LXI SERIES HISTORICA 2022
De la medieval spre modernitate
Adinel Dincă
Istorie – percepție istorică – istoriografie. Despre originea și etnia primilor coloniști occidentali ai Transilvaniei medievale
Abstract: 900 years ago, the direction of workforce migration in Europe was the opposite of today: the expertise needed for urban development along the new trade routes generated a transfer of population from the west to the sparsely populated eastern peripheries of the Christian Latinitas. These settlers enjoyed a wide range of fiscal and ecclesiastical immunities and privileges granted by local rulers, thus providing attractive conditions for a better life in their new homelands. One of these environments under construction was Transylvania, at that time a new territorial addition to the Kingdom of Hungary. The first wave of „royal guests” – ca. 2600 Walloon, Flemish and German colonists from today’s Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Low Countries – settled around Sibiu after 1150. During the last century, however, little academic analysis has been attempted to challenge or further appreciate these affirmations. The purpose of this paper is to underline the necessity of bringing a fresh view on the assessments concerning the origin and ethnicity of the first wave of colonists in medieval Transylvania, through updated methodological suggestions and an interdisciplinary apprehension of historical sources, material culture, linguistic elements, church institutions, and social structures.
Keywords Cultural identity, Migration, Transylvanian Saxons, Historiography.
Macarie Motogna, Șerban Turcuș
Mănăstirea din Perii Maramureșului între charistikariat și stavropighie
Abstract: The study analyzes from an ecclesiological and canonical perspective the founding of the stauropegion from Peri (historical Maramureș) – 1391. It is assumed that the transformation of a local monastery into a dependency of the Patriarchate of Constantinople is not just a local affair, but must be assessed in the broad context of Patriarch Anthony IV of Constantinople’s efforts to strengthen the authority of the emperor and his own, with ecclesiological accents very close to those of the Roman Church. Regarding the evolution of the monastery from a local one to one dependent on Constantinople, it is estimated that it evolves from a charistike regime to stavropegion, following a specific route of the Greek rite monasteries protected by lay people. From this perspective of the patronal right over the monastery, it is considered that the local nobles Baliță and Dragoș wanted to protect it from the danger of passing to the Latin rite. Thus it is reached the legal hypostasis that the patriarch of Constantinople is the rightful holder of the canonical jurisdiction over a part of the north of the Romanian space.
Keywords: monastery, charistikaria, patriarch, Constantinople, Maramureș, stavropegion.
Maria Frînc
Un drept de moștenire pe linie feminină în evul mediu: quarta filialis. Perspective istoriografice
Abstract: Often mentioned in medieval charters from the Kingdom of Hungary and implicitly Transylvania, quarta filialis represents a right of inheritance on the feminin line, specific to Eastern Europe. This law is certified beginning with the 13th century and legally valid until the middle of the 19th century. Over time, quarta fililis has been the subject of research by historians and jurists. The present paper intends to analyzes the institution quarta fililias from a historiographical perspective, taking into account the highlighting of the research directions so far, as well as the outline of some perpective which must be deepened for a better knowledge of this topic.
Keywords: quarta filialis, right of inheritance, nobility, customary law, Medieval Transylvania.
Victor V. Vizauer
Statutele Făgărașului din anul 1508
Abstract: The document known as Statutele Făgărașului (The Statutes of Fogaras), issued on may 15, 1508, can be considered a monument of old Romanian legislation – unwritten until that moment. The first publication of the Latin text of the document come from 1885 (in Hungary) and then from 1921 (in Romania). Over the years various authors have translated short parts of the text, which they considered to be of interest to their own research, but a full translation into the Romanian language was never made. This ”problem” was remedied within this material, in the Annex being found the Romanian translation1.
