Ethnical Names in Dimitrie Cantemir’s De antiquis et hodiernis Moldaviae nominibus and Historia Moldo-Vlachica
Ethnical Names in Dimitrie Cantemir’s De antiquis et hodiernis Moldaviae nominibus and Historia Moldo-Vlachica

Summary/Abstract: The works analized here, De antiquis et hodiernis Moldaviae nominibus (On the Ancient and Contemporary Names of Moldavia) and Historia Moldo-Vlachica (History of Moldovlahia) are two projects written in Neo-Latin by Dimitrie Cantemir, at the beginning of the 18th century. Their state of project allows certain linguistic comments regarding the author’s methods of work and the divers influences assimilated by Cantemir’s Neo-Latin. Numerous ethnical names that appeared in these texts (found in the same manuscript) are used in a scientific manner, advanced for that period of time. The author wrote even etymological observations or made comments on the etymologies found in the bibliographical sources. When writing about the Romanian people, Cantemir always presented the native variants. The ethnical names widely used are those collected from the prestigious sources, especially the historical works of Jan Dlugosz, Antonius Bonfinius, Johannes Leunclavius.

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