Istoria folcloristicii româneşti

Ovidiu Bîrlea was part of the team of specialists that "founded" the Folklore Institute in 1949, being directly involved in the design of the plans on the basis of which the main research directions were drawn, over several decades, and, implicitly, the methodological directions that were later developed within the sectors. (...) In 1974, the History of Romanian Folklore appeared in Bucharest, a work awarded with the "B. P. Hasdeu" Award of the Academy. The moment is a reference, because this study constitutes an undoubted argument for those who doubted or had subjective reservations, that folklore is an autonomous discipline, with its own identity and methodology, that there is a well-defined object of study and, in particular, a history of concerns for the knowledge of this segment of culture that is placed at least four centuries before the present moment. (...) The re-editing, under honorable conditions, of the work that has become a "rare book" after more than three decades since its publication, is an act of necessary restitution. Acad. Sabina Ispas