LX SERIES HISTORICA 2021
De la medieval spre modernitate
Cosmin Popa-Gorjanu
Sinistras Novitates. Abuzurile din locurile de vamă și reacția sașilor din Sibiu în 1391
Abstract: This paper analyzes the interaction between toll keepers and customs officials from Hungary and Transylvania and the merchants of Sibiu during the last decades of the fourteenth century and 1405. On 21 March 1391, King Sigismund of Luxemburg issued a charter of privileges allowing the merchants of Sibiu to pursue several actions while transiting customs places throughout the kingdom and at the same time abolished various rules and fines for tresspasses newly introduced by the tollkeepers that were considered erroneas or sinistras novitates. During the next fifteen years, the text of this privilege was reissued five times either by King Sigismund of Luxemburg or by the Voivode of Transylvania highlighting an ongoing tension between the merchants and the tollkeepers. The discussion of this issue in the context of corruption and anticorruption measures in the medieval period indicates a case of abuse, followed by complaints of the victims, and normative intervention by the royal authority.
Keywords: abusive regulations, merchants, tollkeepers, Sibiu, Hungary, Transylvania
Lidia Gross
Jus Patronatus între regalitate și comunitatea urbană: exemplul Bistriței (secolele XV–XVI)
Abstract: In 1472 Matthias, king of Hungary, as patronus universalis of all the churches in the kingdom, granted to the community of Bistrița the right of patronage over the parish churches from Dipșa, Dumitra and Lechința. As royal possessions, these settlements located in the Bistrița district already had the privilege to elect their parish priest and to manage the revenues of their own churches. The deed of King Matthias suppressed this right in favour of Bistrița, a town that managed to impose itself as an administrative centre of the “province”. The action also involved the bishop of Transylvania, as the city and district of Bistrița were part of the diocesan authority. This is the only case in the Transylvanian area, in which an urban community acquired the right of patronage over the parishes in the seat or district it represents. Extended in 1526 over all parishes in the district, this authority will be exercised by the urban community of Bistrița until the beginning of the 19th century.
Keywords: patronage right, king, urban community, district, Bistrița, Dipșa, Dumitra, Lechința
Maria Frînc
Un furt în districtul Hațeg la începutul secolului al XVI-lea
Abstract: Theft is an illegal act committed since ancient times and encountered in all social structures. The poverty or the pursuit of wealth has led many individuals to commit such transpassings. The nobles from the Hațeg district have also faced thefts countless times. This article presents one of the thefts that took place at the beginning of the 16th century in the Hațeg district. This illegal act from Fărcădin attracts the attention of historians through the abundance and diversity of the precious goods taken. This article will try to highlight the importance and role of these valuable objects for the owner and to trace possible paths of their origin.
Keywords. Midde Ages theft, jewelry, nobles, Hațeg district.
Susana Andea
Între trei Imperii. Diplomația transilvăneană și tezaurul lui Gheorghe Duca
Abstract. The ransom of the lord of Moldavia, Gheorghe Duca, consisting of money and precious objects, was collected in Constantinople by the wife of the former woivode and then transported and confiscated in Transylvania. It was demanded by Jan Sobieski, King of Poland, as a reward for the release of the captive. Despite some claims made at some point by the Transylvanians in front of the Sublime Porte, the Poles did not take possession of the ransom. Gheorghe Duca’s treasure also tempted the Turks but without any chance of success. However, the Transylvanians skilfully and successfully navigated between the two claimants, taking the most advantage of the risen opportunity. The meticulous inquiry undertaken at the request of the Viennese court, under military pressure, revealed that the nobility of Transylvania, especially those who held office sin the Princely Council between 1685-1690, a group led by Michael Teleki, took advantage of the money and precious objects of the former Moldavian lord. Banffi, the first governor of Transylvania, did not remain uninvolved either. Some of the 18,000 golden coins ended up in the tribute of Transylvania, other in the hands of Generals Piccolomini, Veterani, etc. The efforts of Duca’s successors after more than two decades did not yield any results, and the money was never recovered.
