Lucian Blaga A

SECTION: HISTORY LDMD I FOREIGN TRAVELLERS ABOUT LIBRARIES AND CURIOSITY CABINETS IN THE 18TH AND 19TH CENTURIES Radu-Ciprian ERBAN, “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu, Abstract. Foreign travellers inŞ Romanian Countries often met intellectuals and their properties, and in their travel relations they went over describing wealth and statute, but also described the intellectual level of Romanian elite and society. Transylvanian libraries and curiosity cabinets were especially a place were the visitors could easily ‘read’ the interests of their landlords and to have conversations on certain topics. Thus, they were able to make appraisals of men and their belongings. Keywords: library, travel, literature, identity, Transylvania. A long time ago, Priscus of Panion accompanied Roman embassy at the court of Attila the Hun, keeping in mind a stereotypical image of the barbarians that Ammianus Marcelinus created in his History (Res Gestae). Historians today regard to Pricus’ travelling impressions as the most reliable contemporary account about Attila the Hun, which changed a lot the way the Romans perceived the barbarians afterwards 1 . During centuries, the travel literature often represented a complement and an updating of information about the other2. However, not each traveller was so open-minded, so objective and a well-meaning visitor as Priscus was. Be it with diplomatic purposes, or only in transition, travellers in Romanian Countries who chose to put down and print their experiences transferred them to the collective memory of their homelands. Thus, different travellers provided lot of accounts about Romanian countries and their society, many of which were contradictory, other generating stereotypes that would last for long time. As a result, someone could build an image of the Romanian society using puzzle pieces from many different “maps” drawn by strange travellers. There’s no doubt, they had interest not only for geographical location, relief, organization or infrastructure of habitations, but also for the cultural and intellectual level of the society, meaning cabinets of curiosity, private libraries, or the ability to organize education in schools. This information is more valuable as it balance out some gaps in the local historiography, and when it turns out to be false, it helps understanding how literature about the other was written. As a home for many ethnic groups (Romanians, Hungarians, Saxons, Székely, Cumans, Armenians, Jews, etc.) and denominations (Catholics, Reformed, Calvinists, Orthodox, Trinitarians etc.), Transylvania especially was more than a Romanian country; it was also the homeland of some brothers of faith or brothers of the nation and a transitional space – a border – between East and West. On the other side, depending on traveller’s belief, Transylvania could appear also as corrupted by heretics, and from this point of view, a space to be recovered: first 1 Kristopher Kelly, The End of Empire: Attila the Hun and the Fall of Rome, Norton, New York, 2009. 2 The existence of Albert Montémont’s monumental work on travel relations – Montémont, Albert (1788-1861). Histoire universelle des voyages effectués par mer et par terre dans les cinq parties du monde sur les divers points du globe, contenant la description des moeurs, coutumes, gouvernements et arts, industrie et commerce, productions naturelles et autres. Paris: Armand-Aubrée, s.d. [1833-1837]), in 46 volumes; a book that M. Kogălniceanu also bought for himself – demonstrates that the genre enjoyed the public interest and was appreciated by the audience for much time. 164 SECTION: HISTORY LDMD I for God (they said), and second, for the Habsburgic Empire practicing a retrieval policy, a real Reconquest3. Beyond all this finalities, Occidental travellers through Romanian Principalities – be they German, French, Italian or Englishman – prospects East-European area with a curiosity that stem from the desire to know better the other. In fact, in their relations, many travellers were influenced by the way these were greeted and treated. Thus, the image of intellectuality in Romanian countries varies from the metaphor of a ‘bear’ to that of ‘very wise scholars’. While a ‘modern’ traveller swore that he would never more enter in the house of a boyar, because those had been “like bears” that scarcely talk to you and don’t invite you eat with them, there were others who were tempted to exaggerate in great appreciations. In 13 of September 1581, the Jesuit priest Ioan Leleszi noted down: “the benevolence and kindness of magnates and counsellors is so great, even though they’re heretics, that I had not the slightest feeling that they refused me anything. They gladly came to me and spoke to me friendly [...]”4; the same preliminary impressions had almost always a great say in appraising people and realities around. For example, in Descriptio vitae Stephani liberi Baronis de Daniel et Vargyas, the visitor remembered that the High Steward Constantin Cantacuzino received him ‘sedens super stratum suum modo orientali tapetibus ornatum, erat circumcintus sua bibliotheca, singularem in libris