CODEX wins a new research grant from the Romanian Research Council.
Project PN-IV-P1-PCE-2023-0465 is entitled “Medieval Books in the Early Modern Period: The Case of Cluj in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries”. Prof. Adrian Papahagi, the principal investigator, will lead a team including four other CODEX members.
The project studies the provenance, nature and use of medieval books (manuscripts and incunabula) in the historical collections of the former Jesuit, Reformed and Unitarian colleges of Cluj (est. 16th-17th c.). Entire medieval manuscripts are rare in Cluj, but numerous ‘fragmenta codicum’ survive in the bindings of modern printed books. Some incunabula from the medieval collections of Cluj (especially from the Dominican and Franciscan convents) have survived, but new ones were acquired by the three colleges from the 16th to the early 18th c. What medieval books have survived, how, and where – and what books were destroyed? What fragments of manuscripts and incunabula have been recycled, and which of the extant ones may be of local provenance? Who read what and how (ownership notes and marginalia in incunabula need careful inspection)? Where did new acquisitions come from, and how? To answer these questions, we will study a collection of over 200 manuscript fragments, and 177 incunabula (in 138 volumes) kept at the Academy Library of Cluj, as well as items kept in other collections, and external evidence (booklists, historical records).
The three-year project was awarded 1.14 mil. lei (about € 230,000), and will start in July 2025.
Centrul CODEX 