Konstantin Fotinov

[1][2] Fotinov was born in the town of Samokov around 1790 to the family of a small-time merchant from Plovdiv.

[3] He studied at a local monastical school before continuing his education in Plovdiv in Thrace and in Kydonies in Anatolia; he was tutored by the Greek humanist Theophilos Kairis.

He founded a private mixed Hellenic-Bulgarian school in İzmir (Smyrna) and employed the Bell-Lancaster method.

Fotinov was the editor and publisher of the first Bulgarian magazine, Lyuboslovie ("philology", "love of words"), which he issued in Smyrna from 1844 to 1846.

[4] The magazine was richly illustrated and included articles on history, geography, religion, morale, medicine, hygiene, ansd language.