The printer Barbu Bucuresteanul

An iconic figure of 18th-century Romania

Christine Leșcu, 24.11.2018, 11:59

In the 18th Century, when the Romanian Principalities,
Wallachia and Moldavia, were under Ottoman control and were ruled by the
so-called Phanariotes, Greek noblemen coming from Phanarion quarter in
Constantinople, Bucharest saw a spectacular development. The small merchant
town gradually developed into a crafts centre, an education centre and the home
of an ethnically and culturally diverse society. Many of the old crafts gained
fresh impetus at this time, but new ones also appeared, and among them was book
printing. The number of printers increased, and the growing production of
printing presses was primarily supported by the Church. The documents of the
time suggest that bishops and archbishops would regularly hire printing press
operators, a valued and refined profession in the 18th Century. The
names of some of these craftsmen has been preserved, and what we know about
their lives today also helps us understand better the life of the Bucharest
people during that period. Some of the best know such printers were Stoica
Iacovici and his sons, as well as Barbu Bucuresteanul, all of them living in
the same period but very different in terms of character and destiny. Historian
Daniela Lupu, of the Bucharest City Museum, told us more:

Whereas Stoica was an extrovert, an enthusiastic and
exuberant nature, always in search of profits and the head of a large family
(he had 3 sons and an unknown number of daughters), Barbu Bucuresteanul was an
introvert, a loner, without much wealth. He had to leave Bucharest, where he
had probably been born, and look for work in Moldavia, because in mid-18th
century, Stoica Iacovici’s family were controlling most of the printing market
in Bucharest. Stoica was working together with his relatives, he had a large
team and he had significant influence on the ruler of Wallachia and on the
metropolitan bishop, so they were getting most of the jobs.

In order to escape the quasi-monopoly of the Stoica Iacovici family,
Barbu Bucuresteanul had to work outside Bucharest. Daniela Lupu:

After completing his apprenticeship in one of Bucharest’s
printing workshops, we suspect that Barbu went looking for work in Moldavia, at
the Radauti Archbishopric. In 1744, he started as a master printer of the
Radauti Bishopric Printing Press. He returned to Bucharest in 1747, and was
hired by the printing company run by Wallachia’s Metropolitan Bishopric. He
headed the workshop and trained apprentices until around 1758, when he died,
apparently of plague. During his 12-year career, Barbu printed 8 church service
books as well as prayer books. One of these was a pocket book intended for the
daily prayers of believers, in their private homes, rather than for use in
church.

In 1747, Barbu Bucuresteanul returned to his native town and
continued to publish religious works both in Romanian with Cyrillic script and
in Old Church Slavonic. It wasn’t unusual for a craftsman to travel in search
for work, Daniela Lupu says:

It’s clear that just as in the early days of printing,
printers had a nomadic life, being always on the road looking for orders and
new markets, that is if they didn’t happen to find a patron in the guise of
some church dignitary. Even Barbu became in the end the printer of the
Metropolitan Church, having demonstrated his skill. After a lot of travelling
he ended up settling in the city of his birth.

In 1747, the first book printed by Barbu Bucuresteanul was published
by the Metropolitan Church of Hungaro-Wallachia in Bucharest. This was a book
of small format called The Prayers of Every Day of the Week. Barbu’s name
does not appear on the title page, but he does sign the preface. This tells us
that he was also responsible for publishing the book. He didn’t work alone, but
as part of a team that involved other printers, such as Grigore Stan from
Brasov. Daniela Lupu tells us more:

One interesting thing is that Barbu and Grigore sign an
employment contract, to use the modern term, with the metropolitan Neophytos the Cretan from Bucharest. Unfortunately, not
many such contracts have been preserved to this day, although there must have
been many of them. So this document is extremely valuable, for we can learn
details such as how much the printers earned, and what were their obligations
and rights. The contract is not very detailed, but it is very important in the
context of the 18th century because only two contracts of this kind
have been preserved. We find from the contract that printers were employed for
one job only. It also stipulated that they would receive food every day, that
also included bread, wine, salt, as well as soap, candles to use when working
at night, and firewood.

In the absence of clear information and documents, it
is assumed that Barbu Bucuresteanul stayed and worked in Bucharest until the
end of his life, which is believed to have occurred in 1758. It is possible
that he may have been one of the victims of the plague epidemic that ravaged
these parts between 1756 and 1759.