Also, in this article I made a brief presentation of the historical evolution of Făgăraș Country from the first documentary mentions in the beginning of the 13th century until 1508, the year of the issuance of this document. I tried to capture the historical framework that facilitated the preservation of the elements of the Romanian traditions, to which the different articles contained in the Statutes belong, articles that reflect various specifics of the life of the romanians in the Făgăraș Region.
Keywords: Fogaras, Medieval laws, Ius Valachicum, Transylvania, Customs.
Susana Andea
Formule de jurământ în limba română din Transilvania (sec. XVII-XVIII)
Abstract: The present article aims to disseminate the written texts of the first oaths taken in Romanian in the Transylvania. The sworn declarations required by officials over the Middle Ages and the pre-modern period are analysed from a historical perspective. Emphasis is placed on oaths taken by interviewed persons and witnesses. Also, starting from the idea that the oaths were sworn into the spoken language and with similar contents in the three languages of the province, two cases of oaths taken in German, Hungarian and Romanian are now presented to the wider public, all preserved in Sibiu’s town archives. The texts differ according to the religion of the witness. Other written oaths form the Chioar area and from the Transylvanian plain are published now, concluding that a standard form was used stereotypically for the spoken languages. The Romanian language, in which these oaths were written, has been strongly influenced by Hungarian and German, with archaisms and regionalisms. These particularities suggest a certain inhomogeneity and difficulty in putting the spoken words in writing by the scribe. An attempt was also made to establish the name of the author(s) of these documents.
Keywords: oath, witness, Romanian language, Hungarian language, German language, Transylvania.
Biserică, mentalități, ideologii
Bogdan Munteanu
Contele Széchenyi István (1791 – 1860). O interpretare identitară a unui personaj-puzzle
Abstract: This article aims to reconstruct some aspects of Széchenyi István’s personality. Different aspects are analyzed such as „his identities”, the complex character of his personality. The main conclusion is that he embraced progressive views despite the aristocratic tradition in which he was educated, finding that we are dealing with an extremely complex personality. The complex nature of his national conception stems depending on the target group, Széchenyi was simultaneously both a Herderian and a contractualist. When addressing his compatriots about nationality, he did so in Herderian terms, emphasizing language and culture, but when he added the national issue to the equation, prudence dictated that he retreat to contractual positions so that Hungarian nationalities could see his national vision. A project to subscribe to. Deciphering and interpreting a complex character like Count Széchenyi István is not an easy task at all. His person can be seen as a cumulation made up of different forms – but perfectly compatible from his perspective – of patriotism, seemingly irreconcilable ideological influences, enlightenment and romanticism, all manifesting simultaneously and in different doses, depending on the context.
Keywords: Count Széchenyi István, Nationalism, Reforms, Hungarian liberalism, identity, alterity.
Bianca Glăvan
Influența ideilor herderiene asupra gândirii lui Simion Bărnuțiu
Abstract: The article analyzes the new historiographical perspective on J.G. Herder’s philosophy and how his ideas were received and adapted by the Romanian intellectuals of Transylvania in the nineteenth century. The meanings of Herderian ideas acquire a new outlook by highlighting his distinctive methodology for historical inquiry, based on historicism, the plurality of values and the uniqueness of each culture, by his striving to combine the particular with the universal, and by his national conception, which integrates cultural and political aspects. The case study dedicated to Simion Bărnuțiu reveals the importance of the references provided by the German experience: the manner of conceiving nation (ethnonation, organicism, community unity through language), the fight against assimilationist policies, the right to develop one’s own culture, the usage of principles of historicism, the link between language and national culture, the role of national educational institutions. The circulation of Herderian ideas was facilitated by the general atmosphere of romanticism, journalism and intermediaries, such as jurist Friedrich-Karl von Savigny.
Keywords: herderianism, romanticism, nationalism, organicism, circulation of ideas.
