The Book Culture of the Dominican Order in Transylvania

To treat the significant historical and cultural role of the Dominican Order which celebrated 800 years of its existence last year, one must reach back to its beginnings. The Dominicans trained preachers already from the 13th century in their special university system called studium generale, independent from the organization of secular universities, providing them with a thorough theological background and proficiency in argumentation. However, books and libraries were also needed for education, and the Dominican friars had always paid great attention to the development of these. The subject of the present study also lies within this field of research, offering a review of the libraries of the medieval Transylvanian vicariate of the Dominican Order, with a short excursus on the development possibilities of the book collections and the storage and recording of books.

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