Hermina G.B. Anghelescu (School of Information Sciences, Wayne State University Detroit, United States of America)
Romania’s current territory consists of three major historical regions—Wallachia, Moldavia, and Transylvania—with unique and, at the same time, intertwined social, political, economic, and cultural development. The unification of the historical provinces occurred only after World War I, when the Treaty of Versailles (1919) recognized the union under the name of Romania. Beginning in the late 15th century, Wallachia and Moldavia gradually came under the influence of the Ottoman Empire, while Transylvania fell under the occupation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The two dominant powers have left significant marks on each region’s culture, education, religion, and language.
Early printing in Wallachia began in Târgoviște, the province’s capital, around 1508, with Hieromonk Makarije as a leading figure. The first books printed were in Church Slavonic, like the Liturgy Book (Liturghierul) and the Oktoih (1510). Wallachia became a significant center for printing Orthodox books, particularly in the context of the Ottoman Empire rule.
In Transylvania, the first printing house was established in Sibiu (called Hermannstadt at the time) in 1525, with Lucas Trapoldner’s typography. This is the first printing press in Transylvania and the second one in Romania’s present territory. The first book printed in Sibiu was the Latin Grammar by Thomas Gemmarius, in 1529. The first Romanian language book, the Romanian Catechism, was printed in Sibiu in 1544 by Filip Moldoveanu. In 1534, Johannes Honterus established his printing press in Brașov, the county seat in Transylvania, called Kronstadt at the time. Around 1550, the current Cluj-Napoca (Klauseburg at the time) became another important printing center in Transylvania.
In the province of Moldavia there has been a large number of manuscripts (the schools of calligraphy from monasteries such as Neamț, Putna and Dragomirna are to be noted), hence the necessity of typography occurred later than in the other two Romanian provinces. In the beginning, the printed book imitated the manuscripts both in the shape of letters and illustrations, frontispieces, initials, and vignettes. The foundation of the first typography in Iași, Moldavia’s capital, at the Three Hierarchs Monastery (1642), was the work of ruler Vasile Lupu and of Metropolitan priest Petru Movilă. The first book printed in Iași in 1643 was the Romanian Book of Teachings (Cazania sau Carte românească de învățătură), written by Metropolitan Varlaam, also known as Varlaam’s Book (Cazania lui Varlaam).
The printing press was introduced in the Wallachia and Moldavia at a time when Church Slavonic served as the liturgical and administrative language. Both Slavonic and the vernacular language, Romanian, employed the Cyrillic script. Slavonic was the language of the first printed books, especially liturgical books, which formed the majority of printed works during the first two centuries of printing. Much of the print output in Transylvania was in Hungarian and Latin, but there was also significant printing in German, mostly for the German-speaking Saxon population of urban Transylvania.
The paper will feature significant printers and their works and will compare and contrast the evolution of printing in the three territories that later constituted modern Romania.