Începuturile activităţii istoriografice a lui Augustin Bunea: biografia mitropolitului Ioan Vancea
The Beginnings of Augustin Bunea’s Historiographical Activity: Biography of the Metropolitan Bishop Ioan Vancea

Summary/Abstract: The study begins by observing the way in which the researcher from Blaj drew up a biography of the Uniate Archbishop Ioan Vancea, an early career work of Augustin Bunea, the involuntary historian. The authors looked first into the existing rapports between the provincial political context and the similar attitudes of the biographer as seen in the text comments he made. The authors have tried to identify the personal and professional reasons that influenced this biographical work. Their hypothesis is that interests in drawing up this biography ran both way, the hierarch wanted a positive portrayal of his activity and the author wanted to go up the hierarchical ladder. The authors analyzed the text looking at its structure, content, Bunea’s research and interpretation, the value criteria and the historical concepts he used. In Augustin Bunea’s historical discourse, characteristic to the 1890 period, one can see a clear and balanced structure, a concentration on the exemplary deeds (be them ecclesiastical, didactic or charitable) of Archbishop Vancea, the diversity and abundance of new sources, the praises dedicated to the hierarch, both traditionalism and modernism in judgement criteria, the adherence of the biographer to some fundamental historiographical principles (romantic and positivist). The work was placed into the succinct biographic genre, genre well represented among the historian’s work. The authors conclude that the biography presents the Archbishop as an active hierarch, supporter of the institutional modernization of the school and the Romanian Greek Catholic Church in Transylvania. They also agree that this work is a formative one for the future historiographic profile of Augustin Bunea

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