Samuel Von Brukenthal (1721-1803). A Collector, An Epoch, A Destiny
click here for Brukenthal Museum An emblem of Sibiu, the Brukenthal Museum is one of the most important abodes of culture that has garnered national and European repute. Since its official opening on February 25, 1803, it laid an indelible mark on the cultural life of the
Collections And Collectors
By definition, the collector is a person who gathers various objects for his pleasure or for study. Didn't we all have this tendency, during our childhood? Remember how we used to show off on our collections of napkins, stamps, beer caps or chewing gum wrappers, of
Editor's Note
A number of objects of the same kind or category which, put together and arranged systematically, have an artistic, scientific, documentary value – this is the definition of the word collection, of Latin origin. Accordingly, the collector would be the person that initiates,
The Life Of The World
Epilogue Many have been, many're still and come shall many moreThe world our golden season will never quite restore. The beautiful and moral perforce will fade away,In time, all creatures living will fall into decay. Let's now carouse, past generations commemorateOur
The Romanian Was Not Born A Suicide!
political scientist Let us start from the end: thank God Romanians are Orthodox, have not totally renounced the traditional values of the village (where 45% of them are still living, a record in Europe!), do not seem to show an ethnically-grounded morbid penchant for suicide,
Fric
excerptTHE CREATION WORK (1715) When he spoke to Aaron Juda Hartman, the rabbi from Spain, the one who had diplomas from Paris and Tripoli, driven to Peloponnesus to look after his poor relatives but also to take care, unimpeded by anyone, in a dusty room heated by the
The Other Side Of The Garden
When the issue of happiness undermines that of knowledge, philosophy abandons its own domain in order to dedicate itself to a strange activity: it starts dealing with the human being… Nowadays it is interested in answering as thoroughly and as seriously as possible questions
The Faces Of Decadence
A civilization starts decaying when Life becomes its only obsession. Flourishing ages aim to values per se: life is but a means of attaining them; the individual being is not aware that he lives, he just lives – a happy slave of the shallowness that he breeds, nurses and
Variations On The Theme Of Death
We insist on staying alive precisely because life has no foundation, because it lacks even the poorest argument. On the other hand, death is too exact; all arguments are for it. Although our instincts perceive it as a mystery, to our reason it reveals itself in its whole
It's A Hard Life Bein' Dead
Mouth all bunged up by the clay,With them worms I'm takin' issue –Can't git out of this here grave,Thump you good, forgive you, kiss you…(Gypsy-band song) Let whoever's willing say Of all earthly things death's best. I'll deny that any
Squander Your Time
If ever I ventured to write a treatise on the savoir vivre, I would not neglect to address, in an entire chapter, the art of whiling away. It seems to me that this type of happiness – which is, equally, an admirable instrument of knowledge – has long been forgotten.
Love In The Waste Lot
Safta was a victim of her past of love affairs and amorous generosity, but also of the human decay from the madhouse times and from all times. The former chanteuse had decided, the night when she ordered the enamoured shopkeeper to break the fiddles of the fiddlers, to give