Fire artillery in Romanian space is attested from the first half of the 15th century. The oldest pieces of artillery are the bronze and iron bombards discovered in the fortresses of Giurgiu, Severin, Bârlad and Orheiul Vechi.
The exposed cannon was discovered in the village of Grinăuți-Moldova, Ocnița district, it dates from the second half of the 15th century. From a typological point of view, in the central-eastern European space, the cannon from Grinăuți-Moldova is a unique piece.
It is a short-barreled mortar-type artillery piece that fits perfectly into the line of bombards in Europe used in the second half of the 15th century - the beginning of the 16th century.
The cannon was used to launch projectiles (bullets) at the enemy behind fortifications or natural obstacles. The projectiles were loaded through the mouth of the barrel. The firing angle was over 45 degrees, and the trajectory of the projectile was curved with a range of up to 300-400 m. In Europe, these cannons were called mortars, and in Romanian space they were designated by the word piua, thanks to the shape of this object.
The cannon from Grinăuți-Moldova was discovered by chance in the "Red Bank" location, located 15 km southwest of the Lipnicu plain where Lord Stefan the Great defeated the Tatars in 1470. According to a legend from the village of Grinăuți-Moldova, in the "Red Bank" location, a military confrontation between Moldovans and Tatars would have taken place prior to the battle of Lipnic.
The cannon from Grinăuți-Moldova is made of cast iron by the casting method. The barrel is provided with a single hole in the front, the opposite side being blocked by the flat bottom with flared edge. The inside of the pipe is a relatively wide channel that narrows slightly towards the bottom. Loading with powder and cannonballs was done through the mouth of the cannon. A hole is provided near the base for the wick to ignite and detonate the dust inside the cannon. The surface of the cannon is embossed. The edge of the mouth is thickened, slightly curved. Two cylindrical supports with a diameter of 3.5 cm are provided in the central part of the body of the cannon in the axis, which served as handles for the installation and handling of the cannon on a wooden frame.
The length of the cannon is 30.0 cm, the maximum diameter of the body - 17.8 cm, the outside diameter of the mouth - 19.4 cm, the diameter of the body in the middle - 13.5 cm, the outside diameter of the base - 17.0 cm, the caliber of the cannon (mouth diameter) is 12.8 cm, the length of the inner chamber of the cannon - 27.4 cm, the weight of the cannon - 18,730 kg.
The cannon from Grinăuți-Moldova entered the custody of the National Museum of History of Moldova through the care of local history teacher Vlad Lvovsky.
The conservation of the piece of cultural heritage was carried out by Valeriu Bubulici, and the reconstruction of the atmosphere by the restorer Mihail Culașco.
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. V [XX], nr. 2, Istorie. Muzeologie
Materials under discussion are in the main documentary evidences concerned the history of a private library of the first half of the 19th century belonged to Dimitrie Gobdela (1780-1831), a lecturer at the Academia Domnească from Iași. The book collection of the Dimitrie Gobdela’s famous library that numbered 2733 volumes in different languages: Greek, German, French, Latin etc. was brought to Bessarabia and given in pawn by its owner (April 1, 1825) to a boyar Dimitrie Carastati in exchange for 335 Dutch gold coins. Official correspondence from the Chișinau National Archives (the Fund of the Bessarabian Marshal of the Nobility and the Fund of the Office of the Civil Governor of Bessarabia) fills in some unknown or little-known pages of the destiny of the Dimitrie Gobdela’s library. Our task is to clarify and to highlight the historical and cultural value of that imposing collection of books, that later was found in the library of the Chișinău Regional Gymnasia. There are several reasons for attaining these objects: • Insufficient historical data on the collection of books from the libraries of Bessarabia of the 19th century. • Lack of scientific information on the catalogue of the Dimitrie Govdela’s Library. • Specificity of the restrictive system of the tsarist censorship concerned foreign books brought to Bessarabia.
List of illustrations: Fig. 1. Catalogue of books in French from the library of Dimitrie Govdelas (ANRM, F. 88, inv. 1, d. 719, f. 25). Fig. 2. Catalogue of books in Latin from the library of Dimitrie Govdelas (ANRM, F. 88, inv. 1, d. 719, f. 16 001).
Maria Danilov
Ion Ţurcanu, Bessarabiana. Teritoriul dintre Prut și Nistru în câteva ipostaze istorice și istoriografice, Editura: Cartdidact, Chișinău, 2012, 344 p. ISBN 978-9975-4337-0-9
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. VI [XXI], nr. 2, Istorie. Muzeologie
Maria Danilov
Press and Censorship in Bessarabia at the beginning of XXth century
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. III [XVIII], nr. 2, Istorie. Muzeologie
Maria Danilov
Pedagogical literature of Bessarabia: editions, impressions and imposed models (1814-1918)
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. I [XVI], nr. 2, Istorie. Muzeologie Chișinău, 2007
Maria Danilov
Andrei Eșanu, Valentina Eșanu, Moștenirea culturală a Cantemireștilor, Chișinău: Pontos, 2010, 212 p. ISBN 978-9975-51-204-6
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. V [XX], nr. 2, Istorie. Muzeologie
Maria Danilov
Axentie Stadnițchi, Mitropolit G. Bănulescu-Bodoni, Chișinău, 2004, 224 p. (Sau cum nu trebuie editate cărțile noastre vechi...)
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. I [XVI], nr. 2, Istorie. Muzeologie
Fire artillery in Romanian space is attested from the first half of the 15th century. The oldest pieces of artillery are the bronze and iron bombards discovered in the fortresses of Giurgiu, Severin, Bârlad and Orheiul Vechi...
The National Museum of History of Moldova takes place among the most significant museum institutions of the Republic of Moldova, in terms of both its collection and scientific reputation.
The National Museum of History of Moldova takes place among the most significant museum institutions of the Republic of Moldova, in terms of both its collection and scientific reputation.
The National Museum of History of Moldova takes place among the most significant museum institutions of the Republic of Moldova, in terms of both its collection and scientific reputation.
31 August 1989 St., 121 A, MD 2012, Chisinau, Republic of Moldova
