Dimitrie Cantemir, the Author of a Book-Manifesto in Romanian Culture: The Chronicle of the Romanian-Moldavian-Wallachian Ancient Past
Dimitrie Cantemir, the Author of a Book-Manifesto in Romanian Culture: The Chronicle of the Romanian-Moldavian-Wallachian Ancient Past

Summary/Abstract: While in exile in St. Petersburg, towards the end of his life, the Romanian prince Dimitrie Cantemir (1673-1723) wrote a synthesis of Romanian history, in Latin, which he titled Historia Moldo-Vlachica. It had been commissioned by the Berlin Academy of which he had been a member since 1714. Intended for a European scholarly audience, the work was translated by the author into Romanian, much expanded and retitled as The Chronicle of the Romanian-Moldo-Wallachian Ancient Past. Cantemir presented the history of his people according to the European scientific methodology of the time, highlighting the ideas of the Romanian people’s Roman origin, continuity and unity over the entire space of its ethnogenesis, thus achieving a scholarly synthesis of Romanian history. This work marked the passage from medieval to modern historiography in Romanian culture. Although the text was printed relatively late (the first time in Iasi, in 1835-1836), Cantemir’s ideas became known via the circulation of some manuscripts of his work and they influenced the programme for the emancipation of Romanians throughout the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century.

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