THE ROMANIAN ACADEMY THE GEORGE BARIȚIU INSTITUTE OF HISTORY-CLUJ-NAPOCA DOCTORAL THESIS:,,THE PREPARANDIA OF ARAD IN THE CULTURAL-HISTORICAL CONSCIENCE OF ITS TIME DOCTORAL CANDIDATE: DORU BOGDAN SCIENTIFIC MENTOR: PH.D. STELIAN MÂNDRUȚ, MAIN SCIENTIFIC RESEARCHER I Key-words: The Preparandia of Arad/The Romanian Orthodox Pedagogical-Theological Institute of Arad, The Normal School, Illuminism, Şcoala Ardeleană, Samuil Micu, Gheorghe Şincai, Petru Maior, Dimitrie Ţichindeal, Constantin Diaconovici Loga, Ioan Mihuţ, Iosif Iorgovici, emperor Francis I, Sava Arsici (mayor), Moise Nicoară, Moise Bota, Petru Maller Câmpeanu, Alexandru Gavra, Petru Pipoş, Roman Ciorogariu, Vasile Popeangă, genesis, modernisation, modern world, cultural pedagogical reformism, intellectuality, ecclesiastical and secular elite, pedagogical elite, Europe of Lights, the Orthodox Diocese of Arad, Banat, Crişana, Transilvania, historiography, national school, cultural projects, cultural-religious emancipation, interromanian ties, denationalization policy, cultural associationism, pedagogical, Romanian press. ABSTRACT The beginning of the XIX th century, indeed considered the century of nationalities, meant, for the Romanians from the western regions, Banat, Arad and Crișana, the fulfillment of one of culturalschool wishes, that was part of the petition steps since the end of the XVIII th century and the beginning of the XIX th : the establishment of a vocational school, meant to professionalize teachers and priests for their service on the two holy altars of the Romanian people: the church and the school. The Preparandia of Arad, because this was the institution towards which the claiming actions of the Arad and Banat regions elite during the above mentioned period were oriented, was the first pedagogical Romanian school in our country and among the first on the continent, following the one in Strasbourg, established in 1810. Solemnly inaugurated on November 3/15, 1812, according to the disposition of emperor Francis I of Austria, Preparandia practically began its activity on November 4/16, 1812, in an inadequate location for a school one of the former houses belonging to Sava Arsici, the city captain back then. The first teachers of the school, truly appreciated as its founding fathers, were: Dimitrie Țichindeal catechist (teacher of religion) and senior, that is principal, Constantin Diaconovici Loga, teacher of grammar, style and religious chant, dr. Iosif Iorgovici, teacher of mathematics and geography and Ioan Mihuț, teacher of pedagogy, methodics and history. Established in a political and cultural-pedagogical context that was dominated by the European Lights philosophy, as well as by the new, liberal-democratic ideas and principles, centered onto man/citizen, but also onto community/nation, the Preparandia of Arad was, evidently, an Enlightenment school in its ideational architecture, transferring into the cultural-school space of the 1
former Orthodox diocese of Arad the ideology and the new pedagogy anchored in the philosophy of rights and freedoms of the time. The teachers of the Preparandia of Arad established in it a strong ethos anchored in the values of the daco-romanianism ideology, which was defined, in this area, by the leaders of the national movement from the beginning of the XIX th century as the Romanian purpose (n.n.- lucrul românesc ). The same teachers, due to their broad european cultural-pedagogical horizon, showed themselves open to the modern civilized Europe. The role of the first founding teachers from 1812 in this direction was overwhelming. Țichindeal drew attention, with the foresight of the receptive and wise scholar, to the fact that the Romanian nation can t live isolated, it needs to establish a process of dialogue with other nations, with enlighted Europe, in order to be able to know itself and eventually prepare the way to progress and happiness. Our attention and scientific concerns were aimed at rewriting the historical portray of the Preparandia of Arad from a totally different perspective, new and original, in comparison to the traditional one, that was based on the writing of the school s history from an inner perspective, centered on presenting it cronologically and on the analysis and exegesis of the curriculum, on the school s internal life: exams, boarding school life, discipline, sanctions, teaching staff. Such a history was succesfully promoted by all historiographers