Books and European Culture in Orăştie at the End of the Seventeenth Century
The school attached to the Reformed Church in Orăştie and the library revealed by the documentary sources, played an important part in the development of culture in the Hunedoara area in the seventeenth century and later. The first reliable data confirming the existence of the school are related to the Prince George I Rákóczi (1593-1648), in 1645. In the coming years this school developed and reached an educational level similar to that of a college. The inventory of the books belonging to the reformed church and school in Orăştie was drawn up in the last quarter of the seventeenth century. Forty-nine volumes are brought to our attention and when analyzed, they portray the cultural horizon of the school in Orăştie at the end of the seventeenth century. Most of these volumes were books that referred to the Calvinist doctrine of some famous European theologians, such as Franciscus Gomarus, Theodore de Béze, Rodolphus Gualtherus, David Pareus, William Ames, but students were also taught the philosophy of Petrus Ramus or Johannes Clauberg, the lexicographic works of Ambrosius Calepino’s, the writings of Ovid etc., the collection proposing some of the most widely circulated ideas that animated the intellectual landscape of that time.
Keywords: history of culture, history of libraries, seventeenth century, book, school, Orăştie
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