“DIARIO ESTERO”, “BOLOGNA” ȘI “GAZZETTA DI MANTOVA” – RELATĂRILE UNOR ZIARE DIN ITALIA DESPRE RĂSCOALA LUI HOREA (1784–1785)
“DIARIO ESTERO”, “BOLOGNA” AND “GAZZETTA DI MANTOVA” – ITALIAN JOURNALS ON THE HOREA-UPRISING (1784–1785)

Summary/Abstract: The outbreak of the Romanian uprising in Transylvania in the late autum of 1784 caused, as might be expected, a huge interest of many journals in Central- and Western Europe. The largest source of informations on the ongoing events was Vienna, where from the news spread out to France, Spain, Portugal, Great Britain, Denmark, Sweden, Italy and especially to different German states. Due to his relative proximity to Vienna, the journals of the Vatican State and the Austrian Lombardy were reporting since December 1784, mostly on a weekly basis. It ist o be pointed out, that all these journals were subjected to a rigorous censorship, in order to support the official point of view on the social and national shock displaying in Transylvania. The “Diario Estero” in Rome published 12 reports on the Transylvanian uprising, starting with December 10th, 1784 to May 27th, 1785 (see No. 1–12 in the Appendix). Depending mostly on official sources from Vienna, the “Diario Estero”, following word for word the reports published by the “Notizie del Mondo”, another journal issued in Rome, was more or less exposed to fake news, such as the presence in Vienna of five Romanian peasants with the aim to inform directly Emperor Joseph II on certain important matters in Transylvania. “Bologna”, issued since 1642 in Bologna (province of Emilia-Romagna), part of the Vatican State, published 13 large reports on the uprising in Transylvania, starting with December 22th, 1784 to March 30th, 1785 (see No. 13–25 in the Appendix). It ist o be pointed out, that “Bologna” was offering to his perspicuosest readers the possibility to detect the real reasons of the Romanian uprising, due to the quotation of Cloșca’s statement (one of the main peasant leaders) to the imperial lieutenent-colonel Schulz. At his turn, the “Bologna” was not save from a certain number of fake news, such as the hilarious allegation that Horea, the main leader of the revolted peasants, offered to pay himself 600 golden-florins to anyone will catch him down. “Gazzetta di Mantova”, issued since 1664 in Mantova, enjoying a certain status of autonomy in the Austrian Lombardy, published 5 reports on the Transylvanian uprising, starting with January 21th, 1785 to March 25th, 1785 (see No. 26–30 in the Appendix). The “Gazzetta” added no comment to the informations received all from Vienna.

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