Laura Mesina

Genealogy dominates in an implicit way the paraenetic medieval and Renaissance literature. The parenesis is completely different from the chronicle, because it does not seek to identify either the origin of a community or the purpose of its actions, but tries to capitalize on the disruption, the hazard, and the apophatic in order to create a mosaic of vices and virtues and thus to support in the more specific way the exercise of power. The portrait of the prince is not the mirror reflection of his consanguineous ancestors either. It is a rather exact and pragmatic reflection of the general conjunction between teachings and reality. This is why the method of genealogy may critically work in both such a text and such a portrait. Unanimously recognized as the most important parenesis of the postByzantine Orthodox world, the Teachings of Neagoe Basarab to His Son Theodosie (1521) constitute the point of articulation of a hermeneutical approach and the method of genealogy in the mirrors of princes. This is why I will map the genealogy of sovereignty with the help of an archeology of political presence in this exemplary paraenetic attributed to Neagoe Basarab, prince of the post-Byzantine Romanian Renaissance.

Resulting from a doctoral research, the present volume tackles its object, the medieval imaginary, from two different perspectives: a theoretical one (a survey of fundamental works in the field, followed by the advancement of a new possible interpretation of the vast phenomenon of collective mentality), and a case study of the Romanian Middle Ages, with a special focus on the collective mentalities and behaviors, the rites and rituals of power, and the artistic creations in the Romanian Principalities (14th-18th c.).
One of the aims of this research is the anthropological valorization of the complex symbolism of time and space as found in image and text, and in city planning, respectively. The same anthropological approach is used to deal with the relationship between imaginary and the representations, symbolism and ideology of Byzantine-shaped medieval Romanian authority. In such a light, this relationship proved to be instrumental in the memorization of history and self-image, and a decisive influence on the way Christian faith has been fused with local „mythology."
My analysis of the causal role of Orthodoxy and the Byzantine imperial model, respectively, in shaping the political and religious life in the Romanian Principalities builds upon a consistent bibliography in the field. My specific focus is on the identification and systematization of the various „echoes” of this model in Romanian works relevant both for the collective imaginary and for the politics of representation of local power in the Romanian public space and on the international diplomatic stage.
Hence, a special attention is given to the multiple paradox that presided at the construction of the Romanian medieval states in difficult historical and political circumstances, which ultimately led to their affiliation to the Orthodox Patriarchate in Constantinople and, therefore, to their inclusion in the Byzantine sphere of influence. The construction of the medieval states and their political options also figures prominently in the collective imaginary as a coordinated set of mythical structures relevant for the Romanian identity discourse.
Finally, another point of interest is a paradox at the core of the early modern European imaginary. Between iconoclasm and iconolatry, drawing from ancient texts and the writings of the Fathers of the Church, the collective imaginary never ceased to use image and representation as mnemonic practices even at times when theories, institutions and beliefs worked against them.

Funus imaginarium was the name given in Rome (1-4 c.) to a funeral procession in which actors were wearing the wax death masks of the deceased emperor’s ancestors, complete with suitable attire. These masks, called imagines, were kept in the atrium of the imperial residence (a public place) – a legitimating practice which served as a constant reminder of dynastic values and underlined the ongoing relation between past, present and future of the community.
Away from Rome, in 337 A.D., Constance II is unable to use the effigies of his pagan ancestry when organizing the funeral of his father Constantine I, the eponym founder of the capital city of the Eastern Empire. Therefore, the members of the imperial family, all of them Christian converts, decide to replace the procession of masks with 12 biers standing for the 12 Apostles; in their midst, the emperor’s catafalque is the 13th.
The Byzantine imaginary coalesces around the glorified imperial power (a Roman heritage); but, since the emperor is “delegated” by God to rule the community of believers, he also has the duty to control the dissemination of the sacred image within the boundaries of the empire (a Christian addition). The collective imaginary is at the same time a mirror and a means of this divine “ministry”, blending faith and imperial ideology in a single construction to be preserved in the memory of the Christian community.
This construction, nevertheless, has a still deeper source, which is the understanding of politics in classical Athenian antiquity. This interpretation at the core of the Greek Byzance, combined with the political organization of the Roman Empire and the Christian discourse, will bring forth the imperial theocracy and a specific iconography. Neither iconoclasm, nor hesychasm (two currents of thought attached, albeit in different manners, to the Platonic tradition) will therefore be able to diminish the role of the image in the relationship between the believer and the sacred power.
The present research is an investigation of the deep-seated roots of Byzantine imaginary. This archaeological approach took into account the funeral rites in the ancient Greek and Roman world in relation to the semantics of image, on the one hand, and the realist or symbolic representations of power, on the other. From this vantage point, the collective imaginary becomes a process of memorization of divine glory or the glorification of its institutions, the community and its creative spirit.
When the divine glory is lost as a result of the original sin, the Christian world takes upon it to live the experience of penitent mourning, in the hope of Redemption. This is an exercise in forgetting the pagan Rome at work in the Byzantine imaginary for over a millennium, at a time when, for the very same reason, the Catholic west rediscovers classical antiquity and the freedom to believe in the human apotheosis.

