On July 21 – 23, 2022, Putna Monastery hosted the 27th edition of the “Putna Colloquia” International History Symposium, with physical and online participation. The event reunited researchers from Bucharest, Iași, Cluj-Napoca, Kishinev and also from Greece, Ukraine, Serbia and Slovakia. It included a Musicology section.

The symbolic importance of the meeting was pointed out in the opening address: the 30th anniversary of the canonization of Holy Prince Stephen the Great. Therefore, the presented papers were focused on different aspects of the history of Moldavia during the reign of Stephen the Great (the donations of the prince to some monasteries, the battles fought by the prince), as well as on aspects of medieval Romanian history in general, such as new information on campaigns fought, numerical alphabets in the principality of Moldavia, Latinism and Latin origins as a concept in Europe at that time, in relation to Prince Miron Barnovsky’s reforms); on art history issues (music and dance in the frescoes of the churches founded during Stephen the Great’s and Petru Rareș’s reigns; Moldavian iconography towards the end of the 15th century; the tower of the Hârlău Princely Court church; resemblances in matter of plan and architectural composition between two worship places – Secu Monastery and Flămânda Skete); on the history of the Putna Monastery (using marble as a noble stone for Stephen the Great’s tomb and canopy; the activity of some “minor” intellectuals in the second half of the 18th century; biographical data on some personalities who visited Putna Monastery, according to the monastery’s Guest Register; the opening of the Putna tombs in 1856; biographical details from the life of hierarchs who officiated at Putna; founders of monasteries dedicated to Putna; on the motivations and legality of the death sentence pronounced for Metropolitan Visarion Puiu; old books from the Putna Monastery library); analysis and interpretation of archaeological discoveries (elements and observations on four Moldavian churches; new information on Prince Dragoș’s Church obtained through dendro-chronologic research); also on the land patrimony of some monasteries before their dissolution by the Austrians, on disease and health care in monasteries; perspectives on the propaganda of the Central Powers in Romania between 1914 and 1916.

The Musicology Section included papers by researchers from Ukraine (Yevgeniya Ignatenko), Serbia (Vesna Sara Peno), Slovakia (Simon Marincak), Romania (Maria Alexandru, Hierod. Avraam Bugu), on the Greek chant repertoire from Moldavian and Ukrainian-Belarussian manuscripts, on musical pedagogy in ecclesiastical and lay schools in Serbia, on the importance of studying liturgical-musical traditions, on the four-measure musical phrase as an exegetic principle for musical manuscripts, and on other aspects related to the art and technique of musical exegesis.

The event was an opportunity to present three issues of the Analele Putnei journal: XVI, 2020, 2; XVII, 2021, 1 and XVII, 2021, 2, as well as the books Ștefan cel Mare și moldovenii din vremea sa (“Stephen the Great and the Moldavian People of His Time”) by Adrian Andrei Rusu and the commemorative album Ștefan cel Mare în icoană și altar (“Stephen the Great in Icons and Altars”), dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the canonization of the prince of Moldavia.

Please read on this page the detailed list of discussions carried out during this edition of the “Putna Colloquia”.