“Ioan Neculce” Bulletin – Volume V/2023

Conferința anuală de istorie a orașului și nou număr al revistei „Ioan Neculce”

The “Regina Maria” Municipal Museum, in partnership with the “A. D. Xenopol” Institute of History and with the support of the Iași City Hall, organized the museum’s fourth annual conference on August 25 and 26, 2023. Staying true to the project launched in 2020, the organizers invited historians, archaeologists, linguists, architects, and museum professionals alike—all of whom are engaged with both the city’s past and its contemporary issues, particularly the preservation and promotion of its memory and cultural landmarks. As always, the response met expectations; over two days, more than 25 specialists gathered for discussions, presenting an equal number of papers that highlighted various aspects of the city’s history—exploring it through its people and buildings, its roads and stopping points, its spiritual representations, and its museum and archival heritage. Critical turning points were not overlooked, as the city was examined in reflection, across times of war and peace. As has become customary in recent editions of the conference, the program featured two debates: one—now a staple—focused on museology, and another prompted by the question of whether a history of Iași could be a feasible project in the near future.

The present volume, the fifth in the third series of the century-old publication Ioan Neculce. Bulletin of the Municipal Museum, is not a conference proceedings volume. Nevertheless, thanks to the interest and generosity of the participants, it brings together most of the papers presented at the summer session. The editors have arranged the twelve studies thematically under headings such as Along the City’s Roads: Distances, Sounds, and Stopping Places; The City and Its Spiritual Landmarks: Faith, Civic Life, and Education; The City in the Shadows: Reconstructions, Discoveries, and Clarifications; The City in Archival Collections; Associations, Medicine, and Social Welfare; and From the Surrounding Area.

As in previous issues, the volume includes articles accompanied by documentary and visual appendices. The authors considered this material too valuable to be mentioned only in footnotes and chose to publish it in the hope that it would support future research. Indeed, the use and publication of archival documents is perhaps the most visible link between the journal founded a century ago and the present publication, which carries on its legacy. In keeping with this aim, the volume is richly illustrated. These images are intended to complement the studies rather than merely decorate them: they include old plans and maps, photographs of the city’s people, houses, and monuments, and snapshots taken during activities organised by the “Queen Marie” Municipal Museum in 2023. In time, these photographs too will become historical documents.

Like its predecessors, this volume addresses both specialists and the wider public. The editorial project is intended less as a display of scholarship on urban history than as a way to make Iași’s historical heritage more widely known. It seeks to encourage a deeper awareness of the need to preserve the city’s memory and protect it from irreversible loss through hasty modernisation undertaken without sufficient knowledge of the past.

Marius Chelcu