Resulting from a doctoral research, the present volume tackles its object, the medieval imaginary, from two different perspectives: a theoretical one (a survey of fundamental works in the field, followed by the advancement of a new possible interpretation of the vast phenomenon of collective mentality), and a case study of the Romanian Middle Ages, with a special focus on the collective mentalities and behaviors, the rites and rituals of power, and the artistic creations in the Romanian Principalities (14th-18th c.).
One of the aims of this research is the anthropological valorization of the complex symbolism of time and space as found in image and text, and in city planning, respectively. The same anthropological approach is used to deal with the relationship between imaginary and the representations, symbolism and ideology of Byzantine-shaped medieval Romanian authority. In such a light, this relationship proved to be instrumental in the memorization of history and self-image, and a decisive influence on the way Christian faith has been fused with local "mythology."
My analysis of the causal role of Orthodoxy and the Byzantine imperial model, respectively, in shaping the political and religious life in the Romanian Principalities builds upon a consistent bibliography in the field. My specific focus is on the identification and systematization of the various "echoes" of this model in Romanian works relevant both for the collective imaginary and for the politics of representation of local power in the Romanian public space and on the international diplomatic stage.
Hence, a special attention is given to the multiple paradox that presided at the construction of the Romanian medieval states in difficult historical and political circumstances, which ultimately led to their affiliation to the Orthodox Patriarchate in Constantinople and, therefore, to their inclusion in the Byzantine sphere of influence. The construction of the medieval states and their political options also figures prominently in the collective imaginary as a coordinated set of mythical structures relevant for the Romanian identity discourse.

Laura Mesina, Forgetting Rome. Studies in the Archaeology of the Imaginary, Iași, Institutul European, 2013; 2015.

Funus imaginarium was the name given in Rome (1-4 c.) to a funeral procession in which actors were wearing the wax death masks of the deceased emperor’s ancestors, complete with suitable attire. These masks, called imagines, were kept in the atrium of the imperial residence (a public place) – a legitimating practice which served as a constant reminder of dynastic values and underlined the ongoing relation between past, present and future of the community.
Away from Rome, in 337 A.D., Constance II is unable to use the effigies of his pagan ancestry when organizing the funeral of his father Constantine I, the eponym founder of the capital city of the Eastern Empire. Therefore, the members of the imperial family, all of them Christian converts, decide to replace the procession of masks with 12 biers standing for the 12 Apostles; in their midst, the emperor’s catafalque is the 13th.
The Byzantine imaginary coalesces around the glorified imperial power (a Roman heritage); but, since the emperor is “delegated” by God to rule the community of believers, he also has the duty to control the dissemination of the sacred image within the boundaries of the empire (a Christian addition). The collective imaginary is at the same time a mirror and a means of this divine “ministry,” blending faith and imperial ideology in a single construction to be preserved in the memory of the Christian community.
This construction, nevertheless, has a still deeper source, which is the understanding of politics in classical Athenian antiquity. This interpretation at the core of the Greek Byzance, combined with the political organization of the Roman Empire and the Christian discourse, will bring forth the imperial theocracy and a specific iconography. Neither iconoclasm, nor hesychasm (two currents of thought attached, albeit in different manners, to the Platonic tradition) will therefore be able to diminish the role of the image in the relationship between the believer and the sacred power.
The present research is an investigation of the deep-seated roots of Byzantine imaginary. This archaeological approach took into account the funeral rites in the ancient Greek and Roman world in relation to the semantics of image, on the one hand, and the realist or symbolic representations of power, on the other. From this vantage point, the collective imaginary becomes a process of memorization of divine glory or the glorification of its institutions, the community and its creative spirit.
When the divine glory is lost as a result of the original sin, the Christian world takes upon it to live the experience of penitent mourning, in the hope of Redemption. This is an exercise in forgetting the pagan Rome at work in the Byzantine imaginary for over a millennium, at a time when, for the very same reason, the Catholic west rediscovers classical antiquity and the freedom to believe in the human apotheosis.

Pubblicato integralmente in edizione critica in Romania nel 2006, 30 anni dopo la morte di Mircea Eliade, il "diario portoghese", l'unico da lui stesso non censurato, ha goduto dell'attenzione di specialisti e di cerchie (relativamente ristrette) di lettori della sua memorialistica; e purtroppo non con un'adeguata campagna stampa. Il giornale attesta, senza possibilità di smentita, la visione premonitrice di Eliade, ed estremamente chiara, sul pericolo del bolscevismo e sulla totale distruzione dei valori della modernità rumena. Parallelamente al diario, oggi è imperativo riconsiderare i suoi scritti di quel periodo, per comprendere, nel contesto che lo caratterizzò, sia il nazionalismo culturale, sia il suo contributo culturale e diplomatico, il ruolo e la natura degli studi storici intrapresi da lui stesso in quel momento, in un modo libero. Propongo una lettura integrata dei testi portoghesi di Eliade e della sua rivista in relazione agli studi che hanno accompagnato l'edizione critica di quest'ultima. Eliade costruisce un complesso sistema testuale (diario, studi, articoli), un'architettura che gli permette di essere sia dentro i mondi/gli specchi, che fuori da essi; egli si traduce da un mezzo testuale a un altro con la stessa implicazione. Eliade ci offre un caso unico di diplomazia culturale rumena, nel bel mezzo di una guerra mondiale, costruendo
un dispositivo storico per l'identità della sua nazione, cioè dei "latini d'Oriente", al cui servizio è a Lisbona, e un altro omaggio, facendo un gesto profondamente rispettoso, quello di scrivere una storia del Portogallo ben documentata, da trasferire alla cultura neoromanica (rumena) dall'estremo opposto dell'Europa. Un'Europa in fiamme.

