Miniaturi de la școala de caligrafi și miniaturiști din arealul bistrițean (sec. XVIII-XIX)
Miniatures from the School of Calligraphers and Miniaturists from Bistrita Area (XVIIIth-XIXth centuries)

Summary/Abstract: In the Romanian monasteries and those from western Europe were established important calligraphy centres and illumining manuscripts perpetuated till modern times, yet which became increasingly modest graphically. Currently, they are authentic treasures to knowing local history. Usually, they were drawn up with Cyrillic letters using black and cinnabar (red) ink; tempera was used to make frontispieces and miniatures afferent to the texts. Some are simple, whereas others are illustrative of Romanian art specific to the age. They were made on mechanical paper or handcrafted, with different filigrees, remarkable; others, more special, were written on parchment. In the XVIIIth century, Bistrita Monastery remarks by the scholar Dionisie Eclesiarhul, who saved, by copying, numerous registers and documents of the age establishing the School of calligraphers and miniaturists in the monastery. Here operated a renowned group of monks, painter friars among whom: Partenie, Pahomie, Teodosie, Paisie, brother George, the last one becoming even a church painter. Creations were made on wooden or textile support, painted in oil, others were illuminated on paper support, and others come in the shape of books bound with a certain number of leaves as diptychs with founders, Proscomisarion.The old Romanian manuscripts with miniatures or decoration made by the copyist monks, beyond their absolute artistic and cultural value, also have the value of document: they add up to history a series of important data, by the notes they include, sometimes becoming a chronicle. It is undisputable the patronage of the arts provided to monastic life and that from Bistrita Olteana Monastery by the rulers of Walachia, starting with Neagoe Basarab to the important personalities of the cultural and ecclesiastic life of the past centuries, metropolitan bishops and bishops.

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