Keywords: Transylvania, Poland, the Habsburg Empire, the Sublime Porte, Gheorghe Duca
Biserică, mentalități, ideologii
Radu Nedici
Între reformă și disidența ortodoxă: retorica vizitației canonice a episcopului Aron în parohiile greco-catolice hațegane în anul 1759
Abstract: The episode of interfaith tensions triggered during the first months of 1759 by the sermons delivered by the bishop of Făgăraș, Petru Pavel Aron, in a few villages across the district of Hațeg has made the object of contemporary ample narratives. Vexed by the cohabitation strategies in place in the mixed communities, which meant the common use of the sacred spaces by both Calvinists and Greek Catholics, the Uniate eparch instigated his followers to occupy the respective churches and remove all objects pertaining to the Protestant tradition. Not without its climax of physical violence, the confrontation also had a significant component of rhetoric, as it was used alternatively by the historians of the two communities to indicate either the assault of the Catholic elites in Habsburg Transylvania against the Reformed faithful (Péter Bod), or the heroic attitude of the bishop who wanted to raise his fellow nationals from the subordinate condition they had been reduced to (Samuil Micu). By arguing in favour of counting the Orthodox opponents against church union with Rome as the third element of the dispute, the article inquires on how Bishop Aron reacted both during and after the events. My approach builds on a series of contemporary unpublished accounts submitted to the court in Vienna, now housed in various archives across the former Monarchy. On the one hand, they corroborate unequivocally the main stages of the unfolding of the religious dispute. At the same time though, the few conflicting details serve to question the Greek Catholic recital concerning the miraculous intervention of the Virgin Mary, who was said to have saved the life of the prelate at the time, pointing to a later elaboration of the whole story. The reading that I suggest thus attempts to determine the reasons behind Bishop Aron’s confrontational attitude in Hațeg and those later responsible for the creation of a distorted remembrance over the facts among the Greek Catholics in Transylvania.
Keywords: historical memory, religious dissent, interconfessional relations, sacred space, Transylvania.
Mircea-Gheorghe Abrudan
O carte a memoriei săliștene, inițiată de Ioan Lupaș la 1911
Abstract: From 1909 to 1919, historian Ioan Lupaș wasthe parish priest of the great church of Săliște and archpriest of the Săliște Orthodox Deanery. In this capacity, he carried out prodigious pastoral, social, educational and cultural work, the fruits of which became apparent in both the short and the longterm. Among the projects initiated by Ioan Lupaș that live on to this day is Cartea de aur a ctitorilor și binefăcătorilor Sf. Biserici Române Gr. Or. din Săliște (The Golden Book of Founders and Benefactors of the Holy Greek-Orthodox Romanian Church of Săliște), which began on January 1st, 1911. The Golden Bookis preserved in the Săliște Parish Museum of Săliște town as an object of inestimable historical, memorial and sentimental value, one that gives testimony as to the centuries-old history of Săliște and represents a fundamental source of information regarding the town’s history during the 20th century. Religiously guarded and carefully filled in by those who succeeded Ioan Lupaș at the head of the parish, the Golden Book of the great church of Săliște tells the story of unique events that occurred in the life of the community, of Romanian and international figures of cultural, political, national, academic, military and ecclesiastical life who paid memorable visits to the heart of Mărginimea Sibiului in the 20th and early 21st century. The present work is the first one to discuss the odyssey of the Golden Book of Săliște, presenting its contents and mentioning the names of the main personalities who signed its pages during the century that unfurled between 1919 and 2019. An annex to the study provides a rendition of theso far unpublished introduction written by priest and historian Ioan Lupaș in 1918
Keywords: Transylvania, Săliștea Sibiului, memory, history historiography
Alexandru Rufanda
O analiză a mesajului antimasonic reflectat în paginile publicației Ligii Apărării Naționale Creștine (L.A.N.C.), „Înfrățirea Românească”
Abstract: The interwar period in Romania was characterized by the emergence and rise of several far-right groups with a nationalist touch. They carried out real anti-Semitic campaigns, thus looking for the culprits for the multiple persistent social and political problems in Romania. The anti-Semitic message escalated to the point of advancing conspiracy theories in which Freemasonry was a basic element. One of the most visible far-right organizations was the League of Christian National Defense, which also published the magazine „Romanian Brotherhood”. This publication appeared in Cluj, between 1925-1931. In its pages, real anti-Semitic campaigns took place, with a radical character, even reaching violent exhortations. In the present study we will be able to follow the escalation of the anti-masonic message in the pages of the magazine, trying to make a correlation of the texts with the socio-political realities of the time. Thus we will be able to observe the manipulation methods used, reaching the climax, the triggering of a real witch hunt, or more precisely in this case, a Freemason hunt.
