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566 UN DEBAT : LES MENTALJTES COLLECTIWES 10

to do, to hear — to say” ¹. Evcr raore new books with ever morę varied contents began to circulate in the Romanian lands — a nation divided into rhree by feudal boundaries, just as at lliat time Germany and Italy were as yet fragmentary States. Morę translations from increasingly divergent sources began to be madę. Notable amongst the many Romanian scholars active at this time were those known as the “Ramnieeui” — those who worked in or were connected willi the town of Rimnic, a eentre on the Olt River in Wallachia — the book-lovers of Jaęi, but above all the members of the “Transylwanian Sehool” — Samuil Micu, Glieorghe ęincoi, Petru Maior, łon Budai Deleanu and others. They all ^piead the enlightened ideas in rural areas convinced as they were that by means Of eulture a social mpvement will emerge and will ehange the politieal struclures. An evcr growing separation between the rural piilieus and the citics took plącą as a conseąuence, mostly sińce urbanization madę progroses in a sjngle way, l'avouring a social class the bourgooisią, Manners and niental representations stand also proof to a clcaynge in. fuli progress.

The mentol tepresentations. There are great differencoS between the vic\\ of the world and of the man as seen by tlić court and by tho peasantsfl At the court people were abie to become eonvcrsajut with new ideas to be found in books or in what tiayellers were tolling. Boscorić discoreied a great interest for experiences in pliysics in łasi, while Jćremy Bentham met in 1786 in Bueharest “four or five” of ilelvetius’ 'disciples. News fiom all over the worhl reachcd the cities while the rillages vere stili relying on orał communication. But as w^rell in cities as in yillages old image* prevailed maintaing tlie traditional view of the world dominated by cyeles, by the day and night succession, by the roundabout of the seaftons with its influence on liuman csistence. As in other South-East European cullures, the wheel of fortunę was an accepted symbol. It was jiaiuted on the ouier wali of the church in Rasinari in Transylwania, in the 18thcentury. Nerertlieless, a straih may be felt between the images nurtured by the natural cycle and those deriving from the rational order suggested by the philosophers’ ideas and the scientific outeomes.

łłndoubtedly, people’s life was Mili dominated by cold in winter which was strong enough to reach the inside of the houses as we gather from Meciu Anania of Binifalva’s notę in 1785. He saw that on the 16th of March “the holy communion got frozen in the rery chalice while the mass was in progress”. The weather was whimsical. There were rainless summers fołlowed by unbearably hot autumns which often causcd loss of crops and famine. When “lots of cereals grew and ewerything became vąr> cheap” the event was marked by the 1796 notę of Manolache Logofatul. But in March 1797 “there w^ras a snów storm which caused thę death of many animals tłien in the field.,. and as Homo people tried to reach the village they were frozen and died”. Sofronie of Densuij wrnte that the vear 1813 had “such a rainv summer that six or seven stacks only yieldcd 16 kdos (feardela) of corn. There was a great famine

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Sce our paper Tradltion orale et ezpansion da liure — iezemple de la eulture roumaine in Lumlłres en Hongrie, en Europę Centrale et en Europę Orientale» Budapest. Akademia! Kiadó, 1977. p. 111-115.