The Transylvanian School and the Birth of Romanian National Consciousness

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a group of Greek Catholic intellectuals in the Habsburg-ruled Principality of Transylvania sparked a cultural revolution that would reshape Romanian identity. The Școala Ardeleană, or Transylvanian School, centered on figures like Petru Maior, Gheorghe Șincai, and Samuil Micu, who argued for the Latin origins of the Romanian language and people. They produced the first Romanian grammar, dictionaries, and histories, shifting the script from Cyrillic to Latin and laying the ideological groundwork for Romanian unity. This episode explores their key works—like Maior's 'Istoria pentru începutul românilor în Dachia'—their controversies with the Orthodox Church and Hungarian authorities, and their lasting impact on Romanian nationalism, from the 1848 revolutions to the Great Union of 1918. We also examine their suppression by the Habsburgs and the legacy of their Latinist movement in modern Romania.

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