„Dear reader, everything has been said – and has been for a long time – about the conditions that lead to the creation of a new journal. Everything we have to say on the matter would be but a replication, but this is by no means a reason why we should bow out of talking to you. Why a new journal when the scientific world has become oversaturated with publications of this kind? We will not hide the fact that, first and foremost, we wanted to pro- vide scientific emphasis to a newly created museum. Because the museum in Alba Iulia is a museum dedicated to icons, it is naturally expected that its journal be built around icons: hence a journal bearing the same name. You are however aware, dear reader, that icons are too peripheral a research topic to be able to fuel an entire journal. Such a journal, focusing on local, Romanian aspects, would not have been the best choice. We needed another approach.In order to open this journal to a broader range of re- search topics, we thought it seemed appropriate to focus on the main research theme of the museum. Since the icon itself is the link between art and religious text, a window on the sacred, it cannot be denied that it was born somewhere between the realm of the word and the realm of the vision. It has written sources, it follows mural paintings.”