Două Psaltiri vechi, din colecţia de la Mănăstirea Râmeţ
Two old Psalters from the collection of Râmeţ Monastery

Summary/Abstract: The current paper draws attention upon two copies of old Romanian books stored in the collection of the Râmeţ Monastery, respectively on a Psalter, printed in Blaj in 1764 and on another, printed in Sibiu in 1811, both of patrimonial value, as proper Romanian old prints. Their special value is enhanced by their defining details, more particularly by the hand-written notes that appear on their pages. Thus, as far as the first Psalter is concerned, despite its fragmentation (many sheets of the book block have been lost) is could be revealed, based on an interesting manuscript note from 1779 that it had a private owner (it is not specified since when, obviously prior to the fore-mentioned year) in the person of the deacon Onul, after whose death went to Alexandru Tobias and later on, in the last decade of the XVIIIth, to Ion Bălos. The characters involved seem to revolve arond the town Cetea ( Alba County) including the priest that has so caligraphically written the 1779 note whose name seems to be Zak[keu?], character not previously mentioned in the literature. Unfortunately, we cannot fully retrace the circulation of the copy, its presence within the Râmeţ Monastery being certain only for the year 1983 when identified without hesitation by Eva Mârza, this being a rather demanding task since it lacked the title sheet. The second sample analyzed, the Psalter of Sibiu, 1811, has a hand-written ex-libris belonging to the greatest copyist and miniaturist of Romanian manuscripts in the XIXth century, the devout Procopiu Picu Pătruţ who purchased the copy September 6, 1854. A previous owner of the book, Ion Marcu, has also wrote several notes on the pages of the book, some endangered by the cutting of slices for volume rebounding. The copy was stained with water colors during the time it belonged to Picu Pătruţ (until 1872), sign that it rested open on the same table where the copyist realised his miniature manuscripts and throughout the entire volume the artist painted with blue the titles, decorated initials and vignettes of the Psalter, giving the whole book a special look. He has also hand written, in his own characteristic way, several a few small notes and made two small ink drawings in fero-gaelic ink that followed the writing. The entry into the Râmeţ Monastery collection of old books cannot be exactly established cannot be also exactly determined but it most certainly is subsequent to year 1904.

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