Leisure and reading in notes on old Romanian book, Transylvania (17th-19th centuries)
In the following lines we will try to bring to the fore some aspects, certifying the increase of the percentage of those who begin to discover that constant reading, sometimes even the daily one, is a favourite way of spending one’s spare time. The exchange of books, surprised in more notes, shows, without doubt, knowledge of reading of those who practices it. We identified a series of notes which refers to small personal libraries. Learning to read and write could be acquired both in a private environment (family, relatives, friends) and in an institutionalised one (especially begining with the first half of the 19th century). There are also reported some cases in which parents’ financial efforts to aquisition of books, so that their own children could learn to read and write, are totally ignored by the last ones. We note the parents’ financial effort to aquisition of books hoping that their descendants will study them. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Orthodox religious books were given a new link, at a relatively short period of time from the year of their publication. This phenomenon indicated, on one hand, the small number of those books, and on the other hand, the fact that their rapid wear was a consequence of their frequent use.
Keywords: library, old romanian book, orthodox religious book, reading, notes