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Dimitrie Cantemir

(1673- 1723)

Among the personalities from the Romanian space who made the transition from the Middle Ages to the Modern Era, Dimitrie Cantemir represents a unique figure due to his European and oriental allure at the same time and due to the way he blended his qualities as a scholar with those of a politician and a military strategist.

 

350 years after his birth and 300 years after his death, his commemoration through a series of projects of the Ministry of Culture is commendable.Popularizing the life and especially the work of Dimitrie Cantemir has an extremely important role – it reminds us all of where we come from, it explains how the Romanian people and their linguistic unity were formed, of traditions and culture preserved during hundreds of years of fragmentation.

 

Three centuries of Romanian music. From Cantemir to contemporaries is a project that combines the music of the 18th century with that of the 21st century, while also recalling the fascinating existence of the great scholar who went down in universal history as the first enlightener of the Moldavian-Wallachian space.

 

Dimitrie Cantemir was a homo universalis with varied passions, studies, talents brought to perfection through a lot of work. He combined diplomacy, politics and study in a spectacular way, remaining in history as one of the world’s great scholars of the 18th century. His knowledge accumulated over years of studies in an extended variety of fields such as: history, geography, contemporary languages, including ancient ones such as: Latin, Greek, Persian (he knew 11 languages), music, architecture, together with his literary talent turned him into a creator of works that remained in the universal culture. Some of the most important are, in our opinion, the Descriptio Moldaviae, the Hieroglyphic History, the Chronicle of Romanian-Moldo-Wallachian antiquity and the Divan or the wise man’s quarrel with the world.

(Youthful portrait of Dimitrie Cantemir, Author Unknown, attributed to Jean Baptiste Vancmour, in the heritage of Le Musée Des Beaux-Arts De Rouen, France)

(18th century lithograph representing Dimitrie Cantemir – from the heritage of the National History Museum of Romania. The lithograph appeared in the first edition of the work “Descriptio Moldavae” in 1716, afterwards being reproduced countless times)

How did Dimitrie Cantemir appear in the history and culture of Moldova?

A legitimate question to be asked about any genius, especially in the tumultuous 17th and 18th centuries to which he was bound to, when the rulers were mostly illiterate or had little knowledge of books, and scholars rarely reached the throne.One answer to this question is that the young boyar, son of a ruler, had a brilliant mind that quickly accumulated the knowledge of past ages, learned the languages of existing documents and writings, assimilated them and then found those elements of novelty and originality in historical-geographical literature, in philosophy and even in the study of music, writing syntheses and having many original ideas, creating an unparalleled work for the era and the place in which he lived.

Biographical milestones

Dimitrie Cantemir was born on October 26, 1673, in the village of Siliștea, Făciului, Moldova, being the son of Ana Bantaș, a descendant of a family of small boyars, and of Constantin Cantermir (1612-1693), the father to whom he will dedicate a book Vita Contantini Cantemyri – The Life of Constantin Cantemir, a romanticized and largely invented history of a ruler with a short reign and who relained in history for the deed of murdering the Costin brothers in 1691, Miron Costin, the great chronicler, and of the orator Velicico Costin, who had plotted against the said ruler.

Constantin Cantemir came from a family of small boyars, but his son attributed him a Tartar descent – totally invented according to later studies – and also heroic deeds in the service of Moldavia.

Constantin Cantemir was a soldier, a mercenary in the Polish army for almost two decades and became a cavalry captain. Back in his native Moldova, he took advantage of the prestige offered by his bravery that gained him a good reputation. Self-taught, almost illiterate, Constantine had lived in Paris for several years, where he understood the importance of writing, reading, the power that culture gives you, so he educated his two sons Dimitrie and Antioh, paying for the best teachers.

With a typical 17th century adventurer profile, Constantin Cantemir got rich and, due to being a good strategist, he took advantage of the support of Șerban Cantacuzino, lord of the Wallachia, to reach the throne. He was an indigenenous noble, opposed to the Phanariot lordships. Despite being a good military leader, he was old when he became a ruler (at 73) and thus had a short reign.