Emanuel Copilaș
Monarhia română, 1944-1947. Scurt profil ideologic
Abstract: This article tackles the problem of the postwar Romanian monarchy through ideological lens. It aims to bring forward a new doctrinaire perspective upon the monarchical institution in general and king Michael in particular, without trying to minimize in any way the political contributions of king Carol II of Romania’s successor to ending the war in Romania and mitigating as much as possible the consolidation of Soviet influence upon the country.
Keywords: postwar, geopolitics, Sovietization, process, conservatism.
Diplomație, relații internaționale
Veronica Turcuș
Constantin C. Giurescu, ministru al propagandei naționale și Italia lui Mussolini. Un instantaneu diplomatic
Abstract: Based on documents from the Archivio Storico Diplomatico del Ministero degli Affari Esteri Farnesina, the study aims to present a moment of the Romanian-Italian diplomatic relations, concerning the field of cultural diplomacy, but with a special political and military significance in the context prior to the territorial cessations suffered by Romania in the summer of 1940. It is about the visit undertaken by the Minister of National Propaganda, Constantin C. Giurescu to Romein April 1940, and the discussions he had, together with the envoy of Romania in the Italian capital, Raoul Bossy, with the Minister of Popular Culture, Alessandro Pavolini. The documents brought into question contain details on the position of the Romanian leadership in the context of the Soviet pressures related to the Bessarabia and clarifications regarding the Italian attitude in the mentioned problem.
Keywords: Romanian-Italian relations, Benito Mussolini, cultural diplomacy, national propaganda.
Radu Florian Bruja
Atitudinea Slovaciei față de problema Transilvaniei în vara anului 1940
Abstract: One of Slovakia’s foreign policy objectives after independence was to move closer to Romania in order to combat Hungarian revisionism. But Romania’s orientation towards Western powers was different from that of Slovakia, which was integrated into the sphere of German influence. Thus, until the summer of 1940, bilateral relations remained cold. Our analysis brings to the fore an unknown issue concerning the second Vienna Agreement of August 1940. Slovakia was the victim of a similar arrangement and had political, economic and national interests vis-à-vis Romania. But the political crisis generated by the power struggle in Bratislava between the radical pro-German and moderate camps marked Slovakia’s attitude. It has not been consistent in achieving its objectives. The moderates wanted a rapprochement with the Soviet Union, while the radicals sought integration into the political system dominated by the Reich. Our study focuses on the oscillations of foreign policy in the summer of 1940 and on its position on the problem of Transylvania. I have tried to highlight Slovakia’s attitude by attempting to answer’ three questions. What was Bratislava’s attitude to the USSR’s aggression against Romania? How did Bratislava position itself in the context of the Romanian-Hungarian dispute over the issue of Transylvania? How was the outcome of the second arbitration in Vienna received in Bratislava?
Keywords: Romania, Second Vienna Award, Slovakia, Transylvania, diplomacy.
Alexandra-Iulia Nuc
Indira Gandhi. Portretul unui prim-ministru cu voință de fier
Abstract: Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi was an Indian politician and the only female Prime Minister of the country. Daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, she served as Prime Minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and from 1980 until her assassination in 1984. In 1999, Indira Gandhi was named „Woman of the Millennium” in an online poll organized by the BBC. The present study follows her incredible life and speaks about her legacy in India and beyond.
Keywords: Indira Gandhi, Women in Politics, Independent India, visit to Romania.
Cultură, economie și societate
Andreea Mârza
Incunabulele bibliotecii Batthyaneum din Alba Iulia – date referitoare la cercetarea colecţiei
Abstract: This research has as a starting point some information discovered in the library catalogues where reference is made to the existence of duplicate incunabula in the book holdings. They are catalogues drawn up after the death of the library’s founder, bishop Ignác Batthyány (+ 1798) by the second librarian, András Cseresnyés. Following the bishop’s death, the Government of Transylvania also requested the inventory of the book holdings and writing catalogues to know the exact holdings considering the lawsuit filed by the family of the deceased bishop.
