The library of Costache Tufescu: Reconstructions (1st half of 19th century)

The study of private libraries of Bessarabia of the first half of the 19th century is limited to the paucity of sources. Reconstruction is often based on indirect sources, which, however, give us hope for new discoveries. The nobleman Costache Tufescu (1793-1846), settled in Bessarabia in first years after annexation, was considered by Gheorghe Bezviconi the “first researcher of genealogy of Bessarabian noble families”. Costache Tufesku was a contemporary of Costache Stamati, Al. Hâjdău, Ange Balli, Alecu Leonard, Ioan Pralea Moldovanul. In this context, we can say that among the Bessarabian nobility there was a certain cultural environment, which was favorable for the creation of spiritual values and the formation of private libraries. It can be argued that Tufescu maintained constant relations with Iasi. His brother-in-law, Dumitrache Bran, who was a member of the Divan, often visited him. Constantin Tufescu's rich archive has been preserved and later became the property of Ştefan Ciobanu, who posted this fact in the press in the interwar period. It was Ştefan Ciobanu, who had first published in 1933 unique data on the Catalogue of Costache Tufescu's library. All the researchers, who wrote later about this library, relied on scanty data provided by Ştefan Ciobanu, and the history of this book collection is still unexplored.