The present essay argues for a more sustained exploration of the intersection between different regimes of memory and representation of power, from two perspectives: a historical one (a survey of some phenomena, like the literary genre of speculum principum) and a case study of the most important `mirror of prince` of post-Byzantine cultures, Învățăturile lui Neagoe Basarab către fiul său Theodosie (The Teachings of Neagoe Basarab to His Son Theodosie), 1521. One of the aims of this essay is the interdisciplinary valorization of representations of power as found in this text. The same kind of approach is used to deal with the relationship between memory, imaginary, symbolism, and ideology of authority in the post-Byzantine Hesychast Renaissance.

In questo saggio mi propongo di esplorare l'intersezione tra i vari regimi di memoria e di rappresentazione del potere da due prospettive: una storica (per il tipo di scrittura scientifica speculum principum) e una applicata alla più importante parenesi delle culture post-bizantine, Gli insegnamenti di
Neagoe Basarab a suo figlio Teodosio (1521). Uno degli obiettivi dello studio è la valorizzazione interdisciplinare delle rappresentazioni del potere, così come appaiono in questo testo. Lo stesso tipo di approccio viene sviluppato anche nell'affrontare il rapporto tra memoria, immaginario, simbolismo e ideologia del potere nel Rinascimento esicasta post-bizantino.

Dacă în spectacolul politic din societatea contemporană, " gloria " puterii şi fascinaţia ritualurilor ei se amestecă indiscernabil cu " guvernarea " (oikonomia), cu gestiunea eficace din ordinea imanentă, cum se manifestau ele în lumea veche? În evul mediu românesc, lucrurile nu s-au petrecut altfel decât în celelalte zone de influenţă bizantin-ortodoxă. Tronul şi autocratul erau văzuţi a fi în relaţie unică, directă şi de nedislocat cu Judecata divină. Aşa cum reflectă şi ierarhia " politogramelor " locale (astfel pot fi numite, după istoricul Vlad Georgescu, structurile textuale ce redau idei politice), rolul şi funcţiile " unsului lui Dumnezeu " dominau în mod autoritar întregul tablou al societăţii. Viziunea istoriei mentalităţilor asupra lumii premoderne a integrat într-un mod propriu şi acest fapt. În general, cercetătorul nu s-a mai poziţionat frontal şi imobil faţă de obiectul său de studiu, ca în istoriografia factuală, citind relativ comod cronologiile, ci l-a studiat, precum un biolog, din toate direcţiile, disecându-l până în cele mai mici detalii de viaţă privată obişnuită. Imaginea lumii medievale şi-a pierdut astfel bidimensionalitatea " clasică. " Înţeleasă acum ca un corp geometric cu nenumărate faţete, a oferit tot atâtea teme, subiecte şi posibile " intrări " în spaţiile din dosul ecranelor de sticlă. În anii 2000, profesorul Dan-Horia Mazilu, unul dintre filologii " vechişti " de formaţie cu adevărat academică, a abordat lumea textului medieval tot ca pe un poliedru, al cărui centru absolut ar putea să fie, la o primă vedere, puterea. Interpretările dezvoltate şi urmărite minuţios în opera sa ştiinţifică din prima parte a carierei, în monografii şi în studii dedicate hagiografiei, istoriografiei, prozei oratorice, pareneticii sau fenomenelor culturale păreau să fi acoperit, practic, întreaga mărturie scrisă despre evul mediu local. În definitiv – s-ar întreba astăzi chiar şi un student la filologie – , ce se mai poate scrie despre aceste vechi texte româneşti? Analizele de istoria mentalităţilor s-au făcut în general nu prin des-centrarea imaginii puterii, nealungându-l aşadar pe Rege de pe tron, ci prin raportarea Marginalului la acesta, menţinând cezarul acolo unde este ştiut că avea dreptul să stea. Schimbarea a fost mai ales de subiect şi de accent, pus pe un alt personaj al lumii vechi, din fundalul tabloului, și nu de rol sau de funcţie, care se menţin. Aparent, Voievodul dincolo de sala tronului (2003) nu spune altceva unei priviri grăbite. Doar că imaginea fixă din trecut prinde viaţă tocmai prin " demascarea " Regelui ca păcătos, văduv netrebnic sau om blestemat, în paralel cu dezvăluirea celorlalţi actori medievali. Deşi sala tronului rămâne, în topografia palatului, ca şi în simbologia puterii, zona cea mai importantă, autocratul o părăseşte acum şi se preumblă firesc prin toate spaţiile lumii sale. Autorul îl urmăreşte cu " camera de filmat " pe umăr, iscoditor şi ironic uneori, emoţionat sau cinic în alte dăţi. Înţelegând spiritul şi miza istoriei mentalităţilor, operatorul rămâne câteodată în aceeaşi încăpere timp de... secole, înregistrând scene din mereu alte " filme, " din naraţiuni contrastante, cu felurite personaje istorice 1 Articol apărut în Observatorul cultural 189 (447): 16 (30 octombrie – 5 noiembrie 2008).

At the begining of the 16th century „anima” designated at the same time the new Florentine republic and the grand town council hall inside its town palace. As Leonardo da Vinci was asked to illustrate exactly in this hall the victory of Florence at Anghiari in 1440 on the Duke of Milano´s army, he decided to do it by representing the concepts of „anima” and of „libertas”, the main virtue of the republic. Much of his previous work on topography, kinetics, anatomy of the human expression, the movement of horses as well as the art of war, comes back in his preparation for this work and more than ever his reflection was going in experiments in „prospettiva composta” and the so-called „geometry of color”, meaning the perspective realized through colors and sfumatura effects. In the center of an open space overwhelmed by the battle we see the wild confrontation of the two captains on the Milanese banner (La Battaglia dello Stendardo): this is the anima of the image, and this image is the anima of a new visuality.

