Carte franceză din colecţia lui Samuel von Brukenthal

 In the 18th century, an ideal map could be drawn for Europe. In the center was placed the country that would give more than it received; whose language offered the different peoples the means of communication that they wanted; whose thought amazed: France. 
 French replaced Italian, which was still widely spoken until then, and gradually the scholarly Latin. The courts were all organized according to the French model. People corresponded with each other only in this language. It became for both bourgeois intellectuals and merchants the foreign language to be learned. The oral and written expression of cosmopolitanism was henceforth French and not Latin.
 Samuel von Brukenthal had in his library a number of books in this language of European culture, including translations of the Qur'an, works by ancient authors, and more. The exhibition “French Book from the Collection of Samuel von Brukenthal” offers the public some of the most beautiful and valuable editions of French books that the former governor of Transylvania possessed.