“Ioan Neculce” Bulletin

Since taking over the management of the institution, we have aimed for the Municipal Museum “Regina Maria” to establish itself as soon as possible and permanently on the cultural and academic scene of the city of Iași. Therefore, we knew from the beginning that we would not limit ourselves to simply adopting a name and symbolically claiming a tradition and that, through the effort and dedication of the entire team, together with the increasingly numerous collaborators and supporters that the museum has, we would build a visible bridge to the institution founded a century ago, on the initiative of Gheorghe Ghibănescu. Gradually, through the activities and projects that it has set in motion, the Municipal Museum “Regina Maria” tends to share the same goal with its predecessor, namely the organization of representative museum spaces and the construction of an academic environment intended to discover and highlight the past of the city of Iași and of the historical province of which it was the capital. Ioan Neculce Periodical. The Bulletin of the Municipal Museum “Regina Maria” continues the symbolic legacy of the magazine founded in 1921, and will prove, issue by issue, from now on, that it will become the fertile ground where the concerns of historians, linguists, museographers and all those passionate about knowing the history of the city of Iași will meet.

The magazine is, therefore, the new challenge to which the Municipal Museum “Regina Maria” has dared to respond.

The effort to renew a publishing tradition is to be appreciated at a time when the volume of the scientific press is being enriched with new titles every year. Also worthy of praise is the survival, the exit of a magazine from the wide circle of ephemeral publications and the entry among the few that prove vigor, value and continuity. Although we are in the age of information disseminated via the internet and social networks, we believe that a cultural institution still needs a printed publication, through which it can gain visibility and, above all, credibility for the value of the activities it carries out. These are just a few observations on the context that lead us to affirm that the issue of the periodical “Ioan Neculce. The “Regina Maria” Municipal Museum Bulletin is the completion of a project organized around a museum and cultural institution. As the series of numerous and diverse events that were organized on the initiative of the “Regina Maria” Municipal Museum between October 2018 and October 2019 shows, the publication of the magazine could not be delayed any longer, “Ioan Neculce” becoming both the place where to write the chronicle of the Museum, and especially the editorial space where to gather valuable scientific contributions to the knowledge of the past of Iasi and its surroundings. Therefore, the content of this first issue echoes the need to make the facts of the museum institution better known and prefigures a bold and long-lasting scientific program, that of bringing the history of Iaș back to the public eye, in a dialogue with the expectations of the public and with the challenges inherent to the current evolution of our city. Looking with justifiable hope at this beginning, we wish that the editorial road will be long and fruitful for the success of the cultural concept conceived around the “Regina Maria” Municipal Museum, with the support of the Iasi City Hall.

The establishment of the Municipal Museum in 1920 was followed, a year later, by the appearance of a publication dedicated to researching the history of the city of Iași, the Bulletin of the “Ioan Neculce” Museum. The choice of the chronicler’s name proved to be inspired, and the direction outlined in the first issue of the magazine reflected the founders’ aspirations: to reunite a heritage representative of the past of Iași.
Although the Municipal Museum did not last more than a decade, its magazine remained a testimony to the existence of that museum institution. The editorial program aimed to recover the history of the city by publishing documents, inscriptions, notes and testimonies about Iași and historical Moldova. The fascicles printed at that time have retained an undeniable scientific value over the decades, despite the interruption of the series after only nine issues.
The re-establishment of the Municipal Museum “Regina Maria” now brings back to the forefront the revitalization of the magazine, with the aim of continuing its initial mission, now taken over from the second series, sponsored by the History Museum of Moldova, within the National Museum Complex of Moldova. As is evident from the content of the volumes of this third series, the current editorial team assumes the research and promotion of the past of Iași through studies carried out by historians, linguists and museologists. The publication and interpretation of historical sources, be they archaeological or written, remains a central objective.
In addition, the new series dedicates space to the presentation of museum activity, through reports on events organized by the Municipal Museum and its collaborations. Donations and acquisitions are also highlighted, reflecting the process of enriching the museum heritage.
Following the model of our predecessors, we do not make empty promises, but work to build a rigorous magazine, capable of attracting the interest of specialists and local history enthusiasts. Our goal is clear: to capitalize on the heritage and write an authentic history of the city of Iași, a project imagined since 1921.