In the 18th Century, when the Romanian Principalities,
\nWallachia and Moldavia, were under Ottoman control and were ruled by the
\nso-called Phanariotes, Greek noblemen coming from Phanarion quarter in
\nConstantinople, Bucharest saw a spectacular development. The small merchant
\ntown gradually developed into a crafts centre, an education centre and the home
\nof an ethnically and culturally diverse society. Many of the old crafts gained
\nfresh impetus at this time, but new ones also appeared, and among them was book
\nprinting. The number of printers increased, and the growing production of
\nprinting presses was primarily supported by the Church. The documents of the
\ntime suggest that bishops and archbishops would regularly hire printing press
\noperators, a valued and refined profession in the 18th Century. The
\nnames of some of these craftsmen has been preserved, and what we know about
\ntheir lives today also helps us understand better the life of the Bucharest
\npeople during that period. Some of the best know such printers were Stoica
\nIacovici and his sons, as well as Barbu Bucuresteanul, all of them living in
\nthe same period but very different in terms of character and destiny. Historian
\nDaniela Lupu, of the Bucharest City Museum, told us more:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Whereas Stoica was an extrovert, an enthusiastic and
\nexuberant nature, always in search of profits and the head of a large family
\n(he had 3 sons and an unknown number of daughters), Barbu Bucuresteanul was an
\nintrovert, a loner, without much wealth. He had to leave Bucharest, where he
\nhad probably been born, and look for work in Moldavia, because in mid-18th
\ncentury, Stoica Iacovici’s family were controlling most of the printing market
\nin Bucharest. Stoica was working together with his relatives, he had a large
\nteam and he had significant influence on the ruler of Wallachia and on the
\nmetropolitan bishop, so they were getting most of the jobs.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
In order to escape the quasi-monopoly of the Stoica Iacovici family,
\nBarbu Bucuresteanul had to work outside Bucharest. Daniela Lupu:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
After completing his apprenticeship in one of Bucharest’s
\nprinting workshops, we suspect that Barbu went looking for work in Moldavia, at
\nthe Radauti Archbishopric. In 1744, he started as a master printer of the
\nRadauti Bishopric Printing Press. He returned to Bucharest in 1747, and was
\nhired by the printing company run by Wallachia’s Metropolitan Bishopric. He
\nheaded the workshop and trained apprentices until around 1758, when he died,
\napparently of plague. During his 12-year career, Barbu printed 8 church service
\nbooks as well as prayer books. One of these was a pocket book intended for the
\ndaily prayers of believers, in their private homes, rather than for use in
\nchurch.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
In 1747, Barbu Bucuresteanul returned to his native town and
\ncontinued to publish religious works both in Romanian with Cyrillic script and
\nin Old Church Slavonic. It wasn’t unusual for a craftsman to travel in search
\nfor work, Daniela Lupu says:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
It’s clear that just as in the early days of printing,
\nprinters had a nomadic life, being always on the road looking for orders and
\nnew markets, that is if they didn’t happen to find a patron in the guise of
\nsome church dignitary. Even Barbu became in the end the printer of the
\nMetropolitan Church, having demonstrated his skill. After a lot of travelling
\nhe ended up settling in the city of his birth.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
In 1747, the first book printed by Barbu Bucuresteanul was published
\nby the Metropolitan Church of Hungaro-Wallachia in Bucharest. This was a book
\nof small format called The Prayers of Every Day of the Week. Barbu’s name
\ndoes not appear on the title page, but he does sign the preface. This tells us
\nthat he was also responsible for publishing the book. He didn’t work alone, but
\nas part of a team that involved other printers, such as Grigore Stan from
\nBrasov. Daniela Lupu tells us more:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
One interesting thing is that Barbu and Grigore sign an
\nemployment contract, to use the modern term, with the metropolitan Neophytos the Cretan from Bucharest. Unfortunately, not
\nmany such contracts have been preserved to this day, although there must have
\nbeen many of them. So this document is extremely valuable, for we can learn
\ndetails such as how much the printers earned, and what were their obligations
\nand rights. The contract is not very detailed, but it is very important in the
\ncontext of the 18th century because only two contracts of this kind
\nhave been preserved. We find from the contract that printers were employed for
\none job only. It also stipulated that they would receive food every day, that
\nalso included bread, wine, salt, as well as soap, candles to use when working
\nat night, and firewood.<\/p>\n
In the absence of clear information and documents, it
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An iconic figure of 18th-century Romania<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":50395,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45210],"tags":[45495,45496,45499,45497,45498],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-169086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rri-encyclopaedia","tag-18th-century-romania","tag-barbu-bucuresteanul","tag-master-printers","tag-print-culture","tag-printing-workshops"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
<\/em><\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nis assumed that Barbu Bucuresteanul stayed and worked in Bucharest until the
\nend of his life, which is believed to have occurred in 1758. It is possible
\nthat he may have been one of the victims of the plague epidemic that ravaged
\nthese parts between 1756 and 1759. <\/p>\n