Paul Mihail and the heritage of old books from Bessarabia

On June 29, we shall celebrate 120 years since the birth of priest and historian Paul Mihail (1905-1994). He was an important researcher and editor of unpublished documents from the medieval and modern eras. Author of numerous publications, he made unique contributions to the study of the history of Romanian culture and the Orthodox Church. Paul Mihail remained in the memory of posterity also due to his effort to save bibliophile values. In this presentation, we intend to evoke his contributions to the knowledge of the old book heritage from Bessarabia. In particular, we will refer to the presence of several copies of Varlaam's Cazania in the Prut-Dniester area. Orphaned by his father at the age of 3, Paul Mihail attended primary school at the Hârjauca Monastery orphanage. Although he endured many hardships (the miserable conditions, the poor quality food, and the beatings of the teachers), living at the monastery brought him closer to the atmosphere of church books and religious objects. In fact, in his grandparents' family in the village of Ciuciulea, old Romanian manuscripts and printed books were kept and passed down as an inheritance from generation to generation, as religious and educational books. Between 1916 and 1926, he studied at the Theological Seminary in Chisinau. After graduation, the administration organized a trip for the students to the monasteries of Hârjauca, Hârbovăț, Frumoasa, Țigănești, and Curchi. During the trip, P. Mihail made notes about the history of the holy places and about the old books they owned. That first experience of researching church books became a passion that he cultivated throughout his life. After completing his university studies, Paul Mihail worked as secretary of the Historical Monuments Commission, Bessarabia Region (between 1929-1938). In this capacity, he visited many churches and monasteries in the counties of Orhei, Lăpușna, Bălți, Soroca, and Tighina. For each ecclesiastical settlement, he compiled a list of old books (from the 18th-19th centuries), also transcribing the marginal notes, which had documentary value. During the same period, he was the "subdirector" of the Church Museum in Chișinău. The museum housed a rich book collection, including prints from the "golden age of Romanian culture": Cazania by Metropolitan Varlaam, Life and Deeds of the Saints by Metropolitan Dosoftei, the Bible of Șerban Cantacuzino (1688), The Pearl by Saint John Chrysostom, etc. Unfortunately, the museum's heritage was largely lost after the occupation of Bessarabia by the Soviet Union. With the return of the Romanian administration, the Museum of Religious Art was re-established in Chișinău, with priest Paul Mihail as its director. He made a substantial effort to restore the museum collections. With a foresight, he donated some of the books, manuscripts and documents found to the Library of the Romanian Academy in Bucharest. Paul Mihail took several writings and documents from his parents' and personal libraries with him in 1944, taking refuge with his family in Romania. Throughout his life, to the extent that he was allowed, he brought these bibliophile values into the scientific circuit. Among them are a manuscript of the Chronicle of Moldova by Ion Neculce and another containing the Sermons of Metropolitan Antim Ivireanul (edited posthumously by researcher Zamfira Mihail, his only daughter). Both manuscripts were in use in Bessarabia. We owe Paul Mihail some unique testimonies about the circulation of Varlaam's Cazania in the Prut-Dniester area. As a student, he published an article about a manuscript copy of Cazania, kept at the Faculty of Theology in Chisinau. It was a copy of Transylvanian origin, made in 1723. He identified a printed copy in the church library of his native village, Cornova, Orhei County, as well as in the Church Museum in Chisinau. Another copy, "which had very precious marginal notes about its circulation", he donated to the Library of the Romanian Academy. We mention that, currently, on the territory of our country, only one copy of Cazania is still kept, at the "A. Lupan" Scientific Library. In conclusion, the great merit of Paul Mihail is to have recorded the presence of several old Romanian books in Bessarabia, until the Second World War. Later, during the Soviet period, many of them were lost, in the midst of the war, as well as because of the hostility of the Soviet regime towards Christian and national values. Thanks to Paul Mihail, part of our bibliophile heritage is currently preserved in specialized institutions (libraries, archives) in Romania, awaiting their researchers.