from Iuliu Vuia, to Petru Pipoș, Avram Sădean, Teodor Botiș, Vasile Popeangă, Eduard I. Găvănescu and Victor Țârcovnicu. Captivated with finding new information, much of it unpublished, found in archives and press of the time, and also published, which reflects the perception of great cultural, religious, pedagogical personalities, and that of newspapers of large circulation at that time as well, on the cultural-historical role of the Preparandia of Arad, on the conduct of the teachers formed in its atmosphere and on its genesis and relations with Școala Ardeleană, we started a reconstruction of a another history of the Pedagogical School from Arad, that is an external history, meant to give back its impact on the cultural-historical destiny of Romanians from Arad, Banat, Crișana, and those of nowaday s Hungary, during 1812-2102. Our volume, The Preparandia of Arad in the cultural-historical conscience of its time is a scientific, original work, in our opinion. Our investigative labour was oriented towards the exploration of the local archive funds, found at the National Archives of Arad, the Romanian Orthodox Diocese from Arad archives and the Pedagogical High school from Arad archives. We also researched on the Romanian press during 1850-2012, where we could find rich and interesting documentary information related to our subject. Evidently, published literature, which was too little exploited in this concern, was of real help to us. Historical, literary, pedagogical, memorialistic or ecclesiastic writings of Petru Maior, Barbu Paris Mumuleanu, Ion Heliade Rădulescu, Moise Nicoară, Alexandru Papiu Ilarian, 2
George Barițiu, Aron Pumnul, George Sion, Iosif Vulcan, Teodor Speranția, V. A. Urechia, Nicolae Iorga, Onisifor Ghibu, Petru Pipoș, Roman Ciorogariu, Iuliu Vuia, Avram Sădean, Teodor Botiș, Gheorghe Ciuhandu, Cornelia Bodea, Nicolae Albu, Vasile Popeangă, Eduard I. Găvănescu, V. Țârcovnicu, Costin Merișca, I. B. Mureșianu, Dimitrie Onciulescu, Nicolae Bocșan, Ladislau Gyémánt, Viorel Faur, Pavel Vesa, Liviu Mărghitan, Blaga Mihoc, Daciana Marinescu, Anton Ilica and others, have offered meaningful and relevant information to reconstruct the image of the Preparandia of Arad, as it was perceived in their conscience. Our volume has five chapters, followed by two annexes. These are: Chapter I The historiography of the Preparandia of Arad; Chapter II Insights into the Preparandia of Arad s history; Chapter III The genesis of the Preparandia of Arad in the conscience of the Romanian intellectuality; Chapter IV The Preparandia of Arad and Școala Ardeleană in the conscience of the Romanian intellectuality; Chapter V The Preparandia of Arad, creator of Romanian intellectuality and the annexes: The professional-cultural destiny of some of the teachers. Teachers portrays. Names of the school during the 200 years. Chapter I, dedicated to the Historiography of the Preparandia of Arad, is a premiere, because, for the first time in the 200 years of the school s existence, we have created a repertoire of the most representative volumes, brochures, studies and articles that deal with separate aspects or even with the school s entire history. We have ranked our historical writing in two great groups or periods of time. The landmark for this ranking of the school s history was 1912, the year of its centenary. The celebration of such an anniversary event occasioned the publication of three works signed by the three teachers of that time: Avram Sădean, The apostolate of the first teachers of the Romanian Orthodox Preparandia of Arad (1912), Avram Sădean, Teodor Botiș, The first years in the existence and past of the Romanian Orthodox Preparandia of Arad (1912) and Petru Pipoș, History of pedagogy. Edition V, augmented. (1912). We have highlighted the cognitive-informative continuity of the scientific discourse, and, alike, the discontinuity given by the uniqueness of information and of the subjects presented. The works of the authors mentioned above are distinguished by a massive and original archival research, as a result of investigations undertaken in the local archives from Arad, Oradea, Timișoara, Sibiu, Blaj, București, as well as Serbia (Carlowitz), Vienna and Budapest. The final conclusion of our excursus into the historiography of the Preparandia of Arad is able to underline the fact that this school establishment s history has enjoyed a real and constant interest from many researchers, so that its historiography, created during 200 years of existence (1812-2012), is an important chapter not only for the local Arad historiography, but for the national one, as well. In Chapter II, Insights into the Preparandia of Arad s history, we wanted to rewrite the destiny of this institution from the perspective of the cultural-spiritual and pedagogical projects that it 3
