2796124046

3 UN DEBAT : LES MENTAUTtS COLLECTIYES 559

a śp^cific literały genie or an aidistic style. As a matter of faet¹, a Styl6 pnf iiito light by the sOniCcs we have at our disposal no wada ys Sliould not be defined by taking into consideratión a sihgle gfonp of attitudes, for example the political ones. Sonie doubts might be expreSsed oonceining the relation eStablished betwoen the appearance of the BArocpie sjyle in the Romanian Prineipalities and the unKuecessful attempts of the boyars to installań aristocratic regime in thePrineipalities (asit has been snggested by Florin Constantiniu in Sensibilitó baroąue et rćgime nobUiaire published in fliis jonrnal, no. 2, 1979}.

b. the iinagcs as a means of conimmucatiom A verv iinportanf image is the image of the world, taken eithi*r as the sceno of esistonce or as the geographical spaee in wliich poople morę or less emlized ar (i living. In the first sonso, we might roniombor the imago oiirront willi the Byzantine scholarship wliieh saw the world as madę of two ostates, thć cosmic and the piionmatie: this division liotweon an innor and an outei' world has boen transmitted throngh the ageney of patristic writings to all Soufh-East Enropoan enlturos aml might be met evon in tyritings of the 19theentmy. In tlio soeond scn>e, vory rewarding aro the stndies on the image of Europę and mostly on the imago of “the ot hor” whieli aecounts for how tho eOninmliioation was favonred or błock od at a certain moment. So for instnnee t ho imago of “onlightoned Europo’’ has enoemraged the translatiuns froin Eroncli and Gcrdian works into Romanian wliilo the image of the “Latin West” obstrnc ted tho eontacts of the Greek culture witli Western Enropć in past centurio*. In faet, the excessive eoneern for tlieir own aehiereinonts leci all poople to parochialism wliich ignored what was going on elsewhere. Thus, the Scliónbrnnn pałace may be presented as a bouutitul piece of aichitectnre of the* ISth cent my, as a residenee of the irabsburg dynasty, as a place wliore sevoral peaee treatieB hnve been signod; but it may also be ronghly described as a place where the duke of Reiehstadt diod (an ontry ono might. find in the Larousse dietioiiary !). It is of ntniost iinportaueo for a thorongh stmly of mentalities to nnalyso the image of the ideał man, be it tho model proposed to a defined eollectivitv — Mich as the “corteggiano”, “1’lion-nete homnie”, “the gentleman”, “the citizcn”, “the patriot’⁷ — or the one able to fulfil everybody’s aspirations and hope.s : the “good monarch” or the “brave haiduk ’.

It is ossential that tho stndy of otmeopts shonld be continuonsly combined with that of images, if we wis li to re-diseover throngh the documents, the thoughts and feelings of poople froni past ago. The history of mentalities may offer explanations to pooples’ doporlnient, ways of tlhnking and of cxpressing thomsolres if the histoiian will not confine himself to one single gioup of documonts and to one single gionp of private or public expressionx ; thus, a new reality might como to light* a different reality front the pictnre ropreseiitingpolitionl aotions separated from artistie lifo or soeial manifestntions apparently ignoring Jitoraiy activity. The history of mentalities will rostore “the genuiue”, not only real facts, but mainly actnai reasons and liieanings. if it will pnt a special accent on men, trying to explain why tliey embarked on a new coni-mercial way, why they decidcd to sign a political treaty, to build a pałace with statues representing Greek lieroes at the entrance (as in von l3aun’s