The medieval imaginary emerged as a corpus of discursive formations, which do not always have a strictly Byzantine source. Some elements of ethics and justice, of social organization or relationship between the perceptible and the non-perceptible, of understanding the divine and correlation with ethical faith and duty, have their roots in the philosophical imaginary of the ancient political system, the first system that aimed at the construction of a model of civic society. The ″inheritance″ at the level of the collective imaginary is, thus, not only Christian, but also ancient.    Without having established an unmediated scientific relationship with the ancient texts whence the philosophical imaginary of the political can be extracted the medieval Romanian power followed the natural community formation routes, which were derived from a social model. This type of organization was re-interpreted by the philosophers of Christian power and theologically included in the oikonomic plan.    The practical interpretation given by Romanian lawmakers to some of the post-Byzantine political ideas aimed at an adaptation of those discursive formations, which governed the trans-state collective imaginary in the area of influence of the empire1. The Romanian imaginary itself will spring from these intersections between a normal line of socio-economic coalescence and a political plan for the formation of a state unit with its own acknowledged ″national″ identity, under the influence of the ″basileic chimera″. Finally, the ″history of the imperial idea for the Romanians will be that of a compromise between a political ideal and practical realities”.2

The historical ways of building but also of representing the city and his territory have always made use of the montage technique, be it in different ways. The montage is a fundamental principle of structuring the space – be it real, imaginary/ideal, or a represented one – in the modernity as well as in old cultures. Rooted specifically in visual arts – Roman or Christian mosaics, medieval maps, renaissance frescoes or cabinets of curiosities –, the montage becomes in time a common denominator not only for image composition but also of the image placement in space. Present in forms of both continuity and discontinuity of space or territory, the montage reveals itself in all ways of perception and understanding the world. It is in fact a „symbolic form” essential to a pluriperspectivic way of constructing the representation while narrating any story, experience, travel or depicting any landscape. As the montage it seems to have in modernity a disruptive, dramatic, and contradictory effect, in Antiquity, Medieval Age, or Renaissance it functioned rather as an internal focus of the image, a logical and integrative one. This paper underlines thus the importance of the
montage and its disposals − texts, images/frescoes, architectural spaces, landscapes − in the construction of the political iconographic program realized by Ambrogio Lorenzetti between 1338-1339 in the Council Room (Sala della Pace) of the City Hall of Siena (Italy).

Begin of the XVI-th century anima designated at the same time the new Florentine republic and the grand town council hall inside its town palace. As Leonardo da Vinci was asked to illustrate exactly in this hall the victory of Florence at Anghiari in 1440 on the Duke of Milano´s army, he decided to do it by representing the concepts of anima and of libertas, the main virtue of the republic. Much of his previous work on topography, kinetics, anatomy of human expression, the movement of horses as well as the art of war, comes back in his preparation for work and more than ever his reflection was going in experiments in prospettiva composta and the so called ´geometry of color´, meaning the perspective realized through colors and sfumatura effects. In the center of an open space overwhelmed by the battle we see the wild confrontation of the two captains on the Milanese banner (La Battaglia dello Stendardo): this is the anima of the image, and this image is the anima of a new visuality.

The medieval imaginary emerged as a corpus of discursive formations, which do not always have a strictly Byzantine source. Some elements of ethics and justice, of social organization or relationship between the perceptible and the non-perceptible, of understanding the divine and correlation with ethical faith and duty, have their roots in the philosophical imaginary of the ancient political system, the first system that aimed at the construction of a model of civic society. The ″inheritance″ at the level of the collective imaginary is, thus, not only Christian, but also ancient.
Without having established an unmediated scientific relationship with the ancient texts whence the philosophical imaginary of the political can be extracted the medieval Romanian power followed the natural community formation routes, which were derived from a social model. This type of organization was re-interpreted by the philosophers of Christian power and theologically included in the oikonomic plan.
The practical interpretation given by Romanian lawmakers to some of the post-Byzantine political ideas aimed at an adaptation of those discursive formations, which governed the trans-state collective imaginary in the area of influence of the empire . The Romanian imaginary itself will spring from these intersections between a normal line of socio-economic coalescence and a political plan for the formation of a state unit with its own acknowledged ″national″ identity, under the influence of the ″basileic chimera″. Finally, the ″history of the imperial idea for the Romanians will be that of a compromise between a political ideal and practical realities″ .

The humanistic culture in both Romanian states, Wallachia and Moldavia, ranges from the first prince writer to the second one, meaning Neagoe Basarab (1512-1521) and Dimitrie Cantemir (1711). Interesting enough, the first is a Hesychastic autocrat, the medieval author of a monumental mirror-of-princes’ book destined to become a very example of parenesis in the whole post Byzantine orthodox world while the second one is a modern, in fact a humanist and an enlightened scientist, the author of the first theoretical writings in this part of the world over politics, history, music and metaphysics that enjoy international fame.
My paper analyses the ways these two authors write history meaning how their political ideas have effect on the building of text and argumentation as well as how they argue in historiography using different sources in order to clarify their political ideology. I try at the same time to relate these activities to the historical awareness of the two princes, as well as to their moral of history.