Keywords: League of Christian National Defense, Romanian Brotherhood, Cluj, Anti-Semitic, Freemasonry
Adrian Dragoş Defta
Divizia Hitlerjugend: Ideologie și Etos
Abstract: The „Hitlerjugend ethos” was a product of the Nazi ideology. It was the natural outcome of interplay of several factors: the precepts of social-Darwinism (the evolution through natural selection) and the precepts of Nazism (völkisch nationalism, the concept of Aryan race and the Aryan mysticism; see in this respect Bernd Wegner, Hitlers Politische Soldaten: Die Waffen-SS 1933-1945, Schöningh Verlag, 2006). Was ideology alone the main source of motivation that kept some soldiers fighting when all around them Hitlerjugend soldiers were surrendering or fleeing ? It would be likely that a significant number of soldiers belonging to the 12th SS Pz. Div. „Hitlerjugend” fought out of loyalty towards their comrades in arms and not because of the Third Reich’s political masters. However, it is important to keep in mind that all the Hitlerjugend Division’s military achievements coupled with the Division’s renowned fighting spirit prolonged the war and postponed peace. Their warfare capabilities extended the duration of World War II and led to catastrophic consequences for all belligerents. To a great extent, National-Socialism succeeded in creating efficient, deep indoctrinated soldiers; it was a unique experiment that resulted in the creation of a powerful system of control which exerted its influence on believers and soldiers alike. This was made possible due to several factors such as education, military instruction and, most importantly, the propaganda apparatus.
Keywords: Nazi ideology, Jews, Hitlerjunged, National-Socialism
Ottmar Trașcă
Loialitate dublă. Evoluții politice în cadrul minorității germane din România, 1933–1940
Abstract: The evolution of the German minority between 1933 and 1940 was largely determined by the emergence and expansion of the National Socialist ideology. The influence exerted by the National Socialist current left its mark particularly on the way the German minority expressed in political terms, the result being the gradual and continuous radicalization of the political discourse, especially in the years 1938-1939. Regarding the attitude adopted by the German minority towards the Romanian state during this period, it was obviously influenced both by domestic developments and, especially, by the international context. In the years 1933-1937, the leadership of the German minority supported on every important occasion the need to promote a loyal attitude towards the Romanian state. Instead, between 1939-1940 as a result of the international context in which the National Socialist Germany played an important role, the leadership of the German minority adopted an increasingly intransigent attitude, loyalty to the Third Reich coming to the fore.
Keywords: German minority, Romania, Political evolution, Third Reich, Național-Socialism
Corneliu Pintilescu
Biserica evanghelică C.A. în România postbelică: rivalități interne, intervenții externe și instrumentalizarea trecutului nazist
Abstract: The Evangelical Church of Augustan Confession faced multiple challenges in postwar Romania caused by the dramatic history of the Romanian Germans during the Second World War and the early postwar period. After experiencing a deep process of Nazification during the episcopate of Wilhelm Staedel (1940–1944), the Evangelical Church had to face in the early postwar period the impoverishment of its parishioners, a fierce inner competition for power, and the skillful strategies carried out by the Securitate in order to impose its control on the church leadership. Drawing mainly on the Securitate files created during the surveillance activity on Bishop Friedrich Müller, this article aims to provide an insight into how the competition between different groups within the leadership of the Evangelical Church of Augustan Confession transcended the postwar political transition in Romania. It also brings to the fore how the Securitate tried to manipulate these inner rivalries and the issue of the Nazi past in order to take full control over the leadership of the Evangelical Church and why some of its plans (such as the one that aimed in 1952 at removing Bishop Friedrich Müller from office), failed.
Keywords: Evangelical Church A.C., Postwar Romania, Nazification, Securitate
Emanuel Copilaș
Partidul Național Țărănesc, 1944–1947: metamorfoze ideologice și incertitudini politice
Abstract: This article follows mainly the ideological evolution of the National Peasants Party in the postwar period, in the context of Romania’s sovietization process. The main argument that it brings forward consists in the fact that the role of the party after 1945 is not so democratic as it is usually presumed, PNȚ contributing to a great extent to the political, economic and social instability that characterized the 1944-1947 period.