On this occasion, librarian A. Cseresnyés drew up several catalogues to which he also added that of the duplicates existent at that time. Among the duplicates are mentioned a series of incunabula which over time were given in exchange (in 1826) or sold (between 1930 and 1931) due to financial difficulties. Of those discovered to date, only the bishop-founder had incunabula in his collection. Of these, several tens with lacks, damp stains, fragmented etc were removed from the initial holdings. The library needs a new incunabulum catalogue to contain maybe also a short description of the circulation of each copy till Transylvania; similarly, it also needs to find out, if possible, about the potential local collectors, especially local private individuals, for example from the Saxon Transylvanian area. The incunabulum collection held by the bishop founder of the institute from Alba Iulia was amassed in different ways; all of them left traces on the works such as ownership marks.
The study also tackles the works or articles written in Romania concerning the incunabulum collection of the Batthyaneum Library to offer, we hope, a starting point for researching the holdings and, perhaps, for writing a new catalogue.
Keywords: incunabula, Ignác Batthyány, Batthyaneum Library, Alba Iulia, catalogue, duplicates, description
Iosif Marin Balog
Învățământul economic mediu din Transilvania, cadru instituțional și evoluție (1850-1914)
Abstract: The study analyzes the evolution of the institutional framework of vocational education in Transylvania during 1850-1914. It examines the legislation that has been developed over time and which has governed this type of education. Comparisons are also made with the evolution of the similar education system in Austria and the Kingdom of Hungary. It is also analyzed the context in which the first schools were founded. The analysis reveals that these schools appeared for practical reasons and their organization was made on the fly, both from an institutional point of view and in regard to the curricula, the basic principle being to satisfy the needs of knowledge in the technical and commercial fields, and to train the students with a minimum qualification, according to local requirements. Therefore, at the beginning, the state was not involved in any form of financial support, the latter being providedby private entities or communities. It was not until the end of the 19th century that the state became more obviously involved in terms of both legislative regulations and the financing of real and commercial schools.
At the end, a series of quantitative data are presented that reveal the evolution of this type of education in terms of the number and type of schools, the rhythm in which they were founded, data on the number of students who attended them, the language of instruction, and a list of their type, place and year of establishment.
Keywords: vocational education, industrial schools, commercial schools, school legislation, Transylvania, 19th Century.
Mirela Popa-Andrei
Școală educație, modernizare în Transilvania. Studiu de caz: Școala greco-catolică de meserii și negustorie din Blaj (1898-1923)
Abstract: The economic schools emerged out of practical necessity with the advance of the capitalist economy and the technological changes that determined and accompanied this process. In the Austrian Empire there were only a few real schools (Realschule) until the middle of the 19th Century. The interest in this particular category of schools grew especially after the revolution of 1848, as a result of economic development and the progress of trade, industry, and the means of communication. In the eastern parts of the monarchy, and therefore in Transylvania and especially at the level of the Romanian nation, the evolution of real education was slower than in the western parts of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. The Romanian students mostly attended German and Hungarian real schools, because in the absence of adequate financial resources, the Romanian and professional schools were sparse. In 1898 in Blaj, Transylvania, it was established one of the three real schools having the Romanian as language of proposal, namely the Greek Catholic School of Trades and Commerce. Our study aims at a brief presentation of the context of the establishment of a real education in Transylvania. The paper also proposes a case study on the Greek Catholic industrial school in Blaj, from its establishment moments to the means of support, followed by an analysis of the profile of its students, from the point of view of their national, denominational, and geographical origins.
Keywords: economic schools, real schools, Industrial school Blaj, Transylvania, 19th Century.
