Centrul de istoria cărții și a textelor/The Centre for the History of the Book and Texts (CODEX) was established in 2007, and was recognised by the Babeș-Bolyai University as a ‘Centre of Research, Development and Innovation’ in 2013-2016, in 2016-2020, and again in 2021-2025.

Our purpose is to promote the study of the medieval and early modern book. Our focus lies on Latin palaeography and codicology, on textual history, and the history of books and libraries.

CODEX is affiliated to the Fédération Internationale des Instituts d’Études Médiévales (FIDEM).

Research

The Centre has won two national research grants, and has published several reference works: a codicological vocabulary in Romanian (A. Papahagi, C. Papahagi, AC Dincă, A. Mârza, Vocabularul cărții manuscrise, Bucharest: Ed. Academiei Române, 2013), and a census of Western medieval manuscripts (A. Papahagi, AC Dincă, A. Mârza, Manuscrisele medievale occidentale din România: Census, Iași: Polirom, 2018). A history of the book in medieval Transylvania is forthcomig (A. Papahagi, AC Dincă, A History of the Book in the Medieval Dioceses of Oradea, Cenad and Transylvania, Cluj: Ed. Școala Ardeleană).

We are currently contributing to the following research projects on medieval manuscript fragments:

2020-2022 | RO-CULTURA-A1-3/2020/31.01.2020 grant | ‘FRAGMED-Un puzzle transilvan: reconstituind cultura medievală din fragmente de codici’ | Restoring, digitising and studying medieval manuscript fragments at the Library of the Romanian Academy in Cluj | Dr Adrian Papahagi, PI.

2019-2022 | Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) 182173 grant | ‘Fragmentarium Phase II’ | Publishing medieval manuscript fragments from Cluj on Fragmentarium | CODEX is a partner institution.

Courses

The Centre is offering an undergraduate course of Manuscript Studies at the Faculty of Letters (LLE 5122/5222). Dr Adrian Papahagi also teaches a Codicology course within the Diplôme Européen d’Études Médiévales (DEEM) in Rome.

Library

CODEX has the only library specialised in manuscript studies in Romania (about 1 000 titles and growing).

Current Members

Dr Adrian Papahagi, Faculty of Letters, UBB Cluj – director

Dr Dragoș Calma, University College Dublin

Dr Adinel-Ciprian Dincă, Faculty of History and Philosophy, UBB Cluj

Dr Monica Fekete, Faculty of Letters, UBB Cluj

Dr Carmen Fenechiu, Faculty of Letters, UBB Cluj

Ms Diana Marinescu, PhD candidate, Faculty of History and Philosophy, UBB Cluj

Dr Andreea Mârza, Faculty of Greek-Catholic Theology, UBB Cluj

Dr Cristiana Papahagi, Faculty of Letters, UBB Cluj

Dr Elena Șorban, Faculty of Reformed Theology, UBB Cluj

Collaborators

Ms Iulia Székely, École nationale des Chartes, Paris

Dr Cristian Ispir, University College London

Dr Balázs Nemes, Univ. of Freiburg

Dr Cristian Mladin, Batthyaneum Library, Alba Iulia

Dr Doina Hendre-Biro, Alba Iulia

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