History of the publishing house
The Publishing House of the History Museum of Galaţi was established in 2011, as a result of several considerations.
First of all, there were drafted several works by the specialists of the museum that were intended to be published. In fact, the researchers of the museum had been faced over the years with the problem of not having a publishing house of the museum, situation which forced them to either publish their papers outside (as was the case with Paul Păltănea, Mihalache Brudiu, Ion T. Dragomir, Ştefan Stanciu, Dan Râpă-Buicliu etc.) or to include them in Danubius journal series, as special issues. Thus appeared Danubius 15/1994 (Costel Ilie, Romanian medals and decorations from the collections of the History Museum of Galaţi), Danubius 16/1996 (Ion T. Dragomir, Archaeological monograph of southern Moldavia), Danubius 19/2001 (Ion T. Dragomir, Sântana de Mureş-Cerneahov bi-ritual necropolis, III-IV century CE, from Lunca, southern region of Moldova).
Secondly, the History Museum of Galaţi organized a series of activities, including some cross-border ones, in the Republic of Moldova, during which several topics of research were coined. Moreover, the need to have published materials related to them appeared. As a result of these activities, the two works containing documents related to Bessarabia, the one by Moise Pacu (Bessarabia. Various newspaper articles from 1878, reprinted on the occasion of the counter-celebration of the centenary of the annexation of Bessarabia to Russia) and the one edited by Ion Şişcanu and Ion Negrei (Bessarabia. Documentary testimonies (1812-2012)).
The first works were authored by researchers from the institution, representing both collections and archaeological catalogues, and studies. The editorial activity continued with the participation of some authors from outside the institution, especially researchers affiliated with the Lower Danube University, from the same city. Moreover, the involvement of the academics from the University of Galaţi took some other forms: the coordination of series and collections, the review of some of the materials proposed for publication.
In time, the publishing house began to receive proposals for publication from various authors having little or even no connection with the city of Galaţi. Some of them were materialized by the publication of some books.
In 2020, the Publishing House of the History Museum of Galaţi concluded an external partnership with Lexon Publishing House, from Kishinev. Within this partnership, a first work has already appeared: Polina Lungu, Alexandru Boldur – symbol of national identity.
Another partnership was concluded in 2013, with Eikon Publishing House from Cluj. Three works resulted from this collaboration.
Starting with 2021, the Publishing House of the History Museum of Galaţi also publishes works under a partnership concluded with the Publishing House of the Romanian Academy.
Editorial activity
First of all, the publishing house made known some important aspects of the cultural heritage of the southern part of Moldova. Thus, the collection album Restituiri Maksay / Restitutions Maksay is a noteworthy publication, which contains items from the collection of clichés of the former photographer of the royal court of Romania, George Maksay. The editoial activity focused not only on the collections of Paul Păltănea History Museum, but also on some private collections, little known to the general public. This is how the bilingual album Galati in Illustrated Postcards was published. The album brings together illustrations from five private collections. Another work, which gathers together private collections and collections of the museum was a photo album dedicated to Hortensia Papadat Bengescu.
The interest in the valorization and in the (re)introduction of historical sources into the scientific circuit has materialized both through the publication of original documents, sometimes accompanied by extensive studies, and through the discovery and re-edition (sometimes in facsimile) of older works, unavailable to the public today but with some scientific value. The publishing house made available some collections of documents, many of them unknown to the broad public, important for the history of the southern part of Moldova (George Felix Taşcă, The free paysants from Bălăbăneşti; Cristian Dragoş Căldăraru, Balta Brateş Estate from the Covurlui Estate (1448-1847); Cristian-Dragoş Căldăraru, Cuza-Vodă Museum in Galaţi. January 24, 1939. A historical recovery; Costin Clit, Documents regarding the history of "Sfinţii Archangeli" Monastery - Metoc in Galaţi).
Memorial works relevant from the point of view of the historical information contained were also published, such as the diary of the diplomat Dimitrie Iuraşcu. Other published volumes made available to the public the memories from the period of political detention of the historian Paul Păltănea and the autobiographical work of Alfred Kasper, Punishment without conviction. The ordeal of a mining engineer deported for five years in the Donetsk Basin (January 1945 – October 1949).
The recovery and revalorization of historical sources also took the form of critical editions of older works, inaccessible today, such as the "manifesto" of Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen, through which he tried to justify to the Western world the act of Romania's entry into the First World War, which was republished not only in the French original but together with an annotated translation in Romanian.
The works dealing with the history of Bessarabia have either been the subject of several events (book launches or conferences) in the Republic of Moldova or have been used as supporting materials in such events. In fact, the first publications of the publishing house were precisely on this topic and some of the supplementary issues of the journal Danubius were dedicated to various issues connected to this area. The connection with Bessarabia is favored not only by the geographical proximity and the numerous historical interferences, but also by the close collaboration of the publishing house with the Lower Danube University, which has several branches in the Republic of Moldova.
Being based in an area of cultural interference, the publishing house also published works that address religion and multiculturalism. Works were published both on Christianity and Islam, in particular on the forms it took in Dobrogea, as well as on religions more distant from the Romanian cultural space, such as Buddhism or Hinduism. The pluralistic, multicultural approach took even better shape in two of the supplementary issues of Danubius journal (2014 - Religious Pluralism in Global Perspective; 2015 - Religion and the Challenges of the Contemporary World), which explicitly dealt with the issue of interfaith relations. Of a particular importance is a translation from Turkish, of a work dedicated to the religious personality of Sari Saltuk Baba, considered as a saint both in the Islamic tradition of the Balkans and in some Christian branches in the same area. The interest in religious diversity was also manifested through the publication of two works dealing with Eastern religions, one of them in English (Selfhood and Knowledge in Yogācāra Buddhism).
The few books dedicated to Christianity have as a specific element the social approach to religion (Vartolomeu Stănescu, The Social Powers of Christianity), the ability of religion to shape society, both in times of crisis (George Enache, The Church in Communism. Models and Testimonies) as well as in the new ideological contexts (George Enache, Christian consciousness in modernity. Faces and facts).
A number of literary writings were also published, generally with a historical theme. Thus, the dramaturge Vlad Vasiliu published a series of historical dramas, the essayist and poet Virgil Nistru Ţigănuş published a series of writings with ethical and religious themes. The publishing house is also interested in writings with a more subjective character, considering that, over time, people's experiences and perceptions, expressed in essays or lyrics, will become documents testifying on the atmosphere of the times they were put into written. The atmosphere of past ages can sometimes be suggestively expressed through works belonging to the literary genre, written during those days.