Cercetări de istorie urbană în centre europene. Cu specială privire la imaginile istorice ale oraşelor (din România)
Urban History Research in European Centres. With Special Regard to Historic Images of (Romanian) Towns

Summary/Abstract: This paper deals with the state of knowledge in Romania, but especially in Western Europe, where studying urban history is relying on a long tradition. Special attention is given to the institutions I had the honour and opportunity to know from inside during documentary stages – Institut für Vergleichende Städtegeschichte – Münster and Centrum voor Stadsgeschiedenis – Antwerp. The European historiography of the research domain approaches the images foremost from the point of view of the techniques they were produced, from how accurately the reality was rendered, from the angles they were seen, from the accent put on some of the topographical elements. It is also interested in the origin of some of the images: the artist who produced them, the customer, the editor and printing office, the purpose and the public an image has been created for, the reaction of the market, the circulation and degree it enjoyed recognition. This kind of approach is also applicable to the images of Romanian towns, because of the fact that there do exist a lot of similarities: there were used the same techniques of manufacturing, the same categories and typologies are valid too, we have approximately the same chronology, even more they have been produced in the same typographic centres and by the same authors. The most striking difference consists in the fact that Western towns were represented by artists from that region, but ours only from the middle of the 19th century, when photography came into being, thus being of lesser importance as historic documents.

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