Romania: R ; revue consacrée à l'étude des langues et des littératures romanes

Founded in 1872 by the philologists Gaston Paris and Paul Meyer, Romania stands as one of the most prestigious academic journals dedicated to the study of Romance languages and literatures. It emerged during a golden age of philology in nineteenth-century France, established with the explicit goal of providing a rigorous, scholarly venue for the comparative study of language evolution and medieval literary traditions. Its creation was part of a broader movement to elevate linguistics into a formal scientific discipline, characterized by a commitment to meticulous textual analysis and historical precision.

The journal's design and editorial focus were heavily influenced by the positivist intellectual climate of the late nineteenth century. Paris and Meyer sought to move beyond the subjective literary criticism of the era, favoring instead the objective, systematic investigation of linguistic development and manuscript transmission. Over the decades, the publication has become a foundational pillar for scholars in the field, earning a reputation for high academic standards and hosting seminal contributions that have shaped contemporary understandings of everything from Old French dialectology to the epic poetry of the Middle Ages.