(Plaque representing Dimitrie Cantemir, made after a sculpture by P. Medrea from 1977)

Dimitrie Cantemir was sent to Constantinople (Istanbul) as early as 1688, when he was 15 years old, as a hostage, chezaș (pledge) for his father’s reign. He became a scholar according to the canons of his era, having knowledgeof Slavic, Greek, Latin, studying theology. He continued his studies at the School of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, studying Turkish-Ottoman oriental history, philosophy, culture and civilization, medicine, theology, geography, folklore, languages such as Turkish, Persian and Arabic, the Muslim religion, the history of the Ottoman Empire, but also drawing, and the architecture of the East and West, being also fond of music and studying Oriental music.

After more than two centuries since it was written in Latin, Nicolae Iorga translated, in 1924, Vita Constantini Cantemyri, Dimitrie Cantemir’s work dedicated to his father, showing that a son could only write laudatory about a father who offered him a chosen education and the necessary money for books and teachers, and who died after a reign of about 8 years, leaving his reign to him for a few weeks (March-April 1693). At only 19 years old, the boyars elected him ruler, but after the intrigues of Constantin Brâncoveanu, the High Porte put Constantin Duca on the throne.

After his brief reign in 1693, he returned to Constantinople continuing his studies and writings. The former Moldavian hostage became in the more than two decades spent in the capital of the Ottoman Empire a scholar, a diplomat who spoke many languages, known and appreciated both by the Ottoman aristocracy and by Western diplomats from the High Gate.

He won them all with his erudition, with his special skillfulness of speaking their languages ​​with them, but also with his pleasant appearance and special charm.

(Historisch-Geographisch Und Politische Beschreibung Der Moldau (Description of Moldavia), Johann Kretschmer, Biography of Dimitrie Cantemir (Colligat Editorial), translated from Latin to German by Johann Ludwig.Redslob, 1771, From the Emilian Radu Collection, classified work by dr. Ginel Laza, with thanks.Pictured above, engraving of portrait of the Prince, engraved by Joseph Friedrich Rein (Engraver of the City of Augsburg) )

His older brother, Antioh Cantemir (1670-1726), had two reigns in Moldova between 1696-1700 and 1705-1707, being supported by Dimitrie Cantemir.

However, the documents of the period narrate how Antioh appropriated the entire inheritance left by their father.Antioh Cantemir went down in history by establishing the Royal Academy in Iași – the first important cultural institution in Moldova that followed the model of those existing in Europe, but also by the heavy punishments he subjected the people leading to his removal from the throne by rival boyars Moldova. 

During the years of his brother’s reign, Dimitrie Cantemir was capuchehaie (representative of the lord near the High Gate), being well anchored in the Ottoman diplomatic environment and a fine connoisseur of the diplomatic relations of those times. 

Dimitrie Cantemir’s marriage in 1699 with Casandra, the daughter of the former lord of Wallachia, Șerban Cantacuzino, led to an open conflict with Constantin Brâncoveanu, lord of Wallachia between 1688-1714, due to Cantemir’s claims to his father-in-law’s throne.

 

The rivalry between the two rulers remained in history, being also mentioned in the writings of Dimitrie Cantemir. This rivalry also strained the relations between Antioh Cantemir and Constantin Brâncoveanu.

Influential and rich, Constantin Brâncoveanu caused the Porte to banish the scholar who had to leave Istanbul. 

He returned thanks to the French ambassador’s intervention, not of his own brother. Following his return, the scholar improved relations with Brâncoveanu who offered compensation to Cassandra Cantacuzino for the properties of her father, Şerban Cantacuzino, which had been confiscated after his death by poisoning.

Ruler of Moldavia and ally of Peter I

Dimitrie Cantemir became ruler of Moldavia on November 14th 1710 in the context of a danger occurrence at the Black Sea, the Russian danger that arose with the defeat of Sweden by Tsar Peter the Great and the retreat of King Charles XII of Sweden to Ottoman territory. 

Dimitrie was appointed believing that he would be loyal to the Porte, where he had lived most of his life and written his works, and that he would also closely oversee Brâncoveanu, the ruler of Wallachia.

 
The tribute paid by the Romanian rulers contributed to the support of the Ottoman army and the entire administration. 

But the scholar who became the ruler of Moldavia opted for an alliance with Russia, abandoning Ottoman interests, a choice later justified in his works by historical and religious arguments.

