The article addresses the phenomenon of doina and its evolution over time, viewed diachronically in the light of literary sources, the value of which has been recently recognized worldwide as a work of cultural identity by being included in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (UNESCO) on October 2, 2009. The paper tries to illustrate the age of the species, the attention it has enjoyed in the annals of history, listing the main indigenous documentary sources (chronicles, registers, literary works, collections of songs, etc.), as well as foreign ones (data provided by travelers, missionaries, bards, priests, diplomats, etc., who were in passing through the Romanian countries). Meanwhile, the succession of data is examined, the pursued direction of the paper constituting a demonstration of the presence, identity, continuity and condition in the contemporaneity of this masterpiece of the collective genius in the oral Romanian spirituality. As it could be stated, among the first written data on the “long” melody are those belonging to the framework between antiquity and new times (exclamation of Thracian grief, torelli). As we move into modern times, such information grows significantly, providing a link between the distant past and the present. The interest in doina also increases, polarizing the attention of more and more observers, a thing pointed out in various sources, including in written texts which, in turn, offer broader scientific research perspectives. Most of the sources studied denote that, in its genuine form, the doina is par excellence the melody of the solitary song, proving the connection with the archaic forms of pastoral civilization on the western and eastern slopes of the Carpathians. Relating to the contextualized subject, it is noted that, at present, the doina has substantially reduced its presence in the active repertoire of the communities on both sides of the Prut, being increasingly influenced or replaced by the melopeeic lyric expression of the intermediate samples and the song melodies proper.