Drăgan, Ioan (szerk.): Mediaevalia Transilvanica 2003-2004 (7-8. évfolyam, 1-2. szám)
Zsigmond Jakó: Publicarea izvoareor transilvănene în ultima jumătate de veac
38 Zsigmondi JAKÓ Among the three historical provinces of today’s Romania, Transylvania has the richest and most complex heritage of written sources. Its Latin, Hungarian, and German sources have been, however, rather neglected in contrast to Romano-Cyrillic and Slavo-Cyrillic documents, regarded as crucial for the Romanian past. The Communist regime reinforced this ignorance and liquidated the institutional research network of Transylvanian minorities ("Societatea Muzeului Ardelean — Erdélyi Múzeum-Egyesület and Asociaţia de Studii Transilvane - Verein für siebenbürgische Landeskunde,) in 1949. As an immediate result, the specific research areas of these institutes were more or less abandoned. The long-term effect of this dissolution can be observed already in our days: the generalized lack of well trained specialists in the languages of the historical sources and in specific methods of archival research. In this context, access to the archival material and its publication remain the crucial issue for historical research on Transylvania. The solution adopted by Romanian historiographers is the integral publication of the text with translation into Romanian. This method slows unexpectedly the huge publishing project of all the historical sources of Romania, started in the series of Documenta Romániáé Historica (Documente privind istoria României, before 1977) in 1949. Energies consumed in this translation and publication should be concentrated on a more intense rhythm of publication of the sources, edited in form of regestae. Romanian historiography, therefore, is more active in publishing the 18th and 19lh century sources already written in Romanian and, consequently, the contribution of Hungarian and German historiography remains crucial for the earlier periods. After the dissolution of the institutional network, Hungarian and German researchers partially continued their former research agenda; therefore, source publishing did not cease completely. A re-launching of the complete programs came after the fall of the Communist regime. The help of the mother countries (Germany and Hungary) and of the churches was essential both in a financial regard and in the sense of specialists. The former research centers of the minorities were reestablished and a new generation of researchers is emerging. The crisis of Transylvanian historiography - affecting at least three nations - has one solution: to integrate the three branches of research and to promote institutional collaboration. Neglecting this cooperation, strong obstacles remain in the social sciences.
