OCR
VICTOR NEUMANN the scholars of the time, affirmed that Temeswar was a true cultural space in which Goethe’s and Wieland’s adepts were confronting each other.’ The activity of other intellectuals showed the existence of an environment that cultivated humanist creations: Wolfgang von Kempelen, councilor of the administration; Clemens von Rossi, first canonical and vicar of the RomanCatholic cathedral, former priest of the Italians colonized at Ortisoara; Johann Jakob Ehrler, superior bureaucrat of the imperial administration of Temeswarer’s Banat. TEMESWARER BANAT’S HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY FROM AN ENLIGHTENMENT PERSPECTIVE Temeswarer Nachrichten’s newspaper stood out by publishing a welldocumented study upon the History of Banat. The imperial authorities of Vienna constantly took an interest in regional history, so the paper was trying to answer their curiosity. In the supplement of the second issue from the 25% of April, 1771, Mathaus Joseph Heimer! announced that he would print a “historical description of Temeswarer’s Banat” (Historische Beschreibung des Banats Temeswar). The study addressed the readers from Temeswar and its neighboring area and also the foreign subscribers (auswärtige Pränumeranten).! Starting with the third issue, the mentioned work was published, with no signature. The information was attentively selected, the author insisting upon the significant facts. The study is a geographical description of the Banat region, followed by a short historical overview from antiquity to the 18" century. Next, there is a presentation of the demographic movement in the region and the economic and social situation. The text aimed to popularize the unknown realities of one of the provinces of the Habsburg Empire. Most of the descriptions were based on the knowledge of the period, the interpretation being tributary to the times. In its introduction, the borders of Dacia from the time of Decebal’s kingdom are indicated, comprising the land between the Danube, the Tisza, the Carpathian Mountains, the Nistru and the Prut. Temeswarer’s Banat was considered a part of old Dacia. The same paragraph also states that Dacia was conquered by Emperor Ulpius Traianus and transformed into a Roman province, while Sarmisegetusa, the old capital, became a Roman colony.’ As proof of these affirmations, the texts of two Roman inscriptions discovered during the 9) Liebhard: Banater, 223. The editorial staff wished to offer as much information as possible about a province less known to the European world. According to Anhang zu den Temeswarer Nachrichten, 25'* April, 1771, 655. 1! According to Anhang zu den Temeswarer Nachrichten, 2"! May, 1771, 658.