launched into the Romanian culture and the way by which the Pedagogical School from Arad promoted them. We presented those whose authors were Dimitrie Țichindeal, Constantin Diaconovici Loga și Alexandru Gavra, projects that place the Preparandia and the city of Arad on the state of an authentic cultural-pedagogical Romanian center. They targeted the extension of the institutionalization process of the Romanian culture by establishing schools, not just national-confessional, but also a Seminar, and even an Academy, which was the hope of the brave and optimist national militant Dimitrie Țichindeal, and, more, a Romanian Diocese in Arad, led by a Romanian bishop. The printing of Romanian books, the multiplication of the number of schools and the formation of vocation teachers, the establishing of a literary society named Ortăcia, whose role would be to print representative Romanian books, among which were the manuscripts of Samuil Micu and Gheorghe Șincai, as well as the editing of a newspaper, The Romanian Athenaeum, which would be published on January 1 st, 1835, represented other cultural initiatives, more than significant, for the age they were launched in (the first four decades of the XIX th century). The boosting of the interromanian connections, which are undoubtedly due to the Preparandia of Arad is another subject of this chapter, which has a strong connection with the struggle for the recognition and the protection of the Romanian language as the official administrative language, as well as the struggle for defending the Romanian character of the Arad institute against the Hungarian policy of magyarisation that the governments of Hungary developed especially after the 1867 Ausgleich. This chapter also offered us the chance to highlight the role that the Preparandia of Arad had in the extension of the cultural, pedagogical, political associationism in the Arad region. In this respect, we have marked the tangents that the Preparandia had to Astra of Arad (1862-1863), to the establishment of the first political Reunion of the Romanians of Arad (December 1867), to the Reunion of the Romanian teachers of Arad (1872), to the Diecezana Printing House (1879), to the Reunion of the Romanian women of Arad (1884), to the Civilian School for girls (1890) and to the rich and active Romanian press: Church and School (1877), People s Tribune (1897), The Tribune (1904),,,The Romanian (1911). During this process of institutionalization of the Romanian culture in Arad region, the Preparandia of Arad, through its teachers and professors, stated its cultural-pedagogical activism and constructivism. Documents of the age underline the fact that Arad and its pedagogical institution justified their presence in the Romanian politics, which was defined by the process of establishing the National Romanian Party from Transylvania and Hungary (1881), by the memorandist movement (1892-1895), in which Arad was greatly represented by Mihai Veliciu, Aurel Suciu, Iuliu Traian Mera, Vasile Mangra and by a militant group of priests and teachers. Chapter III, The genesis of the Preparandia of Arad in the conscience of the Romanian intellectuality, after revealing the ideological, cultural and historical background in which the 4
Preparandia appeared, a background marked by the expansion of ideas and values of the Enlightenment philosophy and the French Revolution, by the internal school-social states of the Habsburg monarchy, at all calm while the advance of the Napoleonian armies and while the spirit of Horea was still alive among the Romanians from Arad and Zărand, explains the necessity of the school reformism promoted by emperor Francis I. The expression of this reformative policy was the establishment of the Preparandia at the end of 1812. Within this chapter, we underlined, for the first time in this subject s literature, the way the very moment of the Preparandia s genesis was perceived by four categories of receptors: first, on the level of the popular, rural conscience, in the world of the Romanian village in the Arad