the future. Professor Mollov's efficient and highly professional translation work paved the way for the development of the digital platform, a process that is currently underway under the planning and leadership of engineer Nikolay Petrov.

The digital presentation gives PARTITURA MUNDI an extraordinary range of new capabilities that cannot be achieved in a printed publication. Despite the impressive scale and unique concept of the book—or, more accurately, the historical map—it is inevitably constrained by the physical dimensions of paper and by the limited space available for presenting historical events. Once printed, the work also cannot be corrected, updated, or expanded with newly discovered information.
All of these limitations disappear in the digital environment, opening virtually unlimited possibilities for comparing different fragments of the world's historical panorama. It also becomes possible to access comprehensive information about every historical event, whereas in the original textography each event is represented only by its name or title.
One of the many examples illustrating these new possibilities is the ability to compare, side by side, the general historical development of a particular country with the development of its arts and culture—or with those of another country. The digital platform makes it possible to place adjacent to one another different sections of the project that, in the printed textography, are physically separated by considerable distances. In this way, the digital version offers both a comprehensive overview of world history and the ability to focus on specific periods or themes, making it significantly easier to explore relationships and draw comparisons between historical and cultural developments.

Providing immediate access to comprehensive information about individual events was never the objective of the original version of PARTITURA MUNDI. On the contrary, its purpose was to visualize history by presenting it graphically on a single plane through a concise and highly economical language. Within this concept, the synchronization of historical events is of primary importance, while users are expected either to seek detailed information independently or to possess prior knowledge of the events represented.

The digital version brings these two dimensions together. It enables users to observe historical events visually within the broader context of world development while simultaneously providing detailed information about each individual event. In this sense, PARTITURA MUNDI is intended to evolve into a comprehensive source of historical and cultural knowledge, an innovative educational resource, and a powerful research platform for exploring the interrelationships and interactions among the events that have shaped the history of the world.