20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

848 Maria Parizaand The old Romanian bibliography: 1508-1830 2 . These sources offer uscomplete data for the study of the history of printing and Romanian bookand gather all books published in the country, outside the country, bookswritten in Romanian or written by Romanians in other languages.The most difficult task when dealing with this subject was to establishthe origins of some scholars from the South of Danube, acknowledged upto the 18 th century, period which was characterized by important settlingsof the south-danubian Vlachs into Romanian land. During the centuries,along with the Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbians, the Balkans Vlachs alsosettled on the left bank of the Danube river as isolated individuals. 3Usually, it is difficult to determine a real frame regarding the presence ofthe Balkans Vlachs in other areas. It happens so because the Vlachs aresometimes confused with the Greeks, this confusion appears only in theterritories where the Aromanians emigrated and lived together with Greekemigrants as individuals or in small communities. This confusion was notdeliberate, and rather explicable as the Aromanians and the Greeks sharedthe same orthodox religion, and also because the Aromanians used theGreek language in churches and schools, in commercial affairs and theircorrespondence.In order to create an objective reconstruction, the majority of modernand contemporary researchers have started a thorough investigation of thesettlements from which these “Greeks” came from keeping in mind the factthat the Greeks and Vlachs never lived together in native settlements.Such reconstitutions were made by historian Nicolae Iorga and also byimportant figures in the history of the Romanian book like monk Nicodimof Tismana the founder of monastic life in Wallachia, who came thereduring the reign of Vladislav Vlaicu with the purpose of consolidating theOrthodox Church.We know about Nicodim that he was born in the south of Danube inPrilep, Macedonia around the year 1305 from a Macedonian father and aSerbian mother. 4 Nicolae Iorga explains his origins:2The old Romanian bibliography: 1508-1830, de Ioan Bianu, Nerva Hodoş, DanSimonescu 1898, vol. I, 1508-1716, Bucureşti; 1910, vol. II, 1716-1808, Bucharest;1912-1936, vol. III, 1809-1830, Bucharest (continued by Dan Simonescu); 1944, vol. 4.Adăugiri şi completări, Bucureşti. (The Library of the Romanian Academy).3Murnu, George 1984, Studii istorice privitoare la trecutul românilor de pesteDunăre, Bucureşti; Tanaşoca, Şerban 2002, Balcanologi şi bizantinişti români, Bucureşti,20-24, 121-124 ş.a.4Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu, Al. Piru, Dan Simonescu, I. Arginteanu etc. also wroteabout the life of Monk Nicodim.