THE HISTORICAL ARCHIVE OF BABEȘ-BOLYAI UNIVERSITY
A part of the national cultural heritage
Only by knowing the truth of the past and the truth of the present can we hope to foresee the future, that is, to fully grasp the truth of tomorrow.
Emil Racoviță
The evolution of university education in Transylvania justifies the inclusion of Babeș-Bolyai University among the great institutions that create and preserve documents of historical, diplomatic, scientific, and practical significance. The first concerns regarding the creation of a historical archive were initiated in 1951, following Circular Order No. 333 of the State Archives, which stipulated measures for the collection and preservation of the national archival fonds existing at that time. To this end, questionnaires were developed at each document-creating unit at Victor Babeș and Bolyai universities, which enabled the identification of all types of documents existing at the time. It is worth noting that the two universities merged in 1959, with the resulting institution adopting its current name.
In 1961, the General Archive Service of Babeș-Bolyai University was established, whose duties of organizing, processing, and inventorying documents were determined by a university regulation approved by the Cluj Branch of the State Archives. At the time the General Archive was established, the documents totaled approximately 3,500 linear meters, dating from 1872 to 1961 – archival material originating from 20 document-producing units within the university, including faculties, departments, sections, institutes, and seminars.
The first concrete result of the efforts to identify, organize, and process the university’s documents occurred in 1964. It was then that the main archival fonds existing at that time were defined, reflecting the organizational evolution of the university since 1872. Several important chronological milestones marked this development:
Thus, the fonds identified and processed bore the various names assigned to the university during the mentioned period:
For the period 1872–1948, the documents reflect the university organization scheme stipulated by the Imperial Decree of 1872, which was based on the contemporary European university model that was perpetuated, regardless of the university’s names, until after the education reform of 1948.
It should be noted that Franz Josef University was among the first institutions in Transylvania to implement the registry system as a means of document management. This system was generalized throughout the empire, ensuring good organization in terms of document creation, management, and circulation. As a result, the easy identification and processing of the document collection corresponding to the period above was mainly due to this archiving system.
At the end of the 1980s, a portion of the BBU document collection was transferred to the Cluj Branch of the National Archives. Keeping the processing method based on contemporary registers (entry/exit registers, indexes), two distinct fonds were established:
- Fonds no. 315 – Franz Josef University (1872–1919), with an inventory comprising 30 folios and a total of 234 archival units.
- Fonds no. 798 – University of Cluj (1916–1976), with a total of 439 archival units.
The last transfer of documents took place in 1994, comprising 34 files containing the minutes of the University Senate from 1919 to 1976. The archival material taken over by the National Archives totals approximately 604 linear meters and is not uniform in its content. The persons who handed over/took over these documents did not observe the principle of fonds integrity. Thus, for the aforementioned period, the BBU document fonds was divided between the two institutions.
Currently, the Historical Archive of Babeș-Bolyai University holds a historical document collection totaling 2,500 linear meters, covering the period from 1900 to 2023, as well as several hundred linear meters of current archive material stored in the archives of their creators, who receive specialist assistance from our archive staff.