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From libraries to bookshops
Although libraries did exist in the Romanian Principalities in the Middle Ages, they were not
designed for public purposes. Prince Constantin Brâncoveanu founded libraries at Hurezi Monastery
and at Mărgineni Monastery; Nicolae and Constantin Mavrocordat had their own private library;
Dimitrie Cantemir and Udriște Năsturel wrote several books; Princesses Elena Basarab, Maria
Cantemir and Ralu Caragea had obvious intellectual pursuits. Books were read, translated, printed,
but they were often perceived as mere objects lying on shelves. Under the apparently calm influence
of the Orient, there was little progress.
In one of his writings, historian Nicolae Iorga attempted to present the atmosphere in a world
only partially interested in culture. He explained: “Boyars begin to buy sofas, chairs and tables,
shelves and pianos. The boyar reads newspapers and Emperor Bonaparte’s Life, while his daughter,
and sometimes his wife, reads The Adventures of the Chevalier de Faublas by J.‐B. Louvet de Couvray
or Corinne by Madame de Staël.” 19
The overall interest in books published in Western European languages gradually increased
because of the larger number of books in general. Starting with 1828/9, foreign travellers gave
details about a bookshop fitted with a study room, which was opened in Bucharest in 1826. In such
conditions, reading lovers from Bucharest or from elsewhere enjoyed the opportunity to borrow a
book published in Western Europe. The owner of this bookshop, called Friedrich Wallbaum, did
nothing else but imitate a model specific to German culture, where the librarian’s reaction to the
problem of high prices for books was to establish borrowing libraries (Leihbibliotheken). Books or
periodicals could be read on site or borrowed if a subscription was made. 20
An officer from the Russian Army, named Frederik Nyberg, wrote: “It is worth visiting the
bookshops in Bucharest, where you can find all new books in French, German or English as well as
any newspaper, which is completely unusual for a country that invests so less in education.” 21
In his Historical Memories (1894), Liberal politician Nicolae Kretzulescu reported on the influence
that Wallbaum’s bookshop had on the inhabitants of Bucharest, who were eager to align themselves
with the Western models. Kretzulescu, who was a doctor and later Romania’s prime minister for
three times, wrote with enthusiasm: “It was something extraordinary to see those who gathered in
that place to grab foreign newspapers, urged by an emerging desire to keep up with the foreign
political wind of change. People began to like the taste of reading and many men and women hurried
to buy or to order the books brought by Wallbaum.” 22
People had a predilection for French literature, either in original or in translation. Some of the
most fashionable works were The Mysteries of Paris by Eugène Sue, and the writings of Princess Dash
or Honoré de Balzac. English writers such as Bulwer, Scott, Byron or Fenimore Copper, but also
Cervantes, were read in French. Madame de Staël and Alexandre Dumas were also on the list of
books that could be borrowed in Wallbaum’s bookshop. 23
If in 1822, after 12 years spent in the Romanian Principalities, French professor F. G. Laurençon
wrote that “you can rarely see a book in the boyars’ or in their wives’ hands,” 24 the situation seems
to have changed within less than a decade. Wallbaum’s decision to settle in Bucharest and to open a
bookshop with a study room, following the German model, to which he added a profitable printing
house, decissively influenced the taste for literature in French among the Romanian high society.
Just before the 1848 Revolution, Wallbaum’s cultural business was taken over by Eric
Winterhalder, one of his Austrian former employees, who later associated with the Romanian
politician C. A. Rosetti to assign the bookshop new political and national meaning. 25
Reading periodicals
Many princes, including Constantin Mavrocordat, Grigorie Callimachi, Grigorie Ghica or Alexandru
Ioan Mavrocordat considered newspapers as their main sources of information and bought them
from all the corners of Europe: Gazetta de Colonia and Gazetta des Deux‐ponts from France, Gazetta
de Londres (in French too), Gazeta de Altona, Gazeta de Aachen, Gazeta de Utrecht from Germany or
Wiener Zeitung from Viena. Chesarie, a bishop from Râmnic, asked for books and newspapers from
Paris, especially Mercures. 26 Around Tudor Vladimirescu’s uprising of 1821, local princess read Le