Patriarch Daniel of the Romanian Christian Orthodox Church on Tuesday said that the release of the latest volumes of the "History of the Library of the Romanian Academy" is a testimony to the way in which a fundamental institution of Romanian culture went through the historical paradigm shift, inaugurated in December 1989, and to the way in which it knew how to preserve its continuity.
He participated on Tuesday in the release by the Library of the Romanian Academy of the last three volumes of the series "History of the Library of the Romanian Academy (1867-2025)", which bring to the attention of readers the post-communist period.
He said that the completion, within only five years, of this ambitious editorial project is "the expression of dedication and tenacity, intertwined with passion and professionalism, both of the coordinator and of the authors and contributors".
"Through the richness of the information and the diversity of the documents used, the three volumes of the fifth volume are not only a chronicle of the last three and a half decades of the library's existence. They constitute, at the same time, a testimony to the way in which a fundamental institution of Romanian culture went through the historical paradigm shift, inaugurated in December 1989, and to the way in which it knew how to preserve its continuity, through consistency with its own values, taking up at the same time the demands of a world in a profound transformation", said the Patriarch in the Hall of the Romanian Academy
Daniel showed that "an institution such as the Library of the Romanian Academy, who treasures the memory of a people, writestoday, in the pages of these volumes, its own memory, the memory of beginnings, accomplishments, trials and vulnerabilities, but also of a vocation that cannot be exhausted by any editorial conclusion".
The Patriarch awarded the Patriarchal Order "Faith and Communion for the Laity" to the general director of the Academy Library, Nicolae Noica, "for the initiative and vision with which he made this editorial project possible, as well as for the sustained efforts made in its creation, as a sign of appreciation and special appreciation."
The 13 volumes are an excellent guide to understand what is happening in the Library of the Romanian Academy, pointed out the chairman of this forum, academician Marius Andruh.
"Because a mind cannot easily contain 12 million objects, unless we are guided. And that is achieved in this fundamental and huge work that those who serve the Library of the Romanian Academy have brought to an end. They have brought it to a certain end because the life of the library goes on. And we will go beyond volume 13 in a few years, to show what happened in the Library of the Academy of our Academy," said Andruh.
He brought "a thank you and a tribute (...) to those who serve the Library of the Romanian Academy, under the leadership of Nicolae Noica.
"This year, Director Noica also launched a welcome book dedicated to the history of the buildings of the Library of the Romanian Academy. The book, recently released at the National Library and a little later in the Auditorium of the Romanian Academy, together with the 13 volumes, forms a printed, lasting image of what the Library of the Romanian Academy means", added Andruh.
Noica, an honorary member of the Romanian Academy and general director of the Library of the Romanian Academy, said that "the series 'History of the Library of the Romanian Academy' offers the institution its own memory."
"But no matter how generous the approach of the recording may be, the memory cannot be permanently closed between the covers. After the appearance of the 13 volumes, new documents have entered and will enter the collections of this library. Yesterday I received, with great pleasure, a history of medicine, written in France. Ten volumes! A splendour! Extraordinary things, which we have. And I remember one more thing: as a construction engineer, I was impressed when I found the entire project of the Garnier Opera, the Paris Opera, made by Charles Garnier. It is found in the Academy's Library. It was the reason that determined me to take out the history of the library. That is why the history of the Academy Library cannot have an end point. It continues to be written with professionalism," said Noica.
He praised "the human intellectual effort of those who, in a short time, managed to compose and publish the first complete history of the Romanian Academy Library, a large-scale work, which involved dedication, scientific competence, but also faith in a noble mission with projection over time".
Initiated in 2022, on the 155th anniversary of the Romanian Academy Library, the project was conceived as a necessary recovery of institutional memory.
A first volume was published in 2022, three volumes followed in 2023, another three in 2024, three more in 2025, and in 2026 - the last three volumes bring the post-communist period to readers' attention.
In just five years, this idea became a remarkable historiographical construction: 13 volumes that follow the evolution of the library from 1867 to 2025, from the first donations and the beginnings of the collections to the transformation of the institution into a modern library connected to the digital universe.
