Emanuel Conțac

In my research, I will analyze the 66 homilies of Tâlcul Evangheliilor (The Meaning of the Gospels), the first Romanian Church Postil (1567), to determine their dependence on the scholarship of Wolfgang Musculus (1497–1563). Building on my 2023 preliminary finding that at least 15 homilies draw from Musculus’s Commentary on Matthew (1544), I will investigate the extent to which the Romanian Postil relies on works written by Musculus or other Reformed authors. This will involve engaging with Musculus’s writings, including his commentaries on Matthew and John, his translations of Patristic authors (John Chrysostom, Basil the Great), and his Loci Communes. A thorough examination of all the homilies in Coresi’s Postil is essential to assess the Romanian homilist’s dependence on books printed in centers of learning such as Basel. Following this textual analysis, I aim to reconstruct the social profile of the community addressed by the Postil. The frequent references to practical issues in these homilies offer valuable insights into the social history of a Romanian Reformed minority articulating its faith within a predominantly Orthodox environment in 16th-century Transylvania.