German writer launches book on Romanian lands seen from the West

Chisinau, 26 January /MOLDPRES/ - A book entitled "Romanian lands seen by artists from the West (15th-19th centuries)", edited by Robert Denndorf , album coordinator: Silvia Corlateanu-Granciuc, was launched at the National Museum of History of Moldova today.  

Attending the event, Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Serebrian highly appreciated the merits of Robert Denndorf, a Saxon from Romania, who settled in Germany in 1990s. ‘’Due to such Germans as Robert Denndorf, the Romanian space has become known in the West,’’ the official said.       

Contacted by MOLDPRES, Silvia Corlateanu-Granciuc said the work represented a history in illustrations of the Romanians in their process of formation and affirmation.  

Acording to the quoted source, the volume includes 1149 images: lithographs, engravings, maps, stamps, images of fortresses, battles, various illustrations of an ethnographic character, everyday life, etc., mostly created by artists from Central and Western Europe and dating from the XV-XIX centuries. Many of these were printed in books, a good part, however, is the personal collection of Robert Denndorf, part of which was donated, free of charge, to the National Museum of History of Moldova and is part of the national heritage of the Republic of Moldova. The album is accompanied by brief texts for each image and represents an invaluable visual treasure for the illustrated history of Romanians during the XV-XIX centuries. The album's originality is rendered by the images that immortalized moments of glory, routine or downfall in Romanian history, attesting to the amazement or fascination of Westerners in relation to various events, faces of leaders, scenes from military life or the daily life of the Romanian space. The album elaborated by Robert Denndorf serves as a source in future historical research, in particular, for those that focus on the representation of the other in the European space.

Robert Denndorf also published 2 reference monographic works of the "Chronicles of the refuge of the Swedish king Charles XII in Bessarabia (1709‒1713/1714)" with about 400 Romanian - Scandinavian stamps. Both present the detailed history of Russian-Swedish confrontations from the beginning of the 18th century, the Russian-Ottoman war of 1711 and the involvement of Romanians in this conflict, the stationing of the sovereign of Sweden in Tighina until he left for his homeland. The editions contain vintage images and were printed in Germany, in Chisinau and Bucharest.