(Map of Moldova made by Cantemir and published in Historisch-Geographisch Und Politische Beschreibung Der Moldau (Description of Moldova)

During the eight months of his reign, Dimitrie Cantemir tried to remove Moldova from Ottoman influence with the help of Peter I of Russia.

The conclusion of the Lutsk treaty (April 13, 1711), drafted by Cantemir and signed by the tsar, stipulated that “the tsar took under his wing the ruler and the whole of his people”.

After signing the alliance, Moldova stopped paying tribute to the Turks, and the tsar obliged not to interfere in the country’s internal affairs.

Also, the Country of Moldavia was to get back its southeastern part of Moldavia taken by the Ottomans and also to be defended with the help of the Russian army.

According to the treaty, Moldova passed under the protectorate of Russia, with the reign reserved to a Cantemir dynasty on the model of hereditary monarchies.

The year 1711 went down in history also through the visit of Petru I to Iasi, in July, as narrated by the chronicler Ion Neculce.

He walked around the city, visited the great churches and praised the beauty of the city and the country.

But the Russo-Ottoman war in the summer of 1711, fought on the territory of Moldavia and supported by Dimitrie Cantemir, was a resounding failure.

The huge Ottoman army that crossed the Danube in July 1711 surrounded the outnumbered, poorly fed and armed Russian-Moldovan army. The Battle of Stănilești on July 8-9, 1711 brought a serious defeat to Cantemir and the Russians, and through the armistice of July 12, 1711, the Porte imposed the Russian army to leave Moldova.

(The Chronicle of the Romano-Moldo-Vlachs Compiled by the Ruler of Moldavia Dimitrie Cantemir in the 1710s (Vol. I), Dimitrie Cantemir, Edited by Gheorghe Săulescu, Printed in Iași, in the Metropolitan Printing House, 1835, under its cultural patronage, printed in Iași, at the Printing House Metropolis, from the Emilian Radu Collection, work classified by dr. Ginel Lazăr, with thanks)

Exile

Dimitrie Cantemir together with several thousand Moldovans, boyars, merchants, servants, fled to Russia. 

The country was one step away from becoming a Turkish Pashaluk, with areas in the South were occupied and separated from Moldova, and for more than a century the rulers were brought from Fanar (1711-1821). 

The scholar Dimitrie Cantemir continued his studies and writings, becoming a renowned character among European scholars (especially in Germany) a valued Orientalist and elected a member of the Berlin Academy for Oriental Sciences in 1714.

Dimitrie Cantemir remained in history for his impressive work known all across Europe and in the Ottoman Empire.

The great scholar was a forerunner of modern and contemporary Romanian culture and the one who opened the European and universal path for the Romanian culture. 

His reference works that remained in Romanian and universal culture and historiography are divided into three large categories of works: historical, philosophical and literary, to which are added those in the fields of music and architecture. 

He wrote most of his work in Latin precisely so that it could be read across the entire known world. He was an encyclopedist scholar whose works can currently be found in the great libraries of Europe, as well as those of the East.

Among his historical works, the most important are:

The chronicle of the ancient Romano-Moldo-Wallachians or the Chronicle of the whole Wallachia, which was afterwards divided into Moldova, Muntenia and Transylvania, from its founding by Trajan, the emperor of the Râmnu.

In this work, he presents the ideas about the unity of language and the unity of origin of the Romanians, the Latin descent being presented as the element that united the Romanians from the Romanian countries and outside their territories.  

Cantemir read and commented on all existing documents, those written by scholars before him, supporting with historical-linguistic arguments the Latin origin of all Romanians and the uninterrupted continuity in the space where they lived at the beginning of the 18th century.

He commented and contradicted the testimonies of foreign travelers who did not understand the linguistic unity and origin of all Romanians.

The Chronicle is his masterpiece to which he devoted years of his life, much study, erudition and all the information accumulated in a lifetime. 

This work first entered Transylvania in the second half of the 18th century, being used by the Ardelean School, then it was printed in Iasi in 1835-1836 in the Cyrillic alphabet and in 1901 in Latin characters.He wrote it until his death, not being diverted by his life in Russia, nor byhis  intense political activity. Dimitrie Cantemir remained the Moldovan who supported the unity of origin of the Romanians, the unity of their traditions and a history that divided them which did not separate them culturally, religiously and linguistically.

