On publishing activity of Metropolitan Gavriil Bănulescu-Bodoni (1808-1812, 1813-1821) and the presence of old Romanian books in the collections of Northern Dobrudja

One of the factors which contributed to the support of the Romanians and their culture in Bessarabia was the Church, and Metropolitan Gavriil Bănulescu-Bodoni (born 1746 <1750?> died 1821, ChiТinău) was deeply aware of it, bringing the area between the Prut and Dniester to the consciousness and spirituality of the Romanian space before and especially after 1812. In 1808-1812, after his appointment as a member of the Holy Synod of St. Petersburg and exarch of Moldavia and Wallachia (March 27 1808), in terms of establishing a Russian military occupation regime in the Romanian principalities, the great hierarch initiated the cultural program for the dissemination of Romanian books published in Moldavian printing centers (Iaşi, Neamţ). He successfully led the Archdiocese of Moldavia prior to the signing of the Treaty of Bucharest on May 16, 1812. As a patron, editor, preface writer and translator, Gavriil Bănulescu-Bodoni published several Romanian books during this Northern Dobrudja period. Copies of some publications we found in the secular and monastic collections in Northern Dobrudja.