Keywords: sovietization, uncertainties, tensions, crisis, right-wing radicalism
Cultură, economie și societate
Henry Jacolin
At the Margin of the Empire. Railway Building in Transylvania until 1918
Abstract: The construction of the Transylvanian railway – the first line only became operational in 1868 – was delayed by several factors. Firstly, political change in this province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Coming under the direct authority of the Austrians in 1849, it only gained control over the construction of the railway after the Compromise of 1867. And then there were conflicts about the choice of routes, between the towns, between the Transylvanian nations and between the Hungarians and the Austrians.
Once Hungary took charge, the construction of the railway network continued without an overall plan, depending on the pressure brought to bear by the various nations, by the owners of large estates, forests and mines. The choice of route was essentially dictated by the fixing of the junction points with Romania – the subject of a persisting disagreement with Bucharest – which continually changed as the years went by.
Due to the shortage of financial resources, from 1881 onwards the government had to leave the initiative to private companies. They only built local railways, which didn’t contribute to the coherency of the network. It was only at the start of the 20th century that the government, becoming aware of the Russian threat, took control again to complete, finally, the circling of the Transylvanian plateau by the construction of the Székely Land ring line.
At the end of the First World War, the Transylvanian railway (2,596.5 kilometres) was fully incorporated into the Romanian railway.
Keywords: Habsburg Monarchy, Railways construction, Transylvania, railways junction, Romania.
Constantin Bărbulescu
„Sălbaticul daco-roman”. Imaginea țăranului în scrierile lui Alecu Russo
Abstract: This paper is a study in social imagology and has as topic the image of the peasant in Alecu Russo’s writings. Even if he dies at 39, in his works published during his life as also the posthumous ones, peasants are making a very interesting character. Alecu Russo’s peasants are the good savages of the 18th century philosophy, but they fundamentally remain the savages in his own society. In a herderian spirit, peasants are the keepers of the „national genius” manifested in folk literature, music and national dances. In the end, they are the pre-eminently Romanians.
Keywords: peasantry, political romanticism, agrarians relations, Romanian Principalities, 19th century
Diana Covaci
Război și pâine: „Agricultura rațională” în Transilvania în anii Primului Război Mondial
Abstract: The present paper aims to review the measures taken by the authorities of the Hungarian state in an attempt to provide the daily bread during the troubled years 1914–1918; some of the state orders were also communicated in the traditional way, through the Church. Among those communicated by the clergy from the pulpit were orders concerning the agricultural process, the harvesting of agricultural products, the production and consumption of bread, but also the need to involve believers and students in the work of fields and gardens. The involvement of the civilian authorities was all the more grounded, as during the war one of the main problems faced by all the belligerent states was ensuring the provision of food for the army and the civilian population. Rational agriculture was supported by the Budapest government, and the measures taken aimed at implementing a centralized agricultural policy, through the distribution of quality seeds, the provision of labor (soldiers, prisoners, townspeople or villagers who did not have their own agricultural land), timely harvesting and supervised takeover of crops, as well as supplying of those who did not have their own agricultural products.
Keywords: First World War, Transylvania, Church circulars, rational agriculture, daily bread
Dana-Emilia Câmpean
Școli de fete în preajma Primului Război Mondial
Abstract: The fact that the vast majority of apt men were mobilised on the front led to a growing disorganisation in the industrial, agrarian and military areas, which in turn caused an acute lack of labour force in these sectors. A number of issues concerning the women who remained at home and the occupations that they learned during the belligerent years in order to support themselves and the rest of the family were revealed from the analysis of the period’s press. The growing interest demonstrated during this period for the establishment and re-establishment of girls’ schools is worthy of note, particularly as these schools were meant to provide a future for young Romanian girls. The importance of educating these girls beginning with primary classes represented a constant preoccupation of women’s reunions ever since they were founded and they continued to pursue this goal during these troublesome times. Alongside women’s reunions, the church played a central role in educating and shaping the character of little girls, the future Romanian mothers. This presentation is based on the analysis of three contemporary periodicals, namely Transilvania (Transylvania), Biserica și Școala (Church and School) and Unirea (The Union), all of them abounding in information about the establishment of schools, boarding houses and even orphanages.
