Although the name of Perpessicius (actually a pen name) might not be so familiar to today's audience, he was one of the best and most tallented Romanian critics of all times, mainly due to the fact that he was one of the few to really study and write about the famous notebooks of Mihai Eminescu, a treasure of the greatest value, still waiting to be rediscovered and understood. Over many years, the critic Dumitru S. Panaitescu by his real name, studied and presented to notebooks over several articles and books, a hard endeavour that proved to be a winner.
It is also little known that Perpessicius was actually born in Braila, in a small house on Str Cetatii, No 70, an old building finished in about 1880. Born of October 21st 1891, the future critic lived here until 1910, when he enrolled at the University of Bucharest, where he would study Modern Philology, making his first steps towards a glorious career. He would return home in 1920 - 1921, when he teached Romanian and French at a school in Braila, but afterwards he would return to his home town less and less, as his literary activities took up most of his time.
The old house was sadly torn down in 1971 and later rebuilt, using modern materials, exactly as it was, though purists might object that it isn't the same thing. It became a museum in 1977 and in 1993 - 1996 another part was added, to serve as a storage space for the museum exhibits which weren't on permanent display.
The major part of the collection was donated in October 1977 by Dumitru D. Panaitescu, the son of Perpessicius, consisting of more than 700 books, documents, pieces of furniture and personal objects. The exhibition was at first presented in two separate halls, one dedicated to photographs and documents, another being an accurate reproductiion of Perpessicius' work room , where he wrote his most important pages. Later, the colleciton of the memorial house further grew in 1982, when a major part of the critic's personal book collection was bought - over 7000 volumes - as well as several collections of magazines, newspapers, documents and some furniture. In 1900 the museum was closed down, as it was in dire need of renovations. After the new storage space was finished, in 1994, the memorial house was once again opened for the general public. A third exhibition space was also prepared, exhibiting some of Perpessicius' manuscripts.
It is one of the most interesting memorial houses in Romania, as it presents in detail the life and work of one of the best literary critics of the 20th century. If you visit Braila, you surely must come here, even for a few hours, as it is surely a gain for anyone.
Februarie 2008
