During the Early Modern Period Transylvania was an autonomous principality, fighting to maintain its status among the great powers surrounding it, the Ottoman and the Habsburg empires. 16 princes have ruled this principality, for shorter or longer periods of time, though few of their reigns have been spared contestation and inner and outer conflicts. The portraits of the 16 Transylvanian rulers, officially covering the period between 1571 and 1686, are reproduced on a set of postcards available at the History of Pharmacy Collection and at the National History Museum of Transylvania in Cluj. Most of the depictions are rendered from nineteenth century watercolors preserved in the collection of the history museum, though a couple of rulers, missing from the series, have been taken from sixteenth-seventeenth century engravings.
The set will be available during the Doors Open Days on November 26th, in Unirii Square no. 28.
The following princes (including Habsburg generals like Basta and Romanian characters such as Mihai Viteazul) are depicted:
- Stephanus Bathori - 1571-1576
- Christophorus Bathori - 1576-1581
- Sigismund Bathori - 1581-1602
- Andreas Bathori - 1599-1601
- Mihai Viteazul - 1593-1601
- Georgius Basta - 1603-1605
- Stephanus Boskai - 1605-1607
- Sigismundus Rakoczi - 1607-1608
- Gabriel Bathori - 1608-1613
- Gabriel Bethlen - 1613-1629
- Georgius Rakoczi I - 1630-1642
- Georgius Rakoczi II - 1642-1658
- Franciscus Rhedai - 1658
- Johannes Kemeny - 1660-1661
- Michael Apaffi I - 1661-1684
- Michael Apaffi II -1684-1686