The Byzantine imaginary coalesces around the glorified imperial power (a Roman heritage); but, since the emperor is “delegated” by God to rule the community of believers, he also has the duty to control the dissemination of the sacred image within the boundaries of the empire (a Christian addition). The collective imaginary is at the same time a mirror and a means of this divine “ministry,” blending faith and imperial ideology in a single construction to be preserved in the memory of the Christian community. This construction, nevertheless, has a still deeper source, which is the understanding of politics in classical Athenian antiquity. This interpretation at the core of the Greek Byzance, combined with the political organization of the Roman Empire and the Christian discourse, will bring forth the imperial theocracy and a specific iconography. Neither iconoclasm, nor hesychasm (two currents of thought attached, albeit in different manners, to the Platonic tradition) will therefore be able to diminish the role of the image in the relationship between the believer and the sacred power. The present research is an investigation of the deep-seated roots of Byzantine imaginary. This archaeological approach took into account the funeral rites in the ancient Greek and Roman world in relation to the semantics of image, on the one hand, and the realist or symbolic representations of power, on the other. From this vantage point, the collective imaginary becomes a process of memorization of divine glory or the glorification of its institutions, the community and its creative spirit.

L'article propose une lecture de l'oeuvre de Sextil Puşcariu, L'Histoire de la littérature romaine. L'Epoque ancienne, parue en 1930, dans la perspective des réflexions récentes d'Antoine Compagnon sur la typologie de l'attitude antimoderne. La conceptualisation du passé national et la narration de l'époque médiévale - un enjeux identitaire fort pour la culture roumaine d'entre les deux guerres - contiennent aussi des ressources critiques qui permettent à l'auteur de se postionner par rapport aux problèmes de la modernité et de réfléchir au comportement historique des institutions et des instances du pouvoir. La démarche de Sextil Puşcariu révèle le portrait d'un antimoderne tardif, avec des conduites ambivalentes dont les considérations radicales concernent surtout les excès de la modernité: un "ultramoderne" qui tout en ayant cessé de croire au projet de la société moderne, continue de s'attéler à son édification.

The present essay argues for a more sustained exploration of the intersection between different regimes of representation (figural, textual, and ceremonial), from two perspectives: a historical one (a survey of some phenomena like funeral rites and rituals or imperial visual imagery) and a case study of the most important text of Romanian medieval culture, Învățăturile lui Neagoe Basarab către fiul său Theodosie (The Teachings of Neagoe Basarab to His Son Theodosie). One of the aims of this essay is the anthropological valorization of the complex symbolism of representations of power as found in image and text, and ceremonial, respectively. The same anthropological approach is used to deal with the relationship between imaginary, symbolism, and ideology of different types of power, like Byzantine-shaped medieval Romanian authority.

L'ampio dibatitto in Francia sui generi letterari (1970-1990) ha presso in considerazione anche le forme di „letteratura medievale” - come pure il volume collettivo „Théorie des genres” (1986), coordinato da Gérard Genette e Tzvetan Todorov. Questi sono l'oggetto di uno studio di Hans-Robert Jauss sul dibattuto problema di classificare opere di questo periodo, come i „generi”, secondo la loro definizione moderna. Jauss annuncia una nuova prospettiva, che si ottiene spostando l'attenzione dalla sintesi di tipo sincronico ad un approccio analitico e comparativo di tipo diacronico. In questa mia trattazione propongo un approccio teorico che va dalla visione di H.-R. Jauss alla metodologia „archeologica” di Michel Foucault: il metodo strutturalista va arricchito o addirittura superato attraverso lo studio della ricezione della letteratura e delle forme di vita, anche istituzionali; così, il quadro classico dei generi viene declassato da un sistema in trasformazione permanente, quindi storicizzato, le cui componenti spesso attraversano i confini delle specie o addirittura dei campi culturali. Vi includo lo speculum come (1) „arché-genre”, (2) „genre” e (3) „séquence”, a partire da „politeia” e „paideia” e delle loro rappresentazioni (testuali, visuali, ritualiche, scenografiche ecc.); vale a dire lo sto trattando nei termini di „une anthropologie pragmatique des régimes de la représentation”.

Cet essai part de la crise théorique des écrits actuels sur la littérature médiévale roumaine et sur les institutions littéraires du Moyen-Âge. À la recherche d'une réponse, l'essai rappelle quelques nouvelles solutions ‒ la narrativité du discours historique, due à Hayden White, et l'analyse du postcolonialisme – aussi bien que des solutions anciennes mais insuffisamment discutées, proposées par Dan Horia Mazilu (1943-2008), le plus important historien de la littérature médiévale roumaine. Celui-ci utilise d'ailleurs tant de nombreux éléments de théorie littéraire « classique » (voir quelques différents courants du structuralisme) que de théories modernes (l'histoire culturelle, l'histoire des idées, la narratologie historiographique). En conclusion, notre essai soutient que les études médiévales sont parfaitement compatibles avec la théorie et la philosophie moderne de l'histoire. Elles peuvent reconstruire l'objet historique à partir de ces approches aussi bien que générer des nouvelles solutions théoriques.

Laura Mesina, Forgetting Rome. Studies in the Archaeology of the Imaginary, Iași, Institutul European, 2013; 2015.

