Fondul de carte veche de pe lângă Arhiepiscopia Dunării de Jos din Galați

Abstract

This study highlights research from the 1980s of the last century, a documentary of the great antique book owners from Moldavia, whose funds were not yet known. Then the old Romanian books and the manuscripts in Romanian were collected and stored in Eparchial Deposits / Centralized Old Book Funds at the level of counties, through the concerted efforts of the Metropolitan Church of Moldavia and Suceava of the time, of the Dioceses, Councils and County Offices for the National Cultural Patrimony. Thus, they have laid the foundations of new bibliophile funds, organized under appropriate conditions. Thousands of copies of old books have been saved, getting the possibility of introducing them into the scientific circuit! Also, in Galaţi, a new important documentary fund appeared, besides the existing and known ones, from the property of some representative cultural institutions: “V. A. Urechia” Library and the History Museum in Galati. Until we have made a catalog of collections that make up this Fund, we present some general considerations, as a tribute to Saint Metropolitan Martyr Anthimos the Ivirite and to all church printers who have transformed the book into a work of art. As far as the old Romanian book is concerned, in 1980 the Diocesan Center Fund of the Lower Danube (now protected by the Museum of History, Culture and Christian Spirituality from the Lower Danube and much enriched!) numbered about 228 titles in 957 copies, many of them representing real monuments of printing art, coming from almost all the printing centers in the Romanian historical provinces, as well as from abroad: Blaj, Brasov, Bucharest, Buda, Buzau, Chisinau, Dubasari, Iasi, Caldarusani Monastery, Neamt Monastery, Movilău, Ramnic, St. Petersburg, Sibiu, Snagov, Vienna. The oldest book is the Homily of the Metropolitan Varlaam, the Romanian Book of Teachings (Iaşi, 1643). Other copies are also described here.