Keywords: Transylvania women’s reunions, girls’ schools, education, press, The First World War.
Sorana Maier
Edificarea Casei Naționale a Asociațiunii Astra și prima scenă românească de teatru din Transilvania (Sibiu, 1905)
Abstract. The ASTRA Association had an important contribution to the development of cultural and artistic life in Transylvania by inaugurating the Museum of the Transylvanian Association for Romanian Literature and the Culture of the Romanian People, in August 1905, in Sibiu. The opening of the National House – which housed the Association Museum, offices and library – on the occasion of the Sibiu Celebrations, in August 1905, was an unprecedented cultural event, which brought together thousands of participants from all lands inhabited by Romanians. On the same occasion, the inauguration of the first Romanian theater scene in Transylvania took place, as a result of the collaboration between the ASTRA Association and the Society for the Romanian National Theater Fund. The National House hosted a space dedicated to cultural and artistic events held in order to cultivate and awaken the national consciousness among the Romanian people in Transylvania.
Our study brings unique documents from the Sibiu County Branch of the National Archives regarding the establishment of the National House and the correspondence between the ASTRA Association and the Society for the Romanian National Theater Fund, which shows the steps taken by the two cultural societies to establish the first Romanian theater stage in Transylvania and their concern for supporting the cultural and artistic activity of the Romanian population in Transylvania. The inauguration of the National House and the first Romanian stage in Transylvania supported the shaping of a Romanian theatrical movement in Sibiu and in Transylvania and determined the inclusion of the theater among the cultural propaganda of the Transylvanian Association for Romanian Literature and the Culture of the Romanian People. After 1905, the divisions of the Association showed a real concern for the organization of cultural-theatrical events and for the promotion of this art amongt he Romanian population in the province.
Keywords: cultural propaganda, theater, the first Romanian stage, ASTRA Association, Society for the Romanian National Theater Fund
Veronica Turcuș
Benito Mussolini în corespondență cu un profesor al Universității din Cluj: inaugurarea edificiului Accademia di Romania din Roma
Abstract: Based on unpublished informations form Central State Archives of Italy (Archivio Centrale dello Stato), this study aims to reinterpret strictly from the cultural diplomacy’s point of view, the moment of inauguration of Romanian School in Rome’s new building, the Accademia di Romania (1933), erected in Valle Giulia by National Bank of Romania. Organized in a delicate moment, from the perspective of international relations, of the Romania-Italy bilateral relationship, the event was inserted on the line of a cultural policy and propaganda focused on the vein of Latinity and common origin, became the only viable key in which negotiations could take place and enjoyed the participation of high Italian officials led by the head of government, Benito Mussolini, who made a considerable book donation to the library of the Romanian institution. In connection with the inauguration of Accademia di Romania, the director Emil Panaitescu, professor of Ancient History at the University of Cluj, had an interesting correspondence with Mussolini and the decision-making bodies in the office of the Presidency of the Italian Council of Ministers, the exchange of letters being relevant on which such an initiative acquires in terms of cultural diplomacy.
Keywords: Benito Mussolini, Accademia di Romania, Emil Panaitescu, cultural diplomacy, Romanian-Italian relations
Ela Cosma
Uniunea Elenă din România (UER) și publicațiile sale (1991–2021)
Abstract: The Hellenic Union from Romania (Uniunea Elenă din România, UER), founded on 28 December 1989, is one of the 18 organizations of the national minorities represented in the Chamber of Deputies in the Parliament of Romania. This organization, including both Romanian citizens of Greek origins and Philo-Hellenic Romanians, comprises today 24 territorial communities unfolding vivid activities all over the country, promoting Neo-Greek mother tongue, Orthodoxy, Hellenic culture, civilization, customs and traditions. During its three decades of existence, the Hellenic Union from Romania has morally and, in most of the cases, financially supported (from the budget assigned to the Greek national minority by the Romanian state) an intensive activity of publishing and journalism, developed on several „fronts”.
