On 10 September 2026, at 12:00, in the Cipariu Reading Room of the Academy Library in Cluj, we will present our new publication: Adrian Papahagi and Carmen Oanea, Medieval Books in the Early Modern Period: Catalogue of an Exhibition Organised at the Library of the Cluj-Napoca Branch of the Romanian Academy, 9 September – 9 October 2026 (Cluj: Presa Universitară Clujeană, 2026, 100 pp., ISBN 978-606-37-3060-3).
“In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, books made before 1501 often became libri inutiles. Medieval manuscripts, but also incunabula, especially if copied or printed on parchment, were occasionally repurposed as binding material. Paradoxically, such recycling offered them a life extension: instead of perishing, medieval books survived fragmentarily in the bindings of early modern volumes.
The present exhibition is an illustration of fragmentology and its concerns. It explores the places where medieval fragmenta codicum may be found inside early modern books, and within whole collections. It shows how to reconstruct the size and shape of original leaves and bifolia, how to identify texts and to place them in their contexts. It studies the origin and provenance of fragments, and of their host volumes. It identifies users, and places where books were used. It addresses various typologies of books, depending on age, contents, language, use, decoration, musical notation, and other elements.
At the same time, the exhibition offers a glimpse into the rich historical collections of the Catholic, Reformed, and Unitarian colleges of Cluj, and of the Greek-Catholic school of Blaj, which were deposited at the Library of the Cluj-Napoca Branch of the Romanian Academy.”
Centrul CODEX 