#Exhibit of the Month

One of the great technical achievements that revolutionized the idea of time and space, opening a new era in the history of communication, is telegraphy. It is based on the transmission of electrical signals through a cable over long distances, allowing people to communicate instantly. The telegraph spread very quickly and a network of wires stretched around the world.

In 1837, the American painter and physicist Samuel Morse invented the first electromagnetic device for telegraphy, patented in 1840. To send messages by wire, Morse developed in 1838 a simple code of dots and dashes, which represented the letters of the alphabet, known as "Morse code ".

Both Morse code and the telegraph machine were improved over time, with the telegraph becoming the most widespread system of communication and information transmission for more than a century, until the advent of the Internet. The telegraph system consisted of a series of stations repeaters along the transmission line route. Each station had an operator who received and transmitted messages by telegraph. The Morse machine transmitted about 25 words per minute, which were recorded in code on a paper tape. The operator in charge of transmitting the message would decode it and write it on paper using a special typewriter.

In Bessarabia, the telegraph entered in 1860: on April 8, the Bender telegraph station began its activity, and on April 24, the one in Chisinau, following the construction of the first Odesa-Chisinau-Leova telegraph line. Currently, telegraph services have been discontinued. The only ones who still use coded communication are radio amateurs.

The Morse telegraph machine shown comes from the Osinoostrovsky electrotechnical plant, Soviet Union, and dates back to 1934. The exhibit was restored by Mihail Culașco.

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Publications

Journal „Tyragetia"

vol. V [XX], nr. 2

Marriage institution during middle ages: obstacles and prohibitions. Exploration of historical anthropology and comparative studies

ISSN 1857-0240
E-ISSN 2537-6330

Lilia Zabolotnaia

Marriage institution during middle ages: obstacles and prohibitions. Exploration of historical anthropology and comparative studies

Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. V [XX], nr. 2, Istorie. Muzeologie

This article treats the issue concerning the “family history”, particularly, the obstacles and prohibitions dealt with in what regarded marriage, during the respective period; a comparative method is being analyzed here, from an interdisciplinary point of view, outlining both the historical and the judicial aspects of it. The impediments, as well as the conditions of the marriage conclusion have been known in the judicial popular, religious and pravile systems.

Failure to comply with the substantive and formal conditions of the marriage conclusion would lead to the nullity of the act, which could have been absolute or relative. Concerning the absolute ones, the following cases are to be mentioned: wicked marriage (no wedding, incest), cursed marriage (with nuns or religious individuals, or between “believers” and “unbelievers”), forbidden marriages (between relatives, regarding a forbidden relation degree, such as blood kinship spiritual kinship, relationship by marriage). It is important to remark that all the above mentioned cases would entail the dissolution of the marriage, where the ravishers would see themselves expelled from the community (exiled) or have their property conﬁscated. The people from “the bottom” were also whipped. The relative nullity was declared in case of consent vices and took place at the demand or request of the injured party, which was pleading for being mislead as to the social condition of his/her partner (Istoria 1980, 504-510). The priests who consented the wedding ceremony to the reckless people, were to be defrocked and as for the marriages, they were held void. To conclude, according to the records of the questioned period, some of which one has outlined above, the obstacles to the marriage conclusion were as follows:
• Blood relatives on a direct line;
• Collateral blood relatives;
• Alliance relatives;
• Spiritual kinship that comes from the holy baptism as well as adoption;
• Mixed marriage (with the heterodox);
• Marriage with people deposing vows (monastic vows, particularly);
• Illegitimate marriage (non religious wedding ceremony);
• Incest (mixed blood);
• Marriage conclusion during mourning period;
• Bigamy (having two wives or husbands);
A fourth marriage (only three were to be considered legal).

Lilia Zabolotnaia

The first testament of Maria Cantemir, from 1725

Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. XI [XXVI], nr. 2, Istorie. Muzeologie

Lilia Zabolotnaia

Ştefan Lemny, Dimitrie Cantemir, un principe român în zorile Luminilor europene. A Romanian prince at the dawn of the European enlightenment. Un prince roumain à l’aube des Lumières européennes. Bucureşti: Editura Institutului Cultural Român, 2019, 186 p. + 59 ilustraţii. ISBN 978-973-577-737-1

Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. XIII [XXVIII], nr. 2, Istorie. Muzeologie

Лилия Заболотная

Dmitry Lazarevich Tumarkin: Labyrinths of Fate. Pages from the history of the outstanding medical dynasty of the Tumarkins

Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. XV [XXX], nr. 2, Istorie. Muzeologie

Lilia Zabolotnaia

The conditions of the marriage concluding in the Middle Ages. Comparative study

Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. I [XVI], nr. 2, Istorie. Muzeologie Chișinău, 2007