“1 Decembrie 1918” University of Alba-Iulia

The Faculty of History and Philology

Department of History, Archaeology and Museology

Identification data of the project

Project Title:“Old Romanian Book in the Habsburg Empire (1691-1830). Recovery of a cultural identity”

Project Code: PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0314

Number of Financial Contract: 84/05.10.2011

Funded by: Executive Unit for Financing Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation (UEFISCDI)

Contractor: “1 December 1918” University, Alba-Iulia

Project Duration: 36 months

Contract Value: 995.480 lei

Project Director: Professor Eva Mârza, PhD; contact: evamarza@yahoo.com

Summary

Currently, the reconstruction of the Romanian cultural progress claims in-depth, analytical and synthetic researches, whose results should find their natural place within the communicating- system of the European culture. The herein proposed project aims at achieving a repertory of the Old Romanian Book in the Habsburg Empire between 1691and1830. The key concept of the project - Old Romanian Book - takes into consideration both the books printed in Romanian, no matter the place, and the books printed by Romanian authors, regardless of the language and the place of publication, between 1691 and 1830. The main objective of the project consists in knowing the image, the content and the role of the Old Romanian Book within a historical area that includes most of Central and Eastern-Central Europe (Romania, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Poland, Italy, the former Yugoslav area, The Czech Republic), based on an exhaustive investigation and meant for the mentioned chronological limits. The final product of the research aims at achieving the Repertory of the Old Romanian Book, a unique and nationwide one, through the utilized methodology of investigation and presentation.

This complex study will be written in a bilingual form (both English and Romanian) and it will stress certain chapter peculiarities. Thus, the European scientific community will learn about the Old Romanian Culture, in terms of the tangible product that defines it: the book.

Objectives

The general objective of this project consists in identifying the image, the content and the role of the Old Romanian Book within a historical area which includes most of Central and Central-Eastern Europe (Romania, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Poland, Italy, the former Yugoslav space, The Czech Republic). The achievement of this objective is based on an exhaustive investigation, the chronological limits being stated between 1691 and 1830.

Specific objectives meant to be achieved:

a) to differentiate all the Old Romanian Book titles for the first time; it may be achieved by investigations carried on in Romanian and foreign libraries and archives; then, getting them together into a single national collection becomes mostly essential;

b) to know all the printing centers where all those books came into being, the publishers, the printers, the illustrators and the broadcasters who contributed to the edification of the Old Romanian Culture;

c) to compare all the identified units to the equivalent productions existing in the Habsburg Empire between 1691 and 1830; the similarities and the differences should be emphasized so that a certain list of arguments could be used for a theoretical analysis of the project theme targeted on the European idea;

d) to accustom the scientific European area to the most valuable results of this research, by an active involvement in thematic Romanian conferences and in those of the community space;

e) to publish the gathered results within specialized foreign magazines in order to raise the visibility of the Romanian research in the Humanities;

f) to elaborate and to publish the repertory of the Old Romanian Book (1691-1830); this should be preceded by a specialized study focused upon the analysis of the following aspects: the historical, political and cultural context and its influences upon the editorial environment; the inventory and the evolution of book genres; the quantitative illustration of book production in statistical parameters.

This complex study will be written in a bilingual form (both English and Romanian) and it will stress certain chapter peculiarities. Thus, the European scientific community will learn about the Old Romanian Culture, in terms of the tangible product that defines it: the book.

The project research team

Professor Eva Mârza, PhD’s Curriculum Vitae, the Project Director, was also loaded in the following register: www.cercetatori-romani.ro.

Project budget in accordance with annex II of the grant agreement

Stages of the project in accordance with annex III of the grant agreement

Results obtained within the framework of the project

Phase I Results. In order to view the report, please follow this link.

Phase II Results. In order to view the report and the estimate sheet, please follow the following links: report estimate

Note: The results of the stages will be loaded at the end of each stage, according to the contractual terms.

Phase IV 2014 Results. In order to view the report please follow the following link.

Phase V 2015 Results. In order to view the report please follow the following link.

Phase VI 2016 Results. In order to view the report please follow the link.