18 February 2021
After years of editorial work at Campus Landau, the edition of the synodic negotiations of the Birthälm Superintendency over the years 1601-1752 has appeared. Editors: Ulrich A. Wien, Martin Armgart.
Being situated on the border of the Central European cultural space, Transylvania experienced 150 years of Ottoman influence on the Balkans.
This edition of the negotiations of the clerical synod is the product of joint efforts on the part of the University Koblenz-Landau (Campus Landau) with the University of Szeged and the Babeş-Bolyai University in Klausenburg (Cluj-Napoca).
The mostly neo-Latin sources can be found in the State Archives in Hermannstadt and were transcribed under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Mihály Balázs by a working group at the University of Szeged. Consequently, a team under the leadership of Dr. Ulrich Andreas Wien undertook the editorial work with extensive translation into German.
The results are now ready: three substantial, large-format volumes with just under 1800 pages. Volume 1 contains about 100 pages of introductory material and the most important information. The edition of the synodic negotiations of the 17th century follow. Volume 2 presents the edition of the sources until 1752 (edited by Martin Armgart). Volume 3 presents translation of the most important sections of the negotiation protocols as well as discussions and speeches into German, which were prepared by Annastina Kaffarnik. Finally, there is an extensive index of all three volumes.
This edition appears the series Urkundenbuch der Evangelischen Landeskirche A. B. in Rumänien 3/1-3.
Source editions treating the 17th and 18th centuries in Transylvania are extremely rare. This edition therefore fills an important gap. These volumes offer source material for research in the history of Early Modernity, military and diplomatic history, neo-Latin studies, social, medical, and economic history, research into the history of education, networking and nobility as well as church and theological history. Aspects of themes discussed in Central Europe and their reception and controversies all appear: Lutheran Orthodoxy, Pietism and Enlightenment, Calvinism, Unitarianism, the Romanian Orthodox Church and Transylvania’s unusually long-lasting reception of Melanchthon.
The work on this edition was supported by the Bundesbeauftragte (Staatsministerin) für Kultur und Medien of the Office of the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany. Printing costs were covered by resources from the Minority Departments of the Government of the Republic of Romania. This edition can therefore be sent to anyone interested without costs beyond shipping and handling.
Orders are taken by:
Transylvanian library, Schloss Horneck, D-74831 Gundelsheim.
Transylvanian Library: bibliothek@siebenbuergen-institut.de
Read here the German announcement.
