20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

Arabic biblical and liturgical texts printed in Europe... 183functional literacy among a larger number of pupils. The standardization ofthe Arabic Bible, too, may have created a new attitude to the role of printedbooks as special sources of textual authority.Such developments were reinforced by the stimulus given by theEuropean books to the development of local Christian Arabic presses inSyria and Lebanon. Although their output was small, they played their partin promoting the idea of printing as a normal and indigenous method ofbook production. But we must not exaggerate the phenomenon. The FrenchEnlightenment philosopher Volney, who travelled through the Arab worldin the 1780’s, remarked on the importance of printed books in the spread ofenlightenment. He considered that Arab society still suffered greatly frombackwardness and stagnation caused by the lack of printing, although heacknowledged that the Lebanese and other presses had brought about someincrease in reading and writing, and even "a sort of information" among theArab Christians – vitiated, however, by the exclusively religious nature ofthe books printed. 47Whether or not we agree with Volney, in either his negative or hispositive assessments, we must surely accept that this is an important fieldfor further research. We particularly need to know more about both thequantitative and the qualitative aspects of the use of printed books in theArab world in the early modern period, in order to gain a clearer picture oftheir impact on the intellectual and social history of the Arabs.Bibliography of secondary sources:Bădără, D. 1998, Tiparul românesc la sfârşitul secolului al XVII-lea şiînceputul secolului al XVIII-lea. Brăila.Balagna, J. 1984, L’imprimerie arabe en occident (XVI e , XVII e et XVIII esiècles). Paris.Bianu, I.; Hodoş N. 1903, Bibliografia românească veche 1508-1830, T. 1.1508-1716, Bucureşti.47Volney, C.F., 1787. Travels through Syria and Egypt in the years 1783, 1784 and1785. English translation. London, vol. II, 448-454.