Funus imaginarium was the name given in Rome (1-4 c.) to a funeral procession in which actors were wearing the wax death masks of the deceased emperor’s ancestors, complete with suitable attire. These masks, called imagines, were kept in the atrium of the imperial residence (a public place) – a legitimating practice which served as a constant reminder of dynastic values and underlined the ongoing relation between past, present and future of the community.
Away from Rome, in 337 A.D., Constance II is unable to use the effigies of his pagan ancestry when organizing the funeral of his father Constantine I, the eponym founder of the capital city of the Eastern Empire. Therefore, the members of the imperial family, all of them Christian converts, decide to replace the procession of masks with 12 biers standing for the 12 Apostles; in their midst, the emperor’s catafalque is the 13th.
The Byzantine imaginary coalesces around the glorified imperial power (a Roman heritage); but, since the emperor is “delegated” by God to rule the community of believers, he also has the duty to control the dissemination of the sacred image within the boundaries of the empire (a Christian addition). The collective imaginary is at the same time a mirror and a means of this divine “ministry,” blending faith and imperial ideology in a single construction to be preserved in the memory of the Christian community.
This construction, nevertheless, has a still deeper source, which is the understanding of politics in classical Athenian antiquity. This interpretation at the core of the Greek Byzance, combined with the political organization of the Roman Empire and the Christian discourse, will bring forth the imperial theocracy and a specific iconography. Neither iconoclasm, nor hesychasm (two currents of thought attached, albeit in different manners, to the Platonic tradition) will therefore be able to diminish the role of the image in the relationship between the believer and the sacred power.
The present research is an investigation of the deep-seated roots of Byzantine imaginary. This archaeological approach took into account the funeral rites in the ancient Greek and Roman world in relation to the semantics of image, on the one hand, and the realist or symbolic representations of power, on the other. From this vantage point, the collective imaginary becomes a process of memorization of divine glory or the glorification of its institutions, the community and its creative spirit.
When the divine glory is lost as a result of the original sin, the Christian world takes upon it to live the experience of penitent mourning, in the hope of Redemption. This is an exercise in forgetting the pagan Rome at work in the Byzantine imaginary for over a millennium, at a time when, for the very same reason, the Catholic west rediscovers classical antiquity and the freedom to believe in the human apotheosis.

Laura Mesina
The Medieval Imaginary: Structures and Theories

Resulting from a doctoral research, the present volume tackles its object, the medieval imaginary, from two different perspectives: a theoretical one (a survey of fundamental works in the field, followed by the advancement of a new possible interpretation of the vast phenomenon of collective mentality), and a case study of the Romanian Middle Ages, with a special focus on the collective mentalities and behaviors, the rites and rituals of power, and the artistic creations in the Romanian Principalities (14th-18th c.).
One of the aims of this research is the anthropological valorization of the complex symbolism of time and space as found in image and text, and in city planning, respectively. The same anthropological approach is used to deal with the relationship between imaginary and the representations, symbolism and ideology of Byzantine-shaped medieval Romanian authority. In such a light, this relationship proved to be instrumental in the memorization of history and self-image, and a decisive influence on the way Christian faith has been fused with local "mythology."
My analysis of the causal role of Orthodoxy and the Byzantine imperial model, respectively, in shaping the political and religious life in the Romanian Principalities builds upon a consistent bibliography in the field. My specific focus is on the identification and systematization of the various "echoes" of this model in Romanian works relevant both for the collective imaginary and for the politics of representation of local power in the Romanian public space and on the international diplomatic stage.
Hence, a special attention is given to the multiple paradox that presided at the construction of the Romanian medieval states in difficult historical and political circumstances, which ultimately led to their affiliation to the Orthodox Patriarchate in Constantinople and, therefore, to their inclusion in the Byzantine sphere of influence. The construction of the medieval states and their political options also figures prominently in the collective imaginary as a coordinated set of mythical structures relevant for the Romanian identity discourse.
Finally, another point of interest is a paradox at the core of the early modern European imaginary. Between iconoclasm and iconolatry, drawing from ancient texts and the writings of the Fathers of the Church, the collective imaginary never ceased to use image and representation as mnemonic practices even at times when theories, institutions and beliefs worked against them.

Acest volum de studii despre imaginea de sine şi despre identitate la români deschide seria Caietelor VIZUAL, realizate de Centrul de Excelenţă în Studiul Imaginii (CESI).
Autorii lucrărilor, printre care multe personalităţi ale cercetării umaniste, se referă atât la caracteristicile, la formele şi la tipologiile discursului identitar românesc, cât şi la contextele şi la factorii care l-au influenţat, în special în modernitate şi în perioada post-comunistă.
Teoria aplicată în toate aceste analize îmbogăţeşte interpretarea unor prejudecăţi, atitudini specifice, sincope istorice, erori culturale sau intenţii ideologice care pot fi citite în textele ce ne traduc identitatea, în trecut, ca şi astăzi.
Ca dialog universitar interdisciplinar, dezvoltat în jurul temei identităţii naţionale, volumul poate fi un bun însoţitor pentru programele de studiu ale facultăţilor de ştiinţe politice, de istorie, de relaţii internaţionale şi de ştiinţele comunicării.

