Library
The library of monastery contains several volumes of theology, art and history, a collection of more than 10000 volumes.
The acquisitions made in the last few years consist of a substantial collection of patristic, biblical, dogmatic, liturgical writings, books of history, homiletics, ethics, classics and foreign language dictionaries and handbooks, but also studies on Byzantine art and civilization, medieval Romanian history and civilization, European medieval culture – books that students and researchers in the field are interested in.
The library contains a substantial collection of ancient books, manuscripts and printings in Romanian, Greek and Slavonic. It numbers over 80 manuscripts and 400 printings, religious books and music manuscripts, some dating back to the 17th and 18th century – books used by our psaltes [singers] in order to make comparative studies for correcting the editions we are using in liturgical practices.
The process of digitizing the old books and the creation of a virtual library, this is one of the major obedience (dikonemata) in our monastic community.
A part of our library contains the personal library of art historian Vasile Dragut, important mediaevalist and author of numerous treaties on Romanian Art History. The library was donated through the kind permission of his wife, Mrs Gabriela Patulea-Dragut.
Among its volumes of ecclesiastical art and architecture, Stavropoleos library contains several exemplars of book series and collections issued by prestigious national and international publishers, such as Meridiane, the most representative publishing house in Romania, and catalogues published by the British Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The Royal Academy of Art in London and dedicated to the great international exhibitions of Byzantine art. Also, the Bulletin of Commission for the Historical Monuments (1908-1945) and its new series, continued under other titles: The Bulletin of Historical Monuments (1970-1974), Historical Monuments of Art (1974-1989), Journal of Historical Monuments (1990-2002).
The library is extremely rich in theological studies. Together with the ones edited by the Publishing House of the Biblical and Mission Institute of the Romanian Orthodox Church (Fathers of the Church and ecclesiastical writers, Patrology) and the twelve volumes of The Philokalia translated and commented by Father Dumitru Staniloae there are many books on dogmatics, liturgics, Church history and spirituality issued after 1989 by different publishing houses, in various theological collection: Deisis, Anastasia, Polirom, Sofia etc. The recent translation of The Septuagint, made by a prestigious group of translators and specialists and edited in several volumes by New Europe College and Polirom Publishing House, the new bilingual editions in the Polirom collection ”Christian Tradition”, the collection Philokalica of Deisis Publishing House are some of the most prestigious acquisitions we have made in recent years. We would like to complete the library fund with the complete collections J. P. Migne and Sources chretiennes, and two dictionaries: Dictionnaire de spiritualite and Dictionaire d’archeologie et liturgie chretienne; we would be grateful to receive help to purchase them.
From the old heritage of Stavropoleos Monastery a lot of religious books have been preserved. They were supplemented with donations and acquisitions made throughout time in order to complete the collection of old books, which includes now Romanian, Greek, Slavic printings and some manuscripts.
Traditional Byzantine music is a constant priority in Stavropoleos monastery. Our collection holds nearly two hundred books and manuscripts that represent one of the most important monastic collection of its kind in Romania.
Most of the titles come to the collection from the libraries of two Romanian Byzantinists, Archdeacon Sebastian Barbu-Bucur, PhD Professor and Titus Moisescu, to whom we are grateful for the constant support they have provided us over the years in our projects related to the promotion of Byzantine music. Stavropoleos library contains almost all the important editions of hymns printed in Romanian, beginning with those published by Macarie Ieromonahul in 1823 and continuing with Anton Pann, Dimitrie Suceveanu and many others up to Ion Popescu-Pasarea and Victor Ojog. There are also books of hymns in Greek, some of them printed by Petre Efesiu – who published church hymns in 1820 in Bucharest, for the first time in the orthodox world – and Theodor Phokaeos. Printings are complemented by Greek and Romanian manuscripts, two of them dated to the 18th century as written in the old Byzantine ”Cucuzelian” notation, and the other one in Slavic, in krjuki notation.
In addition to hymnbooks the library includes important musical studies and theoretical treaties, both Romanian and foreign. Among the latter, mention should be made of A History of Byzantine Music and Hymnography by Egon Wellesz and several volumes of the series Monumenta Musicae Byzantinae.
