MedMod Project (2025-2028)

Medieval Books in the Early Modern Period: The Case of Cluj in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

(UEFISCDI PN-IV-P1-PCE-2023-0465)

Project:

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 titles (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 project will produce one reference work (a catalogue of medieval manuscript fragments at the Academy Library in Cluj), alongside online descriptions of incunabula and fragments on international databases (Fragmentarium, MEI), and a volume of studies focusing on the fate of medieval books in the early modern period.

Team:

Prof. Adrian Papahagi – project leader

Dr. Carmen Fenechiu – experienced researcher, project member

Dr. Szabolcs Márton – Postdoctoral researcher, project member.

Carmen Oanea – PhD student, project member

Andrei Crișan – PhD student, project member

Ongoing online publications:

– Descriptions of fragmenta codicum on Fragmentarium.ms. 100 fragments published to date (5 December 2025).

– Incunabula descriptions on Material Evidence from Incunabula (MEI). 126 titles published to date (5 December 2025)

Publications:

2025

Adrian Papahagi, ‘Two Connected Medieval Manuscripts of Nicolaus de Lyra’s Postilla in Cluj and Alba Iulia’, Philobiblon: Transylvanian Journal of Multidisciplinary Research in Humanities 30.1 (2025), 21-37. WOS:001540420700002; DOI 10.26424/philobib.2025.30.1.02.

forthcoming:

Carmen Oanea, ‘Under the Lenses of Early Modern Readers: Sixteenth-Century Anonymous Annotations to Ausonius’, in Book of Books. Conference Proceedings (Scientia Danica, Series H, Humanistica 4), ed. Marianne Pade, Copenhagen: The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, 2026 – forthcoming.

Conference Papers: