20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

The Reader (Lepturariul) of Aron Pumnul – a pioneering book 155M. Cetǎţeanul, H. Grandea, V. Alecsandri (with The Altar of MonasteryPutna and The Romanian Gatekeepers), Gh. Asachi, Al. Donici, A. Pann,D. Bolintineanu (with Stephen the Great and his Mother and Mihnea andthe Old Woman), C. Negruzzi, I. Poni Zimbeteanu, C. Caragiale, IoanRaţiu, Ioan Vǎcǎrescu, Ioan Borcea, Gr. Alexandrescu, Mihai Cuciureanu,V. Aron and others.The “prose” section is poorer in original texts, however it includesDumitru Petrino, “the baron from Bessarabia” with Raw Nature andCultural Nature, an interpretation of Buffon; I.I. Many (The Land of Birth);Iuliu Bǎrǎşiu (with five texts!); N. Boiu; translations (mostly of Körner);extracts from Paper for the Mind... (Foaie pentru minte...) and from TheRomanian Telegraph (Telegraful roman). One of the criteria for selectingthe texts in this section is didactical. No information is given about theauthors of the texts or about the sources from which they are reproduced.The content of the third volume 14 , printed in a single book and destinedto the fifth and sixth years of senior secondary education, follows a totallydifferent vision. If the year printed on the cover (1862) is correct, it meansthat this volume appeared before the second one, which dates from 1863.Considering the maturity of the students in these senior years, Pumnul infact provides them with an authentic history of Romanian literature.The volume begins with the full version of Huru’s Chronicle (Cronicalui Huru), Huru being the chancellor of Dragoş, leader of Moldavia; itcontinues with nearly 40 pages of religious literature (Patrevangheliul,The Meaning of the Gospels, The Gospel Teaching by Deacon Coresi, atranslation of the New Testament by the monk Silvestru of Transylvania, afragment of The Gold Coffin by the priest Ioan of Vinţ), all of these beingreproduced, as mentioned by the author, from The Analects by TimoteiCipariu. These are followed by longer or shorter texts from Varlaam,Dosoftei, Giorgiu II – former metropolitans of Moldavia – and a shortfragment (The First Hexameters in Romanian) courtesy of Mihai Halici,which the author believes to represent the first lyrics in Romanian.The volume continues with over 200 pages dedicated to the Moldavianchroniclers (Grigore Ureche, Miron and Nicolae Costin, Ion Neculce,Nicolae Mustea), Ioan Canta, Ioan Kogǎlniceanu (Moldavian historian);an anonymous chronicler (“the Unnamed”/ “Nenumitul”); a substantial14Rumanian Reader Featuring Rumanian Authors, Commissioned by the HighMinistry of Instruction, for Usage by Fifth and Sixth Year Senior Secondary Students,by Arune Pumnul, Professor of Rumanian Language and Literature at the PlinariuSecondary College in Chernovtsy. 1862, Tome III, Subsidised by the G.O. Religious Fundin Bukovina. Vienna: C.R. Publisher of Educational Books.