Luminița Dumănescu, Nicoleta Hegedűs
Medicalizarea Transil- vaniei. Aspecte ale implementării unui sistem de sănătate public la 1900
Abstract: The aim of the present paper is to offer a glimpse of the public health system in Transylvania in 1900 and to identify the state medical staff in the provincial administration based on the data contained in the Transylvanian Health Database, a new digital tool dedicated to Transylvanian physicians in the past, currently under construction at the Centre for Population Studies of the “Babeș-Bolyai” University of Cluj-Napoca. In order to outline the framework in which these doctors worked, the study reviews the legislation in the field of public health. Health statistics in Hungary, provided by the Magyar Statisztikai Évkönyv, asses the situation of the public health system at county level in numerical values. The picture is completed by the nominal list of doctors who occupied the main posts in this system in Transylvania in 1900. The paper can also be seen as an introduction to the Transylvanian Health Database as a working tool for research in social history and medical history.
Keywords: medicalization, history of medicine, Transylvanian Health Database, sanitary legislation, physicians.
Florin-Laurențiu Bucur
The Offer of Publications addressed to the Romanian Civil Society from Transleithania between 1914-1918
Abstract. Even in the difficult conditions of the war, the offer of Romanian publications remained open to the public in Transleithania throughout the years 1914-1918. The vast majority of Romanian language periodicals that appeared before the beginning of the armed conflict, whether they were newspapers, calendars, activity reports or school yearbooks, continued to be published during the Great War, due to the fact that the printed pages respected, in in whole or in part, the measures imposed by the Austro-Hungarian censorship structures. Others, either due to lack of staff, due to massive recruitment, or due to the strict editing conditions imposed by the state authorities, closed their newsrooms. The war period also registered new appearances on the Romanian press market, from religious or literary newspapers to national-political periodicals, especially towards the end of the fifth year of the world conflagration. Regarding the production and circulation of books, the works were presented to readers, through periodicals, either in the form of collections of titles published in the pre-war period, or in the form of new individual appearances. In the case of the first category, bookstores and printing houses competed in presenting to their readers the book offers in their own repositories, with topics dealing with various topics, from Romanian and foreign literature, to specialized works or religious texts, in classified packages. on thematic or financial criteria. The advertising campaign also included new book appearances, whether it was reprints, with content updates according to the requirements of conflicting realities, or new titles, and the most frequently addressed topics were religious and directly related to military events.
Keywords: diaries, calendars, books, printing houses, Transleithania, Habsburg Monarchy, 1914-1918
Otilia-Ștefania Damian
Claudiu Isopescu (1894-1956) „Apostol al culturii române” în Italia
Abstract: This study, conducted with an interdisciplinary methodology, deals with one of the most important promoters of Romanian culture in interwar Italy, Claudiu Isopescu (1894-1956), known mainly as the founder of the Department of Romanian language and literature at the University „La Sapienza” in Rome, but also as a promoter of Romanian language education in other Italian universities. Claudiu Isopescu has been engaged in Italy in a complex mission as a teacher, publicist, researcher, organizer of cultural events, translator and coordinator of the first Italian monographs dedicated to Romanian authors. He was also the creator of an important collection of Romanian books in Rome (Fondo Isopescu, Biblioteca Alessandrina). After a brief presentation of the sources used, in particular those found in the Italian and Romanian archives, and of his rich correspondence with important personalities of the interwar period (Giovanni Gentile, Vittorio Rossi, Giulio Bertoni, George Călinescu, Mircea Eliade, Nicolae Iorga, etc.), we focused on the activity and work of the Romanian intellectual, in an attempt to deepen the reception he enjoyed to the present day. Although we discussed all aspects of his activity, we focused in particular on his work as a teacher of Romanian language and literature, publicist and researcher. The aim of our study was to understand the value of his contribution to the development of Italian-Romanian cultural relations, in particular the significance of his scientific work, and to explore the idea of cultural apostolate that is reflected in his historiographical and literary reception.
Keywords: Isopescu, Italian-Romanian cultural relations, reception, exile, document.
