Volume XXVII (2022), no. 1

The study presents Transmissionales in causa Possesionis Resinar contra Liberam Regiamque Civitatem Cibiniensem 1784, a manuscript volume of 1,318 pages, preserved at the Church Museum of the Bishops’ House in Rășinari, Sibiu county, transcribed entirely and translated partially by a group of medieval and modern history researchers from the “George Barițiu” Institute of History of the Romanian Academy in Cluj-Napoca. As the urbarial trials filed in court by the Romanian inhabitants of Rășinari against the Saxon Magistrate of  the Sibiu city  and seat lasted over half a century (1735-1784), these Transmissionales fully  reflect the course followed by the civil juridical documents (regarding either legal actions or procedures) in South Transylvania during the 18^th century. The article also shows the contents, structure, as well as an essential chronology of the  volume of Transmissionales, followed by its  comprehensive  annexes  (including the conscription of Rășinari from 1754-1784, diplomas and juridical documents from the 13^th-18^th centuries).

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The present study analyses the novel Death’s Lover (1990) by  the Yugoslav writer Miodrag Bulatovid. The main character is the controversial figure Vlad Dracula, also known as Vlad the Impaler, a medieval Romanian prince. The  first part of the study identifies the elements that remain true to the historical chronicle thereby giving the text the character of a documentary. From this point  of view, the novel is a demystifying account of Dracula, the Western European- constructed fictional vampire, and a rehabilitation of the Eastern European historical figure Vlad the Impaler. The second part of the study identifies and analyzes the mechanics and belletristic discursive strategies which appear in the novel, among which are: the frame story structure and framing device; elements   of psychological portraiture; the use of rhetorical figures such as hyperbole, allegory, antithesis; the creation of suspense; the existence of a plot twist; the alternation of first person narration with third person narration; the use of aesthetic and literary mechanisms such as understatement, irony and the grotesque. The result is a work of creative nonfiction that explores and reconstructs history through fictional means. The third part of the study explores the political and ideological motives underlying Bulatovid’s revalorization of Vlad Dracula, a cruel prince obsessed with battling the Ottoman Empire, in the context of the disintegration of Yugoslavia and the intensification of  nationalist  tendencies and ethnic cleansing.

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This study focuses on the dual function of Japanese calligraphy ( shodō): expressive and pragmatic. The study will assess the way in which the calligrapher’s ideas are conveyed through shodō and how the public  perceives them, illustrating  the importance of both visual and linguistic components of calligraphic works.  In order to highlight this phenomenon, two works created by contemporary Romanian calligrapher Rodica Frențiu will be analysed: 情Passion and雪月花 Snow. Moon. Flower. Conclusions show that the two functions are closely linked and  present  within each calligraphic work, as they help the calligrapher express their vision and later on support the public to understand it.

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In this paper I examine the theories of the Mu‘tazilite Abū l-Huḏail al-ʿAllāf  (d. ca. 841) and Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm an-Naẓẓām (d. 845) with respect to the atomistic structure of reality. The former was one of the first promoters of an atomistic theory in Islamic lands, while the latter was an influent adversary of kalām atomism. I also describe the transfer of this debate into the domain of Arabic philosophy, by examining the anti-atomistic arguments of two Arabic philosophers, Abū Zakarīyā’ Yaḥyā ibn ʿAdī (d. 974) and Abū-ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn-ʿAbdallāh Ibn Sīnā/Avicenna (d. 1037), with a close focus on the popular argument of the sphere touching a plane. Finally, I argue that Avicenna’s interpretation of said argument might have influenced the debates on the continuum in the Latin world.

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