Acest volum de studii despre imaginea de sine şi despre identitate la români deschide seria Caietelor VIZUAL, realizate de Centrul de Excelenţă în Studiul Imaginii (CESI).
Autorii lucrărilor, printre care multe personalităţi ale cercetării umaniste, se referă atât la caracteristicile, la formele şi la tipologiile discursului identitar românesc, cât şi la contextele şi la factorii care l-au influenţat, în special în modernitate şi în perioada post-comunistă.
Teoria aplicată în toate aceste analize îmbogăţeşte interpretarea unor prejudecăţi, atitudini specifice, sincope istorice, erori culturale sau intenţii ideologice care pot fi citite în textele ce ne traduc identitatea, în trecut, ca şi astăzi.
Ca dialog universitar interdisciplinar, dezvoltat în jurul temei identităţii naţionale, volumul poate fi un bun însoţitor pentru programele de studiu ale facultăţilor de ştiinţe politice, de istorie, de relaţii internaţionale şi de ştiinţele comunicării.

As the Journal’s name suggests, we focus on the visual aspects of reality and on the way we see the world (maybe listening to its sounds as well), besides getting textual information about it. Many philosophers of media think the visual way is even the main way to understand the world we live in nowadays: it is not for nothing that we call it `société du spectacle` (Guy Debord).
We aim at placing the images of the world into the world, study their social role and the concrete details that make them up. Certainly, we take into account the aesthetic value of an image, but we go beyond it. Images will not restrict itself to art history or art criticism.
We will deal with images inside Visual and Cultural Studies. It means we will place the image within the complexity of social life, where visual elements inevitably serve one kind of power or another. Instead of stating the value of images as seen by this or that critic, we mean to focus on the image’s meaning as a socially negotiated meaning.

As the Journal’s name suggests, we focus on the visual aspects of reality and on the way we see the world (maybe listening to its sounds as well), besides getting textual information about it. Many philosophers of media think the visual way is even the main way to understand the world we live in nowadays: it is not for nothing that we call it `société du spectacle` (Guy Debord).
We aim at placing the images of the world into the world, study their social role and the concrete details that make them up. Certainly, we take into account the aesthetic value of an image, but we go beyond it. Images will not restrict itself to art history or art criticism.
We will deal with images inside Visual and Cultural Studies. It means we will place the image within the complexity of social life, where visual elements inevitably serve one kind of power or another. Instead of stating the value of images as seen by this or that critic, we mean to focus on the image’s meaning as a socially negotiated meaning.

As the Journal’s name suggests, we focus on the visual aspects of reality and on the way we see the world (maybe listening to its sounds as well), besides getting textual information about it. Many philosophers of media think the visual way is even the main way to understand the world we live in nowadays: it is not for nothing that we call it `société du spectacle` (Guy Debord).
We aim at placing the images of the world into the world, study their social role and the concrete details that make them up. Certainly, we take into account the aesthetic value of an image, but we go beyond it. Images will not restrict itself to art history or art criticism.
We will deal with images inside Visual and Cultural Studies. It means we will place the image within the complexity of social life, where visual elements inevitably serve one kind of power or another. Instead of stating the value of images as seen by this or that critic, we mean to focus on the image’s meaning as a socially negotiated meaning.

Cet essai part de la crise théorique des écrits actuels sur la littérature médiévale roumaine et sur les institutions littéraires du Moyen-Âge. À la recherche d’une réponse, l’essai rappelle quelques nouvelles solutions ‒ la narrativité du discours historique, due à Hayden White, et l’analyse du postcolonialisme – aussi bien que des solutions anciennes mais insuffisamment discutées, proposées par Dan Horia Mazilu (1943-2008), le plus important historien de la littérature médiévale roumaine. Celui-ci utilise d’ailleurs tant de nombreux éléments de théorie littéraire « classique » (voir quelques différents courants du structuralisme) que de théories modernes (l’histoire culturelle, l’histoire des idées, la narratologie historiographique).
En conclusion, notre essai soutient que les études médiévales sont parfaitement compatibles avec la théorie et la philosophie moderne de l’histoire. Elles peuvent reconstruire l’objet historique à partir de ces approches aussi bien que générer des nouvelles solutions théoriques.

Funus imaginarium was the name given in Rome (1-4 c.) to a funeral procession in which actors were wearing the wax death masks of the deceased emperor’s ancestors, complete with suitable attire. These masks, called imagines, were kept in the atrium of the imperial residence (a public place) – a legitimating practice which served as a constant reminder of dynastic values and underlined the ongoing relation between past, present and future of the community.
Away from Rome, in 337 A.D., Constance II is unable to use the effigies of his pagan ancestry when organizing the funeral of his father Constantine I, the eponym founder of the capital city of the Eastern Empire. Therefore, the members of the imperial family, all of them Christian converts, decide to replace the procession of masks with 12 biers standing for the 12 Apostles; in their midst, the emperor’s catafalque is the 13th.
The Byzantine imaginary coalesces around the glorified imperial power (a Roman heritage); but, since the emperor is “delegated” by God to rule the community of believers, he also has the duty to control the dissemination of the sacred image within the boundaries of the empire (a Christian addition). The collective imaginary is at the same time a mirror and a means of this divine “ministry”, blending faith and imperial ideology in a single construction to be preserved in the memory of the Christian community.
This construction, nevertheless, has a still deeper source, which is the understanding of politics in classical Athenian antiquity. This interpretation at the core of the Greek Byzance, combined with the political organization of the Roman Empire and the Christian discourse, will bring forth the imperial theocracy and a specific iconography. Neither iconoclasm, nor hesychasm (two currents of thought attached, albeit in different manners, to the Platonic tradition) will therefore be able to diminish the role of the image in the relationship between the believer and the sacred power.
The present research is an investigation of the deep-seated roots of Byzantine imaginary. This archaeological approach took into account the funeral rites in the ancient Greek and Roman world in relation to the semantics of image, on the one hand, and the realist or symbolic representations of power, on the other. From this vantage point, the collective imaginary becomes a process of memorization of divine glory or the glorification of its institutions, the community and its creative spirit.
When the divine glory is lost as a result of the original sin, the Christian world takes upon it to live the experience of penitent mourning, in the hope of Redemption. This is an exercise in forgetting the pagan Rome at work in the Byzantine imaginary for over a millennium, at a time when, for the very same reason, the Catholic west rediscovers classical antiquity and the freedom to believe in the human apotheosis.