Our bibliographical and critical article is dedicated to the most important and very active Greek periodicals and publishing houses connected with and reflecting the cultural policy of the Hellenic Union from Romania: 1. the bilingual Greek-Romanian magazine „Ελπίδα/Speranța” („Hope”) (1993/1997–2004), later „Ελπίς/Speranța” (2004–2021); 2. Editura Omonia (Omonia Publishing House), founded by director general Elena Lazăr in 1991, with an impressive portfolio of hundreds of belletristic, cultural and historical translations published so far; 3. UER Press, the very publishing house of the Hellenic Union from Romania, founded in 2009; 4. the specialized journal „Studii bizantine” (Byzantine Studies), edited between 2010–2018 by Societatea Culturală Bizantină (Byzantine Cultural Society) in collaboration with the Hellenic Union from Romania and published by UER Press.
Keywords: Hellenic Union from Romania, „Ελπίς/Speranța” (magazine), Omonia Publishing, UER Press, „Studii bizantine” (journal)
Sonia D. Andraş
De la cosmetologie la cosmiatrie: Aurel Voina și manipularea istoriei personale
Abstract: This paper explores the methodological and discursive transition in Aurel Voina’s theoretical conceptualisation of cosmetic science. The primary focus is the rewriting of personal and professional identity, assessing how Aurel Voina negotiated his conceptual and practical expertise from his role as eugenics ideologue and policy maker in the interwar era, to a much more marginal position as medical professional in Communist Romania. The aim is to identify common elements and identify how deep did the historical manipulation protrude. This paper thus offers a closer view of political changes determining calibrations in physical and conceptual self-representation, considering concepts of fluid identity and manipulation of memory.
Keywords: cosmetology, cosmiatry, Aurel Voina, eugenics, interwar, Communism, Romania
Opinii și dezbateri istoriografice
Șerban Turcuș
Observații cu privire la identificarea primului antroponim românesc cu sufix-ul escu (1276)
Abstract: The study refers to the first mention of an anthroponym that can be considered Romanian. If until recently it was believed that Romanian anthroponyms with the patronymic suffix -escu appeared in the second half of the fourteenth century in Romanian territories, documents in Capua (Italy) record in 1276 a character named Lucesku, involved in a legal case. The relationship between the Romanian and the Italian space is highlighted once again, especially the South Italian one, which has been constant from the 11th century, since the establishment of Saint Gerard of Cenad in western Transylvania. What is pleasantly surprising in mentioning the first Romanian name from the Middle Ages is that there are – in the name’s extensive composition – both names from the eastern and western onomastic stock, the western one being practically Gerard. Based on chronology and genealogy it can be estimated that the first Romanian name appears around 1220, when the stabilization of the Teutonic Knights in southern Transylvania occurs and there is a stable route between Rome, southern Italy and Transylvania. Based on this testimony, it is possible to specify the maturation of Romanian anthroponymy and society a century earlier than previously considered.
Keywords: Romanian antroponimy, Italy, suffix, -escu, Capua
Mihai Olaru
Factorii determinanți ai reformelor fanariote în istoriografia română
Abstract. This study explores the issue of the factors which prompted the adoption of the Phanariot reforms in the Romanian historiography. Analyzing the problem from a historiographical point of view, a distinction of the factors advanced for the explanation of the reforms is made: structural socio-economic (the fiscal and demographic crisis), cultural (in influence of the Enlightenment) and geopolitical (the influence of the Habsburg administrative practices in Oltenia and Transylvania). In order to clarify the role played by these factors, the arguments expressed in the Romanian historiography with regard to this issue are reviewed and an assessment of each explanation is proposed, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of each. The explanations advanced until now correspond to different analytical levels: the social and economic factors are the deep forces which determine the reforms, the cultural factors pertain to the biography of some Phanariot princes, whereas the geopolitical factors represen the geopolitical circumstance. The study supports a multifactorial explanation of the reforms andit suggests that the Habsburg administrative model played a more important role than historians had acknowledged and suggests a hypothesis for future research of this issue.
Keywords: reforms, Phanariots, Enlightenment, Habsburg administration, Wallachia.
