More than 100 old books, manuscripts and documents discovered in the attic of a church in Mediaș

A trove of books, manuscripts, and old documents, some 1,200 years old, was recently discovered in the attic of the St. Margaret Evangelical Church in Mediaș by a team of researchers led by Prof. Dr. Adinel Dincă from the Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj.

The Batthyaneum Library in Alba Iulia has published images of the discovery on its Facebook page.

“The discovery resembles an Indiana Jones story, namely a completely forgotten archive, the struggle with the kingdom of doves to recover it, the amazement at the discoveries made, their importance for the history of the circulation of ideas in medieval Transylvania,” says the post.

Here is a list of what was found: about 139 volumes printed between 1470 and 1600; two manuscripts from the 16th century; 60 original documents from the 16th century, and a few originals as well as copies from the 17th century; and ten administrative registers of the parish of Mediaș from the 16th century, preserving fragments of medieval manuscripts which have been preliminarily identified as belonging to the 9th through to the 15th century.

“Research activities are well underway in a project that will take at least two years to complete: Schriftlichkeit und Lesekultur in Mediasch/Mediaș (Siebenbürgen, Rumänien) im 14.-16. Sicherung, virtuelle Rekonstruktion und wissenschaftliche Analyse einer siebenbürgischen Pfarr- und Gymnasialbibliothek | Writing and reading culture in Mediaș (Transylvania, Romania) in the 14th-16th centuries. Protection, virtual reconstruction and scholarly analysis of a Transylvanian parish and gymnasial library (2022-2023),” the post continues.

The project is funded by the German Ministry of Culture and Arts (Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien).

(Photo source: Batthyaneum Library's Facebook page)