E. Lovinescu şi latinitatea
E. Lovinescu and Latinity

Summary/Abstract: Eugen Lovinescu has been remembered, in the history of Romanian literature, for his literary criticism writings, for his mentorship of the Sburatorul literary association and for his prose. Nevertheless, few things are known about his Latinist background and about the importance of Latinity in his entire literary creation. Thus, E. Lovinescu studied classical languages and taught Latin in two famous high schools in Bucharest. He wrote many Latin text books and studies on Latin syntax and pronunciation in the classical age. At the same time, he proved great talent and high accuracy when translating Tacitus’, Horace’s, Virgil’s or Titus Livius’ works into Romanian. When considering both his literary criticism articles or books, and his memoirs, one cannot but notice the constant references in Lovinescu’s texts to the writings of Latin classical writers, which take the form of quotations and Latin aphorisms. Whenever he discovers preoccupations for the Latin language and culture in the works of different well-known Romanian writers, such as Gr. Alexandrescu, C. Negruzzi, Gh. Asachi, Titu Maiorescu, etc., E. Lovinescu is delighted to point out their preference for Latinity. E. Lovinescu is convinced that the study of the Latin language and Classical Antiquity develops human thinking and provides rigor and equilibrium when choosing cultural value information. Even in his literary writings, some of his characters, for instance Bizu, decipher the meaning of particular Latin phrases. To conclude with, the purpose of this paper is to approach a less known aspect of Lovinescu’s work, which was deeply influenced by the critic’s passion for Latinity.

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