Loránd Mádly
Evoluții politice și comentarii privind documentele legate de consfătuirea regnicolară de la Alba Iulia din februarie 1861
Abstract: After the change of political regime, with the new Liberal period inaugurated through the October Diploma, a new activity in the political reorganization of the Great Principality of Transylvania ensued. In a first phase, the political situation benefited the Hungarian political movement which intended to apply the older laws from the years 1847-47, in spite of the intentions of the national movements of Romanians and Transylvanian Saxons, which had specific political aims. In this new context, the appointed Court Chancellor Kemény was commissioned to hold a consultation with the representants of the Transylvanian nationalities in order to outline the principles for a provincial Diet. This paper aims to present the context of this debates, based on the edited and archival information, mainly on the conclusion of the chancellor, annotated by Joseph Bedeus junior, a political figure of the Transylvanian Saxons and based on documents regarding the political attitudes of the Saxons at these consultations. All this information outlines the political attitudes and disputes among the Hungarians, Romanians and Saxons, in a highly important political process leading to the provincial Diet and to a political rebuilding of this highly complex province.
Keywords: Habsburg Monarchy, Transylvania, October Diploma, Liberalism, Transylvanian Saxons.
Daniela Deteșan
Conceptul de „strategii matrimoniale”. Parcurs istoriografic și metodologic
Abstract. The main objective of the article is to clarify the theorethical framework and discuss the concept of matrimonial strategies in historical family demographic research. Given the complexity of the subject, several theories have been developed in order to explain the choice of partner and marital relationships. A review of the last six decades is very rich. Specialists have succeeded to establish patterns of nuptiality and fertility for past generations through demographic methods, case studies, descriptive and analytical analyzes, measurements and sociological surveys. In Transylvania marriage was the most important way to pass on family heritage from one generation to the other. Land tenure appears to be the main motive for marriages, whether they were imposed or done of their own free will. The land, the main sign of wealth and power, was the most precious asset of the peasants. The pattern of arranged marriage is found in many divorce cases.
Keywords: matrimonial strategies, family history, historical demography, family formation.
Mara Mărginean
Interdisciplinaritate în cercetarea locuirii urbane în România anilor 1970
Abstract: This article highlights how interdisciplinary scientific cooperation was given political relevance in 1970s Romania. It looks at a series of domestic legislative measures adopted by the communist leaders and considers ways to place them in conversation with international events. It outlines the steps taken by social scientists in response to the rulers’ decisions, highlighting the circumstances that allowed them to strengthen their visibility in the decision-making process to the detriment of architects and urban planners. It concludes by presenting how architects and urban planners understood to reconsider their professional landmarks to respond to new realities. I argue that these professional developments primarily reflected the efficiency of knowledge production and transfer networks, the intellectual tradition of the international communities the Romanian experts were associated with, and the degree of visibility in the socialist state’s decision-making process of different professional communities.
Keywords: research, urban planning, social sciences, Romania, the 1970s
Angela Lumezeanu
Bazele da date și cercetarea istorică. Principiile de bază ale funcționării bazelor de date
Abstract: Since the first proposed relational model in 1970, the number of databases has increased exponentially. Nowadays the use of a database is part of common knowledge, the historical population studies making no exception to this. Databases are an immensely useful tool for almost every historian/researcher, regardless of field of study. However, it is necessary that historians/end users understand the main principles underpinning the architecture of a database, what it can do, and what its purposes are. A properly managed database offers fast results for every research query, low storage space and easy sharing of data. Nowadays, with the advancement of technology, there are multiple database systems available, not only relational sql but also graph variants and spatial databases that the researcher can choose from. We expect that in the future the number of databases focused on organizing data used in the study of historical population will increase even more. It is however essential that this increase is reflected in the dissemination of general knowledge concerning the characteristics of databases, their functionality, and the process of translation of historical information into data. The creation of database architecture will always involve two sides, whose input is significant in the success of the database: the historian who knows their sources best in terms of structure and heterogeneity, and has a well-defined research question (or area) in mind; the database architect who can assess and implement the best solution to suit the needs of the researcher.
Keywords: relational database; digital humanities; Historical Population Database of Transylvania, source-oriented database; method oriented database;
Victor V. Vizauer
Originea toponimului Borșa: puncte de vedere
Abstract: In this paper I tried to answer the questions regarding the origin and meaning of the Toponym Borșa (Maramureș county). In oder to achieve this goal, firstly I have gathered most of the opinions and thoughts expressed by historins and linguists regarding Borșa; secondly, I have organized this points of view for a better perspective on the issue. I also briefly analyzed the most important opinions and thoughts, finally showing which of them seems the most plausible at this stage of the research.
Keywords: Borșa, Onomastics, Toponymy, Etymology, Maramureș.