Circulation of the Greek Books in the Romanian Countries in the 17th and 18th Centuries

Abstract

In the 17th and 18th centuries, the commerce with Greek books was done by Greeks and Romanians. In Transylvania, the Greek merchants existed ever since the end of the 16th century. Many of those who circulated the Greek book were laic scholars (professors, medics, editors) or hierarchs of the Orthodox Church. The county libraries from lasi and Galati house some of the Greek editions published at Paris, Basel and Frankfurt, in the 16th century. In the 17th century, most of the books come from the Venetian printing houses, but there are also books printed in at Glykis. In March 1727, the priest Paisie from the Barnovschi Monastery of lasi set up a catalogue that included 40 Greek books among others. Also in the 18th century, Nikos Gaidagis set up a catalogue of the books existing at the Metropolitan Church of lasi and at the Princely Academy. In the 17th century, Constantin Cantacuzino organized a library at the Margineni Monastery (in 1839, there were 263 books here). Also the prince Constantin Brancoveanu established, at the beginning of the l8th century, a library at Hurezu (at the end of the same century, the library registered 382 old printed works and 46 Romanian, Greek -- Arab and Latin manuscripts), as well as at "Saint Sava." One of the largest libraries in the South-Eastern part of the Europe in the 28th century was the one of the Mavrocordats from the Vacaresti Monastery. In 1723, there were 154 books written in Greek language here. Libraries containing Greek books also existed in the 18th century at the Galata Monastery of lasi, at the commercial companies from Sibiu and Brasov.