region; secondly, on the level of the secular intellectuality; thirdly, on the level of the ecclesiastic intellectuality s conscience and, not the last, on the level of the school s teachers and students. The documentary sources we investigated, together with the edit information we found in the works of great importance for our subject, made it easier for us to see that the genesis of the Preparandia of Arad was seen from 4 perspectives at that time. First, the establishment of this school was perceived as an imperial gift, then as a well-deserved reward given to the Orthodox Romanians by the emperor for their military bravery and the sacrifices of the Romanian soldiers, many of whom enlisted as volunteers in the Austrian armies during the anti-ottoman campaigns and especially anti-napoleonian. This perception, which cancelles the prodinastic vision the Romanians had is associated with the one that highlights the fact that the Preparandia of Arad was the result of the Romanian petitionary struggle and endeavors at the beginning of the XIX th century. Finally, the fourth perspective from which the genesis of the Preparandia of Arad was perceived was issued in 1912 and it bound together the three perspectives from above under the expression: The Preparandia was a royal gift, but also a sovereign gift of the Romanian people, that came in times of well-deserved reward approved by a good and merciful king and established by a poor, unfortunate people, yet so thirsty for light (the The Arad teachers Reunion magazine, December 1912.) Chapter IV, The Preparandia of Arad in the conscience of the Romanian intellectuality reflects the way in which the elitist Romanian conscience saw the relation between the Preparandia of Arad and Şcoala Ardeleană. The cultural, philosophical, historiographical and literary-pedagogical movement of Enlightenment essence, Şcoala Ardeleană, naturally influenced the activity of the Preparandia of Arad by its ideology and its preoccupations. This subject hasn t been the object of consistent research so far, although we have to mention that, in 1974, professor Eduard Găvănescu elaborated an unpublished manuscript called The Illuminism of Arad, in which he pointed out the relation between Şcoala Ardeleană and the Preparandia of Arad, including both in the ideational movement of the Europe of Lights. Şcoala Ardeleană, as seen by the historian scholar David Prodan, was the one that gave us our national conscience, mainly due to its works of Romanian history and 5
philology, in which ideas such as the age of the Romanian people, its Latin origin and continuity were issued. These ideas will form the base upon which the whole argumentative discourse of the famous Supplex Libellus Valachorum from 1791 will stand. Its spirit will be reactivated during the petitionary movement from the beginning of the XIX th century, developed around the Preparandia of Arad and initiated by Dimitrie Țichindeal, Constantin Diaconovici Loga, continued and vigorously and strongly stated by Moise Nicoară. The ideas of Şcoala Ardeleană were spread through the Preparandia of Arad also, through the activity of the first of its teachers among the Romanian ecclesiastic and secular intellectuality of Banat, Arad and Timişoara. The heroical generation of teachers the Pedagogical Institute of Arad had will be joined by the multitude of teachers and priests formed in its illuminist ambiance and among them the names of Petru Maller Câmpeanu (1802-1893), Moise Bota (1789-1873) and Ştefan Popovici Niagoe (1802?-1868) are worth being mentioned. The Illuminism in the regions of Arad, Banat and Crișana, represented by teachers from the Preparandia and by scholars from Banat and Bihor, such as Mihail Roşu Martinovici, Paul Iorgovici, Constantin Diaconovici Loga, Dimitrie Ţichindeal, Ioan Tomici, Damaschin Bojincă, Samuil Vulcan, Nicolae Horga Popovici, Ioan Mihuţ, Nicolae Stoica de Haţeg, Moise Nicoară, Iosif Iorgovici and Alexandru Gavra was the admirable cultural answer of the intellectual elite from the south-west of the Romanian territory to the challenges of the Romanian elite from the Great Principality of Transylvania, centered in the schools of Blaj and not only. Underlining the evident similarities from the perspective of the historiographical, philological concerns, of the pleading for the printing of Romanian books launched by Şcoala Ardeleană, which will be also taken by the Preparandia, we equally highlighted