Rare old books at the National Archives of Romania

An exhibition organised jointly with the Museum of Romanian Literature

Steliu Lambru, 29.05.2022, 14:00

Old books are fascinating, both due
to their vulnerability to the passage of time, and to the craftmanship of those
who have illustrated them. The fragility of old paper, the language in which
the texts have been written, often even a dead language, the unusual typefaces,
are as many challenges to the contemporary reader. But it is precisely these
barriers that attract, challenge and fuel our curiosity for these objects of
the past, revered by those who thirst for knowledge.

The National Archives of Romania and
the Museum of Romanian Literature have joined efforts in organising an
exhibition of rare old books from the Archives. The organisers put on display
original items dating back as many as 600 years, to the times of the great
inventor Johannes Gutenberg. Fifty-two highly valuable books from the
institution’s collections are included. They were published in major European printing
centres in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Belgium in the 15th
– 17th Centuries, while the ones published in the Romanian
Principalities date back to the 17th – 19th Centuries.

Most of them are religious books, atlases
of the world, history books, books in Latin, Greek, German, French and Italian.
The names of the authors are no less impressive: Terentius, Ammianus
Marcellinus, Lucian of Samosata, Theodore Spandugino, Erasmus of Rotterdam,
Nicolaus Olahus. Among the authors we also find the early 18th
Century prince of Moldavia Dimitrie Cantemir, one of the most significant
figures of early Enlightenment, featured in this exhibition with the English,
German and Romanian editions of his History of the Ottoman Empire. Other Romanian
books on display are a 1767 mineralogy book published in Cluj, the Șerban
Cantacuzino Bible, the Romanian Book of Learning by Metropolitan Varlaam and
the Romanian Psalter in verse by Metropolitan Dosoftei.

Archivist Șerban Marin, a medieval
studies specialist and the curator of the exhibition, says we cannot talk about
distinctions between Romanian and foreign books:

Șerban Marin: These are old books, both Romanian and foreign, although this
distinction is not the most appropriate. Especially in this globalisation era,
we cannot draw a line between foreign books and Romanian books. We have
selected a number of books, among the oldest in our collection, including four incunabula,
which are books published before the year 1500, which are exceptionally
valuable.

Șerban Marin also told us the not so
pleasant story of how some of these books came into the possession of the
National Archives:

Șerban Marin: On the one hand, there
were donations from various personalities, first and foremost Bogdan Petriceicu
Hașdeu who was the director of the Archives for a long time. He donated a lot
to the National Archives, including some of these books. But there are also
books acquired more recently, namely in the communist decades, and this is a
different story. These books were virtually stolen from their owners, who were
thrown into prisons like Gherla, Aiud and so on, and died there. So we are
basically talking about a theft by the Romanian government, against private
property, against common people who valued books. Moreover, a small percentage
of these books no longer have their title pages and their back pages, and I dare
make the assumption that this is because on the title page, the name of the former
owner appeared, whether a politician or an industrialist. So the brave members
of our political police were fighting not only particular persons, but also the
innocent books that those people owned. They tore that title page so that
nobody could see the name of the former owner. This is an assumption I’m
making, but it is worth considering.

We also asked Șerban Marin about the
four incunabula:

Șerban Marin: First we have
Gerardus de Vliederhoven, a 14th Century author, whose books were
published in 1492, with a religious book entitled Quattuor nouissima. Then
there is the second edition, the 1497 one, of Liber Chronicarum by Herman
Schedel. This could be described as an extensive encyclopaedia, but also as a
very interesting tourist guide. Schedel was for the 15th Century
traveller what Michelin is for us today. The third incunabulum is Pomponio Leto’s
work on the life of Marcus Antonius Coccius Sabellicus. He was born in
Lazio-Latium region, and he also wrote a history of Venice. And last but not
least, we have a late edition of Gesta Romanorum, the famous work about the
deeds of the Romans published in 1497.

The spectacular exhibition of Rare
old books in the National Archives of Romania hosted by the Museum of Romanian
Literature, takes us on a journey back in time. (AMP)