Medieval Transylvania. Topography and legal norms of the fortresses Sibiu, Bistrița, Brașov, Cluj - Irina Băldescu

Simetria, Bucharest, 2012

"The book, a reworking of a doctoral thesis in the history of the city, discussed at the Sapienza University of Rome in 2005, considers the medieval urban phenomenon in Transylvania starting from territorial transformations, focusing attention on the new foundations of cities and, in the four examples examined in depth, on the historical development of some fortresses. The author's knowledge of the sources and the rich bibliography, as well as her meticulous inspection of the sites and the location of appropriate cartographic bases, enable her to synthesize the general problems in a mature judgment and to discuss local situations and particularities. The research of the archives has brought to light unpublished and extremely valuable documents (even if they are, as a rule, successive to the period under consideration), so that the final results of this three-year research contribute to the scientific knowledge of a phenomenon of urbanization, quite original, but comparable to what is happening in other European areas."

Enrico Guidoni

This model of analysis, defined during the study of Italian cities - where research is based not only on the direct analysis of the urban fabric, but also on a very rich archival documentation, compared to other European realities - has proved to be useful in other geographical areas as a testimony to the unity of medieval urban civilization. Apart from the historical data, the value of Irina Băldescu's research lies in the framing of Transylvanian urban reality within the system of European cities."

Ugo Soragni, editor ofStoria dell' urbanisticamagazine