Oana Habor
Valeriu Lucian Bologa – semicentenar (1971-2021)
Abstract: „Iuliu Hațieganu” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, commemorated in 2021, five decades since the passing into eternity of professor Valeriu L. Bologa, the founder of the Romanian school of medical history. The study aims to highlight the personality of this eminent mentor and researcher in the light of his fruitful scientific results in the field of medical historiography. He approached different topics such as: less known historical figures of physicians from Transylvania and Banat, the etymology of medical terms, medical quackery, folk medicine, medical philosophy, the history of pharmacy etc. All this brought elements of novelty and original directions of research in Romanian medical historiography. Lettered bibliophile, Valeriu Bologa founded the reference library of the Institute for the History of Medicine. Member of numerous national and international academies, distinguished with many awards for his prodigious research and educational activity, V. Bologa remains among the most refined professors of the medical school in Cluj and a cherished scientist in Romania and abroad.
Keywords: medical history, Valeriu Bologa, medical books, folk medicine, history of pharmacy.
Opinii și dezbateri istoriografice
Lidia Gross
Negustorii și geneza comunității urbane în Bistrița (secolul al XIV-lea)
Abstract: The present paper intends to approach the genesis of Bistrița’s community and urban autonomy from a new perspective, namely that of the role played by merchants in this process. The analysis of documents, correlated with historiographical approaches, reveals the importance of this economic-social group in the substantiation of specific institutions and of self-administration in Bistrița over the 14th century; they represent the patriciate engaged in commerce (especially in long-distance trade), so their interests converged towards acquiring and consolidating an administrative and legal framework favorable to their own activity. It is no coincidence that the town owed its royal privileges in this century to them, members of the Hennings and Göbels, two patrician families whose trading business was flourishing at the time, being recorded in these documents as civis or iuratus civis.
The study revolves around a document (considered false by Maria Holban) issued by Louis I, King of Hungary, in 1361 at the request of cloth merchants from Bistrița; this document illustrates their membership in a privileged social group, the patriciate (similar to merchants of cloth from the cities of the Holy Roman Empire of German descent), as well as their importance in the economic life of the settlement.
Keywords: Bistrița, merchants, urban community, urban autonomy, privilege.
Loránd Mádly
Neoabsolutismul – o reeditare a absolutismului luminat? Câteva perspective comparative
Abstract: The interesting but controversial decade of Neoabsolutism, which followed after the Revolution of 1848, can be analyzed too as a continuation or reissue of the enlightened Absolutism, which shaped through reforms the institutional framework of the Habsburg Monarchy. Though an oppressive and authoritarian system, the Neoabsolutism implemented many reforms, some of them continuations of the Enlightenment agenda, but other political decisions, such as the Concordate with Vatican, exposed a more conservative side of this period. In a complex crown land as Transylvania, dominated by the necessary, but after 1848-49 heavily impacted cooperation of the main three nationalities and its confessions, these issues appeared in a more complex manner. In the mentioned decade, more reforms were implemented, some of them new and some as a continuation of the older reformistic program, which is easy to understand since these continuities were part of an institutional identity of the monarchic state. This paper tries to address some of these aspects in a general matter and specifically in their Transylvanian manifestation.
Keywords: Neoabsolutism, enlightened Absolutism, Habsburg Monarchy, Transylvania, reforms.
Attila Varga
„În spatele măștilor”. Caietul negru al lui Alexandru Vaida-Voevod
Abstract: The present analysis refers to Alexandru Vaida-Voevod’s famous „Black Diary”, which contains his own reflections concerning the ideas of race and eugenics. On the other hand on his notes have been written during the period he was Minister of the Internal Affairs, having a very close connection with Corneliu Zelea Codreanu and the Legionary Movement. His notes underline also the most radical ideas ever conceived by the famous romanian politician. The reflections from the „Black Diary” were outlined somewhere in the 1920s, when eugenic appeared in the Romanian space.
Keywords: Black Diary, Freemasonry, Eugenics, Racism, Nationalism, Elites.