400 Years

Two weeks ago I had the chance to visit a new exhibition and learn about collage life and education in general in Transylvania in the last 400 years. It's a long time if you think of it and compared to the existence of some states.

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The idea of creating a collage was first brought up by Gabriel Bethlen (Bethlen Gábor in Hungarian) in 1622.

Gabriel Bethlen (Hungarian: Bethlen Gábor; 15 November 1580 – 15 November 1629) was Prince of Transylvania from 1613 to 1629 and Duke of Opole from 1622 to 1625. He was also King-elect of Hungary from 1620 to 1621, but he never took control of the whole kingdom. Bethlen, supported by the Ottomans, led his Calvinist principality against the Habsburgs and their Catholic allies. source

Back then there were no public schools, like there are today. Most if not all the schools were religious units, run by churches and teaching was done by priests. Only the well off and the rich had the chance to go to school. I'm using the words go to school and not study, because these are two different things. You see, those who were really gifted and could have excelled were poor and had no one to fund their studies. The well off and the rich were forced to go to school, but many didn't have the necessary mental capacity to study, or were simply not interested. Then there were those who were lucky to get a patron or a sponsor as we call these today to fund heir studying. Kids these days don't even realize how lucky they are to be able to study in public funded schools, for free.

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This is a copy of the original document written and signed by Gabriel Bethlen, submitted to the parliament, in which he initiates the foundation of collages. It is written in Latin as far as I can tell. This document is 402 years old.

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This is an old religious book, written in Hungarian, but it is an old version of the language, what is not in use anymore. I don't know how old the book is, but could be a few centuries old.

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What I love about these exhibitions is the way they display the information that is needed in order to understand and learn about those times. You have the narrative on these boards and I think it's way better than audio guides. Obviously it is easier to just listen to the story, vs reading, however you can't record the audio material, but you can take photos of these boards and read then afterwards as well. It's an excellent way in my opinion.

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Would have loved to take this book in my hand and turn a few pages, although I don't think I would have had the heart to do it. The book is from MDLXXII. This is me having fun and don't tell you what that means :) You have to figure it out yourself what year is that and let me know in a comment :) These old books are treasures and protected as well. All of them were under glass, which is a requirement to protect them.

What I love about these books is the drawings. There were no images back then as photography came later, but the drawings were lovely.

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A Hungarian book from 1638. To be honest, I've never seen such a writing. The accents used are totally new to me and some letters are written in a very strange way.

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It's interesting to learn that studying abroad had a lot of advantages, or, coming home after studying abroad, to be precise. Those who returned home and started teaching, brought with them new knowledge, which most likely was much appreciated. We live in a digital era, information can travel at the speed of light and you can take courses at the most prestigious universities at the other end of the world, without leaving your home, but back in those days people had to make a lot of sacrifices in order to study.

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Notes from 1735. Simply unbelievable. Seems Latin, but can't be sure.

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Another document, a few hundred years old, written in Latin. What fascinates me is the amazing handwriting. If you have a closer look, you can see, there are no mistakes made and the lines are straight, but the paper was not lined, they did not know what a lined paper is as there was none back then. Now ask yourself, could you write such a nice document by hand? I would be extremely nervous :) Handwriting is on its way of disappearance, unfortunately.

The funny thing is, there's a date at the bottom of the document, written with letters, in Latin. I think it's 1662, but can't be sure. If your Latin is better than mine, tell me what year it is.

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This will remain a mystery. All I can say it's written in Latin and it says something about Hungary, but that is all. Would take me years, even decades to translate such a text. Good thing that's not my job :)

While I was editing these photos and writing my post, was thinking what I would do if I'd wake up in 1600 - 1700. Even though my education level is net superior of those that lived back then, I would still be the dumbest due to the differences between their and my educations. So I guess I'm grateful (again) that I live now.

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The book is from MDLXXII

1572, leap year.. If I am wrong, I am gonna blame Google 😀
That handwriting is just wow, seeing that I am feeling so bad about my handwriting because I can't make proper straight lines... 😀 What a fascinating experience, thanks for sharing with us...

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1572, leap year.. If I am wrong, I am gonna blame Google

Big cheater!!! 😁

Well, it would be difficult to write like that, that's for sure, especially with ink.

