This year we commemorate 350 years since the birth and 300 years since the death of Dimitrie Cantemir (October 26, 1673 - August 21, 1723), the most famous Romanian humanist thinker and also the author of the first original Romanian philosophical works.
Dimitrie Cantemir represents one of the highest peaks of thought of his time, in all areas that his genius touched - in historiography, geography, philosophy, he opened up new perspectives for development. The great scholar was well acquainted with the Muslim environment, speaking, in addition to Western, also Eastern languages (Turkish, Persian and Arabic), and also had extensive knowledge in the fields of logic, medicine, natural sciences, astronomy and music. This well-educated Christian beyzade, being a born diplomat, won the trust of Sultan Ahmed III, who favorably allowed him to familiarize himself with the documents of imperial history that Cantemir used in working on his famous work "The Growth and Decay of the Ottoman Empire", which still remains a reference publication in a specialized bibliography.
The National Museum of History of Moldova possesses a German edition of this work, published in Hamburg in 1745. This edition is an impressive volume of 863 pages, accompanied by a preface in German by the editor, containing words of praise and appreciation: "... we consider that such a work of great significance must be known to the Germans in their mother tongue..."
Dimitrie Cantemir was the first scholar to show that the history of the Ottoman Empire divides into two parts. The first part that of growth, includes biographies of 19 sultans and ends around 1672, when the empire entered a new phase, that of political and military decline. Through this work, Cantemir tried to draw attention to the need for an alliance of European countries against Turkish expansion. At the same time, he praised certain aspects of the culture of the Turkish people.
Like "Description of Moldavia", "The Growth and Decay of the Ottoman Empire" enjoyed wide popularity in European countries. The work was first translated into Russian by Dmitry Grozin, but was not printed. After the death of Dimitrie Cantemir, thanks to his son Antiochus, who became the Russian ambassador in London and then in Paris, this fundamental writing of our scholar was translated and published in English (two volumes, 1734-1735, followed by a new edition in 1756) and in French (1743, in four small volumes). In 1745, the work was also published in German. It was read, highly valued and used in their writings by Voltaire, Byron, Victor Hugo and others. This is the first treatise that addresses the issue of Ottoman power and the multicultural nature of the empire. Work on it began during the author's stay in the Ottoman Empire, resumed after 1711, and finished in 1717. This writing brought him European fame and placed him among the great scholars of the time.
On publishing activity of Metropolitan Gavriil Bănulescu-Bodoni (1808-1812, 1813-1821) and the presence of old Romanian books in the collections of Northern Dobrudja
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. IX [XXIV], nr. 2, Istorie. Muzeologie Chișinău, 2015
Abstract
One of the factors which contributed to the support of the Romanians and their culture in Bessarabia was the Church, and Metropolitan Gavriil Bănulescu-Bodoni (born 1746 <1750?> died 1821, ChiТinău) was deeply aware of it, bringing the area between the Prut and Dniester to the consciousness and spirituality of the Romanian space before and especially after 1812.
In 1808-1812, after his appointment as a member of the Holy Synod of St. Petersburg and exarch of Moldavia and Wallachia (March 27 1808), in terms of establishing a Russian military occupation regime in the Romanian principalities, the great hierarch initiated the cultural program for the dissemination of Romanian books published in Moldavian printing centers (Iași, Neamț). He successfully led the Archdiocese of Moldavia prior to the signing of the Treaty of Bucharest on May 16, 1812.
As a patron, editor, preface writer and translator, Gavriil Bănulescu-Bodoni published several Romanian books during this period. Copies of some publications we found in the secular and monastic collections in Northern Dobrudja: Cărticică pentru datoria și stăpânirea blagocinilor (Booklet about the duty and power of rural deans) (Iaѯi, 1808) and Carte de rugăciuni pentru cerere de biruință (Book of Prayers for Victory) (IaТi, 1809) at the Gavrilă Simion Eco-Museum Research Institute from Tulcea; Kyriakodromion (Sunday Book) (Neamt, 1811) and volumes from the Lives of the Saints (Viețile Sfinților) (Neamt, 1807-1815) at the monasteries of Celic Dere and CocoТ, established in the first decades of the 19th century. These publications must have been common in Bessarabia too, but most of them were destroyed during the Russian rule.
But the most important cultural and historical activities of Metropolitan Gavriil Bănulescu-Bodoni occurred in the first years after the annexation of Bessarabia to the Russian Empire in 1812, after the creation of the new Archbishopry of ChiТinău and Khotin, the head of which he was appointed on August 21, 1813 and remained until the end of his life. On May 31, 1814 the Diocesan Printing House was opened in ChiТinău, with the purpose of printing religious books in Romanian, which should have been translated from the Old Church Slavonic. Under the Metropolitan's leadership, sometimes deceiving the vigilance of the Holy Synod, there were published several books, including Liturghierul (Liturgikon) in 1815, a copy of which is kept in the monastery of Celic Dere, the Tulcea County.
On both sides of the Prut there also circulated editions of the New Testament (1817, 1819) and the Bible (1819) printed by the Russian Bible Society in St. Petersburg and intended for the Romanians in Bessarabia; their publisher and proofreader was also Gavriil. The collection of Tulcea museum contains one copy of the Bible and the New Testament of 1819 edition, and in Celic Dere there are three copies of the New Testament of 1817 edition.
In our opinion, the presence of books published under the patronage of Gavriil Bănulescu-Bodoni in Northern Dobrudja can only be explained by two major aspects: by the personality of the Metropolitan, who fought for the preservation of Romanian spirit in Bessarabia by means of language, culture and the Church, and by the fact that the books entered this area from or through Moldavia more intensely than from other Romanian provinces.
List of illustrations: 1. Booklet about the duty and power of rural deans, Iaѯi, 1808. Title page (Gavrilă Simion Eco-Museum Research Institute, Tulcea). 2-3. Book of Prayers for victory, IaТi, 1809. Front and back sides of the title page (Gavrilă Simion Eco-Museum Research Institute, Tulcea).
4. Kyriakodromion, Neamt, 1811. Title page (Cocoѯ Monastery, Tulcea). 5. The Lives of the Saints for the month of October, Neamț, 1809. Title page (Celic Dere Monastery, Tulcea). 6-7. Liturgikon, ChiТinău, 1815. Front and back sides of the title page (Celic Dere Monastery, Tulcea).
Lăcrămioara Manea
Notes and the ex-libris of Archimandrite Dosoftei Crihană. Case study
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. X [XXV], nr. 2, Istorie. Muzeologie
This year we commemorate 350 years since the birth and 300 years since the death of Dimitrie Cantemir (October 26, 1673 - August 21, 1723), the most famous Romanian humanist thinker and also the author of the first original Romanian philosophical works.Dimitrie Cantemir represents one of the highest peaks of thought of his time, in all areas that his genius touched - in historiography, geography, philosophy, he opened up new perspectives for development...
The National Museum of History of Moldova takes place among the most significant museum institutions of the Republic of Moldova, in terms of both its collection and scientific reputation.
The National Museum of History of Moldova takes place among the most significant museum institutions of the Republic of Moldova, in terms of both its collection and scientific reputation.
The National Museum of History of Moldova takes place among the most significant museum institutions of the Republic of Moldova, in terms of both its collection and scientific reputation.
31 August 1989 St., 121 A, MD 2012, Chisinau, Republic of Moldova
