Palia de la Orăștie

The book was printed in 1582 in the town of Orăștie,[1] then a local center of reformation within the Principality of Transylvania, possibly under the patronage of Stephen Báthory.

Following the Battle of Mohács the authority of the Catholic Church in Hungary was challenged by the Protestant reformation among the residents of Transylvania.

Romanians had been overwhelmingly aligned with the Orthodox Church, yet in this context Reformation spread to their community, centered around Orăștie[2] and in particular among the small nobility and clerics from Hunedoara area, some of which previously converted to Catholicism.

[8] It contains 161 double-sided pages, and it was translated into Romanian by: Mihai Tordaș (Turdach Mihaly), the protestant bishop of Banat and Hunedoara; Archirie Pamadopleu, protopop of Hunedoara; preacher Stephen Herczeg of Caransebeș; Ephrem Zacham Bar Ephraim, teacher of literature and Biblical languages (Hebrew, Ancient Greek and Latin) in Sebeș; and preacher Moisi Pesahiel of Lugoj.

Alexandru Rosetti saw this as an innovation ment to highlight the filiation of Romanians from Romans[13] however it is not known if this change was the act of one of the translators or one of the printers.