habens animi sui obiectationem’5. In his report on the Kingdom of Hungary covering the period 1519-1523, Francesco Massaro, secretary of Venice orator at Buda, integrated news about Transylvania. He had fever (with shakes) and used some celery leaved crowfoot; that’s why he couldn’t write to his friends, as he said: “therefore I could not write you my friends, and since you have written to me that you’re willing to find out about the ones here: like books, weeds of cure and others, I will share with you what I have found here up to now”6. Massaro knew about the library of King Matthias Corvine, that was the largest in Europe, and in its contents it was only second to the Vatican Library in Europe7. There were 3000 codices including 4000-5000 works, many of classical Greek and Latin authors. But at that moment, the library itself was like ruins: “As for the library, I say that I was there and there is not any good book, all the best were stolen”8. When Georg Reicherstorffer9 – a Saxon born in Sibiu who was secretary of Queen Maria of Hungary and then of Ferdinand I (in 1526) – visited Braşov (also called Kronstadt or Corona), he found a great library that he also compared with the one of Matthias. In his Transylvanian 3 See Mihaela Grancea, Trecutul de astăzi. Tradiţie şi inovaţie în cultura română (Today’s past. Tradition and Innovation in Romanian Culture), Casa Cărţii de Ştiinţă, Cluj-Napoca, 2009. 4 Maria Holban (ed.) et alia, Călători străini despre Ţările Române, vol. 2 (Foreign Travellers about Romanian Countries, 2nd vol)., Editura Ştiinţifică, Bucharest, 1970, p. 464. 5 Mario Ruffini, Biblioteca Stolnicului Constantin Cantacuzino, Editura Minerva, Bucharest, 1973, p. 41. 6 Maria Holban (ed.) et alia, Călători străini despre Ţările Române, vol. 1 (Foreign Travellers about Romanian Countries, 1st vol)., Editura Ştiinţifică, Bucharest, 1968, p. 167. 7 See N. Iorga, Istoria românilor prin călători (History of Romanians through Travellers), 2nd edition, vol. 1, Editura Casei Şcoalelor, Bucharest, 1928, p. 76. He mentions one of the routes that Italian travellers followed, passing through Buda, where they could find the great library in the palace of King Matthias, with walls ornated by the Italian Filippino Lippi. 8 Maria Holban (ed.) et alia, Călători străini despre Ţările Române, vol. 1 (Foreign Travellers about Romanian Countries, 1st vol)., Editura Ştiinţifică, Bucharest, 1968, p. 169. 9 See Maria Holban (ed.) et alia, Călători străini despre Ţările Române, vol. 1 (Foreign Travellers about Romanian Countries, 1st vol)., Editura Ştiinţifică, Bucharest, 1968 p. 181. 165 SECTION: HISTORY LDMD I Corography10, he refers to the library11 founded by the Humanist Johannes Honterus, who also founded a school and a printing house. Thus, in the 18th century, the interest in books and libraries was already characteristic for travellers who made a tour through Transylvania. One of the curiosity cabinets most referred to in travel literature was that of Baron Samuel von Brukenthal from Sibiu. However, as none of the visitors was an expert in the field of art, we have to take their statements with a grain of salt. Some of these were extremely exalting things; other’s comments were rather discouraging. A very interesting and complex relation belongs to the scholar Domenico Sestini, who left Constantinople in 1779, hoping he would enter in the service of the Wallachian vaivod, which he didn’t. Leaving Romanian countries, in his transition through Transylvania, he met men and places that offered him varied opportunities for his intellectual delight. For example, he met Loeffler, a Saxon concerned about natural history; the colonel von Rosenfeld and the noble Ehrenreich von Fichtel were also possessors of impressive collections of natural history. And the earl Sori also had a cabinet of natural history12. As, also, in case of many clergyman with great influence in society (like the bishop Batthyany), it is easy to observe that libraries and cabinets of curiosity were often not only the proof of scientific curiosity, but also an expression of their wealth and power, and a mean to show this to visitors who could spread their fame in the world. But in his peregrination, Domenico Sestini found the governor of Transylvania to be most interesting. He saw Brukenthal’s palace, cabinet of curiosity, library and garden and ascertained they competed those in European countries. In the library he really finds the evidence of Brukenthal’s passion for erudition and bibliophily: “If this man will manage to fulfill his high purposes, I think it could be called legitimately a genius of Dacia. The city of Sibiu would get a rich library, a collection of paintings, a history museum, and a botanical garden, if the plans and intentions of this brilliant Mecena were fulfilled”13. It was known, indeed, that Samuel von Brukenthal was a polymath: he attended classes in German universities, at Halle and Jena, he was an initiate in basic disciplines of Illuminist culture (political and legal sciences, philosophy, theology, history) and he was in contact with European high society.

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