LE SYMPOSIUM INTERNATIONAL LE LIVRE. LA ROUMANIE. L ...

68 ELEnA cHIABURU
penman Andrei also wrote on a copy of Romanian Book of Learning (iaşi,
1643), from the village of Pribeşti, county of Vaslui: “when the people of
Moscow came to Moldavia and fought against the turks on the prut river
at stănileşti, near huşi, and the Tartars robbed the country and the prince
was dumitraşcul voivode, and left with his people from Moscow. And they
fought in summer, before Saint peter’s day” 42 .
* * *
the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th century was
dominated by the cantemireşti, even though there were other Princes such
as constantin duca, Mihai racoviţă and Nicolae Mavrocordat. The period
was a hectic one from a social and political point of view, the fortress from
cameniţa was overtaken by the Turks, the Tartars attacked the country,
the battle from stănileşti, but it was a rich period from a cultural point of
view. Although Metropolitan Dosoftei reached the end of his work and
Bishop Mitrofan moved to Wallachia, Dimitrie Cantemir appeared, as
well as the printing houses from cetaţuia and sf. sava monasteries from
iaşi which printed books for the whole orthodox world of the time, while
Miron and nicolae Costin were writing their chronicles; the clergy bought
books or copied themselves the ones they needed, while the great scholars
made exchanges on all territories. All these together with different scenes
from the private life, personal events or natural calamities were written
on the side of the printed books or manuscripts which could be found in
Moldavia at the time. the language of these writings is mainly romanian,
but Slavonic was also used, especially for curses and dates for the notes.
the notes have a greater emotional impact than any other categories
of sources, as their authors are observers who point out facts and write
down dates which might not present the historical phenomenon as a whole,
but they offer information on other aspects which are scarcely described
and usually in an indirect manner, about every day life, as well as reactions
and understanding of the people at the time of these events.
42 cAProŞu, chiABuru, Notes on manuscripts and old books, p. 389-392.