Laura Mesina, autoarea cărții Uitarea Romei. Studii de arheologie a imaginarului (Ed. Institutul European, Iași, 2015) este conferențiar universitar în cadrul Facultății de Litere, Universitatea din București și secretar științific în cadrul Centrului de excelență în studiul imaginii. În fapt, este unul dintre oamenii ce au investit foarte mult timp, pasiune și energie intelectuală pentru funcționarea centrului de studiu la un nivel de performanță comparabil cu cel din marile universități europene, la integrarea sa în circuitul intelectual european. Volumul de față constituie o dovadă în acest sens, aparatul bibliografic conținând toate titlurile recent apărute în mediul academic continental, atât lucrările teoretice dedicate studiului imaginii și imaginarului (C.G. Dubois, G. Durand, J. Thomas, J.J. Wunenburger), precum și cele dedicate antichității târzii și civilizației bizantine (S. Benoist, G. Dagron, A. Grabar, M.J. Mondzain). Orientarea într-un astfel de câmp de cercetare foarte vast, ținând cont de amploarea semantică a imaginarului și dinamismul sau istoricitatea sa, au constituit dificultăți majore în scrierea prezentei lucrări. Desigur, în limba română au mai apărut studii dedicate imaginarului, cum ar fi cele semnate de către Lucian Boia și Corin Braga (alături de alți membri ai grupului de cercetare Phantasma, din Cluj). Însă meritul prezentei lucrări constă în ceea ce aș numi un ascetism al scriiturii, tratarea cât mai riguroasă a temelor de cercetare, orientarea precisă prin labirintul conceptual apărut o dată cu lucrările fundamentale datorate lui Platon, Aristotel și Plotin, fondatorii reflecției filosofice dedicate naturii și funcției imaginii, precum și relațiilor ei cu marile categorii filosofice. Probleme metodologice și actualitatea demersului Din punct de vedere metodologic, lucrarea datorează foarte mult gândirii lui Michel Foucault, aplicând metoda sa de arheologie sau genealogie a cunoașterii [1], focalizându-se pe constelația imaginarului ca temă principală de studiu, un domeniu de cercetare frecventat sub această titulatură îndeosebi în spațiul francez. Oare se poate vorbi de o știință a imaginarului sau domeniul său aparține mai curând " doxologiei " ? Foucault afirmă că domeniul istoriei ideilor depășește

As the surrounding social environment becomes ever more diversified and complex, the individuals' and also the communities' typical reaction is to attempt to give meaning to and organise the stimuli with which they constantly come into contact. Such an undertaking involves a correct identification and an accurate comprehension of the most pervasive and representative characteristics of a given group of people, the manifestation of this ability leading to the creation of a coherent set of boundaries between " us " and " them ". The present study deals with precisely this type of relations, both from a theoretical and a methodological perspective. Although it focuses on history and historical writing, the article brings to the reader's attention and briefly discusses a series of concepts and theories which can be (and sometimes have been) successfully applied in other social sciences as well. For this purpose, I cite the works of a number of renowned historians, such as Rioux. These authors' innovative (for their time) and extremely well argumented opinions were thus systematised, summarised and integrated into what was designed as a comprehensive whole, with the purpose of yielding a pertinent approach to studying all sorts of identity related issues. After emphasising a number of cognitive and sometimes emotional phenomena associated with discovering and/or with writing about past events, I also briefly sketch the manner in which various factors impact upon the work of historians. I refer to such concepts as memory and forgetfulness, time and space, or fiction and fictionalisation. These types of influences mostly operate at an implicit level and therefore unconsciously affect the quality and trustworthiness of historical texts. Within this framework and once again making reference to the above mentioned authors, the present article argues that one cannot speak about a mere label modification, but about a qualitative evolution from the history of mentalities to the history of representations and, more recently, to cultural history. Even if the theoretical debates around the use and meaning of these concepts do not allow us to view this transformation as a paradigm shift in the sense defined by Thomas Kuhn, the fact that social sciences have undergone major changes in the last half century is an undeniable truth. In the last part of the study, a rather ample space was devoted to issues concerning the interactions between the Transylvanian Romanians and their Hungarian neighbours during the modern period, due to the fact that I considered these connections illustrative for the manner in which one community interacts with and perceives the Other. Mostly characterised by the frequent use (or even abuse) of imagology's and social imaginary's tools, namely stereotypes, clichés or other denaturised images, but also sometimes revealing positive attitudes and peaceful cooperation, the relations between these two peoples inhabiting the same geographical region replicate and, at the same time, exemplify any given contact between identity and alterity. In conclusion, when unravelling the past and describing both the self and its more or less accurate reflection in the mirror, cultural history is the path to follow. Keywords: history of mentalities, representations and reciprocal images, cultural history, identity and alterity, imagology  Acest studiu a apărut cu sprijinul proiectului CNCS – UEFISCDI cu numărul PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0081.