some traits that define the Lights movement set around the Pedagogical School from Arad. From Ion Heliade Rădulescu, Alexandru Papiu Ilarian to Nicolae Bălcescu, from Aron Pumnul, Iosif Vulcan and Iustin Popfiu to George Bariţiu and George Sion, from Nicolae Iorga and Ioan Slavici şi Onisifor Ghibu and Ovid Densuşianu, from Alexandru Dima, I. C. Chiţimia, Paul Cornea and Eugen Todoran to Pompiliu Teodor and Dumitru Ghişe, from Petru Pipoş to Vasile Popeangă, here is a series of Romanian scholar-intellectuals: men of letters, historians, philosophers and teachers that underlined, in their works, the relations between the Preparandia of Arad and Şcoala Ardeleană, recognizing and integrating the activity of Dimitrie Ţichindeal, Constantin Diaconovici Loga, Ioan Mihuţ and Iosif Iorgovici in the great movement of ideas promoted by Şcoala Ardeleană. The pleadings of the above mentioned representatives of the Romanian intellectuality, from Ion Heliade Rădulescu to Vasile Popeangă, inserted into our work, prove the conclusion that through the Preparandia, Arad becomes the Blaj of the Banat and Hungarian regions. 6
In the last chapter, the fifth, called The Preparandia of Arad, creator of Romanian intellectuality, we presented school statistical data we could find in archival documents at the Arad National Archives in order to illustrate that the Preparandia of Arad was indeed a creator of pedagogical intellectuality and for 10 years (1812-1822) of ecclesiastic intellectuality as well. The issue of the formation of the Romanian intellectuality has been a constant of our historiography that, in the past 22 years, has recorded a natural increase of information and especially of interpretation, due to the extinction of censorship and the interference of politics. Our research confirmed the fact that, in spite of its Orthodox character, the Preparandia of Arad was a school open to other nationalities as well, such as Serbian. The fact that Constantin Diaconovici Loga, as he mentioned back then, taught Serbian students in the school was confirmed by archival documents, such as the registers of the graduates that Teodor Botiş inserted in his The History of the Normal School. As for the recruiting of the school resource and the enlisting for the Preparandia of Arad, since the school s old archive is lost, the certificates of the Stefan Crișan collection at the Arad National Archives proved very useful for us. Their analysis allows the following observations: the quality of the human resource that was to be accepted at the Preparandia based only on that certificate was among the best; good and very good intellectual training; good moral conduct, highly appreciated Orthodox religious education. The certificates were analyzed by the teachers of the Preparandia and eventually they decided the admittance or the rejection. To them, these documents represented a certificate of moral and intellectual assurance given to the future preparandist in the name of the community he lived in, by the local elite: the teacher, the priest, the jurors. Thanks to these archival documents, we were able to reconstruct the social background for the students of the Preparandia. They confirm that the social segment which provided most of the school s resource was the peasantry, mentioned in the documents as,,paor, meaning,,peasant. Besides it, there were also merchants, teachers and priests, and even clerks. The work of Teodor Botiș, The History of the Normal School of the Romanian Orthodox Theological Institute is an authentic documentary source, meant to facilitate the understanding of the school population s dynamics of the Preparandia of Arad during its 110 years of existence (1812-1922). A close study of the school s graduates registers, as published by Teodor Botiș, reveals the fact that the Preparandia wasn t at all a local or regional school; it was a national school, confirmed by the fact that its population, beginning with the half of the 19 th century, came from not just Banat, Arad, Crișana, but from other counties in the Principality of Transylvania as well: Hunedoara, Alba de Jos, Sibiu, Braşov, Cojocna, Sătmar and Cluj. We were also able to make observations regarding the hierarchy of the localities by counties, judging by the number of the graduates. 7