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Big cheater!!! 😁

Good thing I didn't ask chatgpt 🤣

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1572

Interesting how languages evolve - how there is an older version of Hungarian you can't read. English is that way too. In English, there wasn't even standardized spelling of words until modern times.

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I can read it, but it's very strange and I've never seen such thing before.

English is that way too. In English, there wasn't even standardized spelling of words until modern times.

I suppose it's the same in many ways. I remember there's a funny saying what people use when someone is speaking an unusual English. They say they speak like they have learned English from Shakespeare 😄

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Hello @erikah it is an honor to see those books with so many years of existence and the most surprising thing is that they are still preserved. Very interesting that exhibition that you show us. Greetings

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Int is indeed surprising but it's also luck that these books are still in such a good condition. It's our heritage. Greetings to you too.

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They already told you hahaha... roman numeral converter, on google! That's part of education nowadays Google. Although it is truly worrying because not all know how to filter information and go with the first thing they see, thinking it is legit. And there is a lot of false and inaccurate information.

Old documents are beautiful and just by looking at them one can experience beautiful and interesting sensations.

;)

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They already told you hahaha... roman numeral converter, on google! That's part of education nowadays Google.

That is both good and bad. It's good if you google it and learn it, because there are just a few letters and it's really simple. Bad if you use it constantly, instead of learning it. Back in my day, you had to know Roman numbers, there was no exception from that.

You're right, old documents have their own mystery and it's nice to see them. It's history.

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😁

I just can't learn all the Roman numerals. I only know X, V... hahaha and I.

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Kids these days don't even realize how lucky they are to be able to study in public funded schools, for free.

Unfortunately, kids in the devoloping countries aren't that lucky still. The education is public school doesn't meet the standards of the quality education.

but back in those days people had to make a lot of sacrifices in order to study.

That's the truth. Their sacrifices gave them the prowess though. And it is theor sacrifices that we, the generations a head are standing in the advanced era.

Now ask yourself, could you write such a nice document by hand?

I asked myself and I got a reply in positive 😀. I can write straight without lines on the paper. However, I am not sure how much I can write 😄.
The thing is that whatever is the need of the time, people acquire expertise in it. Handwriting was the way back then and so they were skilled at it.


The year is 1572 I think
M=1000
D=500
LXX=70
II=2.

Summing them up makes 1572.


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Developing countries are going to catch up one day, if governments prioritize education, as they should. Without proper education, you can't expect much.

I asked myself and I got a reply in positive 😀. I can write straight without lines on the paper. However, I am not sure how much I can write 😄.

Lol, this is funny 😁 I can write as much as you want, but if I'm in a hurry, then my handwriting suffers. When I'm taking notes, my priority is to make it clear and easy to memorize (I have a very good visual memory and see the notes in front of my eyes), but when I'm writing a letter (which I haven't for ages), that's a different thing.

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Without proper education, you can't expect much.

That's one the biggest reason for being them backwards

then my handwriting suffers

That's the case with all of us, isn't it? Gor instance, the writing on the first page of the exam sheet is drastically different from the one at the end.

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The chance to receive a free education today is precious. I think it's crazy to see the efforts being made to make education accessible to all.

What's also crazy is to see the evolution of all this, from physically protected books under glass to digitally accessible resources on an almost unlimited scale. Maybe later we'll be putting computers under glass ^^

We underestimate all these developments, which are nonetheless part of our heritage.

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We're lucky to have had free education and I bet those countries where education is not free, would love to be in this position.

Maybe later we'll be putting computers under glass ^^

I went to an exhibition last year, which had the title of Technology Yesterday, or something like that, exhibition old computers, typewriters, calculators and so on. It was quite shocking. I can drop you the links to those posts if you like.

We underestimate all these developments, which are nonetheless part of our heritage.

That is very true and I see my old phones and cameras when I clean my drawers and thin of how much technology evolved and life in general. I'm planning to donate them to a museum 🙂

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That is very true and I see my old phones and cameras when I clean my drawers and thin of how much technology evolved and life in general. I'm planning to donate them to a museum 🙂

I think that in a few years' time, many museums will want them. I know that somewhere in my grandparents' house there's an old DynaTac 8000. I also know it's very, very expensive now.

But apart from being expensive, it seems to me that it's in a few museums.

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