Florence: European University Institute, 2007This thesis would have been impossible without the always relevant and incisive advice of my supervisor, Professor Peter Becker. When he initially suggested this topic, which was very new to me, I was unsure whether it would be to my taste, but I have found it endlessly facinating and rewarding. Several other academics also generously offered me useful advice or agreed to read sections of my work. They include Professor Bo Stråth of the IUE, Professor Claudio Pogliano of the University of Pisa and the Museum of the History of Science in Florence, Professor Maria Bucur -Deckard of the University of Indiana, Professor Lucian Boia and Professor Gheorghi Gean of the University of Bucharest, Dr. Claire O Halloran, Dr. Barra Ó Dhonnabháin and Dr. Caitríona Ó Dochartaigh of University College Cork, Dr. Hillary Tovey of Trinity College Dublin,
Dr. Robin Boast of the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
University, Professor Wolfgang Schmale and Professor Michael Mitterauer of the University of
Vienna and Dr. Joanna Tokarska - Bakir of the University of Warsaw.
I carried out research in the universities libraries of the IUE and the Università degli Studi in
Florence, the Central European University in Budapest, University College Cork, Trinity College
Dublin, the Universities of Bucharest and Warsaw and several libraries of the University of Vienna,
and also at the Italian (Florence), Austrian (Vienna) and Romanian (Bucharest) national libraries
and the libraries of the Museum of the History of Science in Florence and the Acadamia Na ionala
in Bucharest. At the universities of Florence, Bucharest and Warsaw, I made use of the libraries o f the anthropological or archaeological institutes as well as the central collections, and at the Austrian national library, I was given very generous access to the schoolbooks collection. I wish to thank the staff of all these libraries and particularly R uth Nirere - Gbikpi and the other inter - library loan staff at the IUE and the team at the library of the anthropology institute of the Università degli Studi di Firenze, for all their patience and friendly helpfulness.
The IUE staff were a great help during these studies, especially in guiding my visiting Romanian
relatives through the laberynthine bureaucracy of the Italian state, whose stability they apparently threatened. I am also especially grateful for the hospitality of Dr. Margareth Lanzinger of the University of Vienna and Dr. Maike Sach of the Deutsche Historische Institut in Warsaw, and for the fruitful discussions and great support and suggestions provided by numerous fellow doctoral students, friends and family. I owe particular debts of gratitude to my brother Mark, who gave me invaluable technical aid with the quantative analysis section of my research, and my sister Naoimh, who started her doctorate at the same time as me but whom I have pipped at the post.
This thesis is dedicated to my son Iván Grammaticus, who came along after I had started it and
competed with it for my attention.
