Daskal Kamche

Kamche Nakov Popangelov (Bulgarian: Камче Наков Попангелов) (c. 1790 – c. 1848), widely known as Daskal Kamche (Bulgarian: Даскал Камче) was a Bulgarian teacher, printer and engraver, founder of one of the first printing houses for books in Bulgarian in the Ottoman Empire.

Daskal Kamche was born in the village of Koreshnitsa, which is close to Demir Kapija, a town in the Tikvesh region of Macedonia. He went as a pilgrim to the monasteries in Mount Athos, where he eventually stayed for one year. After he came back from Saint Aton, he became a taksidiot-monk for some of the monasteries in Tikvesh.

Daskal Kamche started to work as a teacher in the village of Vatasha in 1828. With financial help from Yovcho Markov, he purchased a printing press of type Gutenberg and installed it in Vatasha. Daskal Kamche used the press for about a year, until he was expelled from Vatasha by the local Greek eparch. His printing press eventually found its way to Solun, where it was used by Teodosiy Sinaitski for his printing office. After the printing office in Solun was also closed down, Daskal Kamche found its way back to Vatasha, where he remained a teacher until the end of his life. He was known as an opponent to the use of Greek in the local Bulgarian schools and churches.