The chapter The Preparandia of Arad, creator of Romanian intellectuality reveals the overwhelming role this school had in providing the Romanian elementary educational system with a high quality social-professional segment. The 3682 teachers educated by the Preparandia of Arad during the 110 years (1812-1922) influenced the evolution of the Romanian school in Transylvania and the national culture as well. Our thesis, The Preparandia of Arad in the cultural historical conscience of its time, offers an integrating perspective on the history of this institution, which had a state of Romanian cultural primate, updating, from an external history, its cultural-pedagogical function and the beneficial impact it had on the school and culture in the south-western Romanian regions, as they are reflected in the conscience of several great scholars and cultural institutions. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 4 CHAPTER I The Historiography of the Preparandia of Arad 18 1. Motivations 18 2. Characteristics of the Preparandia of Arad s historiography 22 3. Moments. Authors. Achievements in the historiography of the Preparandia of Arad between 1812-1912 30 4. Moments. Authors. Achievements in the historiography of the Preparandia of Arad between 1912-2012 72 5. Conclusions 100 CHAPTER II Insights into the History of the Preparandia 103 1. The Preparandia of Arad and its great cultural-spiritual projects 104 2. The Preparandia of Arad and the beginning of the national emancipation 129 2.1 The Preparandia and Romanianisation of the Orthodox Diocese of Arad 130 2.2 The Preparandia and the year 1848 133 2.3 The Preparandia of Arad and the struggle for the use of Romanian in public administration 136 2.4 The Preparandia of Arad and the political, cultural and pedagogical associationism 140 2.4.1 The Preparandia of Arad and the National Association of Arad 143 2.4.2 The Preparandia of Arad and the Reunion of the Romanian Women of Arad; the Civilian Normal School 148 2.4.3 The Preparandia of Arad and the pedagogical associationism: The Reunion of the Romanian Teachers of Arad 150 2.4.4 The Preparandia of Arad, Romanian pedagogical center 155 2.4.5 Application school and pedagogical training of the teachers 164 2.5 The Preparandia of Arad and the radicalization of the national emancipation movement (1881-1918) 167 2.6 The Preparandia of Arad, active factor in the dynamization of the interromanian ties 186 2.7 The Preparandia of Arad, the folklore and the Romanian cultural musical movement 195 2.7.1 The Preparandia of Arad and its folkloristic concerns 195 2.7.2 The Preparandia of Arad and the Romanian choire-musical movement 199 2.8 The Preparandia of Arad and the Romanian poetry 201 CHAPTER III The Genesis of the Preparandia of Arad in the Conscience of the Romanian Intellectuality 219 1. The Illuminism. Conceptual specifications. Stages 267 8
2. The connection between the Preparandia of Arad and Şcoala Ardeleană. Explanatory factors 272 3. The Preparandia of Arad illuminist school institution 274 3.1 The intellectual formation of its teachers 274 3.2. Illuminist matters, concerns and achievements 276 3.2.1 The study and knowing of the Romanian history 277 3.2.2 The Preparandia of Arad and the Romanian language 281 3.2.3 The Preparandia of Arad and the Romanian book 285 4. The Illuminism of the Preparandia of Arad. Characteristics 291 5. The Preparandia of Arad and Şcoala Ardeleană in the conscience of the Romanian intellectuals 297 6. Conclusions 304 CHAPTER V The Preparandia of Arad, creator of Romanian intellectuality 306 1. Insights into the history of the Romanian intellectuality of Transylvania 306 2. The formation and the status of the Romanian teacher in Transylvania, Banat and Crișana until 1812 309 3. The establishment of the Preparandia of Arad 314 4. The school population of the Preparandia of Arad 316 4.1 School admittance. The recruitment of students 316 4.2 The social background of the students 320 4.3 The dynamics of the school population 323 4.4 Conclusions on the dynamics of the school population 329 5. The training of the Preparandia of Arad s teachers 335 5.1 The school s character and mission 335 5.2 Favorable premises 336 5.3 The content of the training: cultural horizon, values, pedagogical formation 337 5.4 The activity of the Preparandia and the overcome obstacles 339 5.5 The teacher s conduct; the quality of training; appreciations regarding them 340 Final 342 Annexes 344 The professional-cultural and political destiny of some teachers. Teachers portrays 344 The school s names during the 200 years 382 Bibliography 387 9