(The Chronicle of the Romano-Moldo-Vlachs compiled by the Ruler of Moldavia Dimitrie Cantemir in the 1710s (Vol. I), Dimitrie Cantemir, Edited by Gheorghe Săulescu, printed in Iași, in the Metropolitan Printing House, 1835, under its cultural patronage, printed in Iași, in the Printing House Metropolis, from the Emilian Radu Collection, work classified by dr. Ginel Lazăr, with thanks)

(The Chronicle of the Romano-Moldo-Vlachs compiled by the Ruler of Moldavia Dimitrie Cantemir in the 1710s (Vol. I), Dimitrie Cantemir, edited by Gheorghe Săulescu, printed in Iași at the Metropolitan Printing House, 1835, under its cultural patronage in Iași, in the Printing House Metropolis, from the Emilian Radu Collection, work classified by dr. Ginel Lazăr, with thanks)

Descriptio Moldaviae (1716) was the first history of Moldavia including the first descriptions of the Moldavian lands made with a unique plasticity.

The work was written during his years of exile in Russia. Divided into several chapters, it starts with the geographical description, the physical geography of the territory, also offers etymological explanations “About the old and current name of Moldova”, settlement, borders, climate, waters, the lands and villages existing at the beginning of the century 18th century, distribution of the population, organization and governance, mountains and minerals of Moldavia, plains and forests, wild and domestic animals.

It is a work that includes emotional and full of a special nostalgia passage, demonstrating Cantemir’s bond to the Romanian nation and the appreciation of his country, even though he lived most of his life in Constantinople and then in Moscow.

The second part is the one dedicated to politics “Of state organization” in which the scholar presents the “way of governing”, from Dacia, to Ștefan cel Mare and Petru Rareș, to the reign of Dimitrie Cantemir “which for some good reasons left all honor and easy life, passing with his army onto the side of Christendom”.

The History of the Rise and Decline of the Ottoman Empire (1716) was and remains a fundamental work for the history of the Ottoman Empire, written in Latin, and which placed him among the most famous historians and scholars of the East, being until the 19th century a work of reference and remaining a historiographic landmark in the 21st century.

Cantemir analyzes the structure of the empire, the institutions, life in the imperial palace, predicting its decline and disappearance, makes the biographies of 19 sultans and also presents a history of Ottoman diplomacy, but also one of the religious traditions of the Turks. 

Natural Research of Monarchies (1714) is a philosophical-historical essay about the evolution of great empires throughout history and the succession to the throne within them. Cantemir had hoped to transform Moldavia into a monarchy and establish a hereditary dynasty of the Cantemirests.

Among the literary works, the most important is The Hieroglyphic History (1705), a work written in Romanian, considered to be a political novel, a parable, a pamphlet and a political journal at the same time.

(The Chronicle of the Romano-Moldo-Vlachs compiled by the Ruler of Moldavia Dimitrie Cantemir in the 1710s (Vol. I), Dimitrie Cantemir, edited by Gheorghe Săulescu, printed in Iași at the Metropolitan Printing House, 1835, under its cultural patronage in Iași, in the Printing House Metropolis, from the Emilian Radu Collection, work classified by dr. Ginel Lazăr, with thanks)

(The Chronicle of the Romano-Moldo-Vlachs compiled by the Ruler of Moldavia Dimitrie Cantemir in the 1710s (Vol. I), Dimitrie Cantemir, edited by Gheorghe Săulescu, printed in Iași at the Metropolitan Printing House, 1835, under its cultural patronage in Iași, in the Printing House Metropolis, from the Emilian Radu Collection, work classified by dr. Ginel Lazăr, with thanks)

Comocpеndіolum unіvеrѕaе logіcеѕ іnѕtіtutіonеѕ (1701) – A small compendium on the entire teaching of logic which was then published under the title of Logica, a work on logic and logical thinking, in fact the first manual of logic in this geographical area. 

Short theoretical musical explanation (1703-1704) in this work Dimitrine Cantemir writes a treatise on Turkish music for which he invented a system of musical notation, thanks to which the era of writing this music started and is still in use. 

After years of study in Istanbul the musical types of the Ottoman Empire, the work proved itself to be a proof of his erudition and universal spirit. 

Cantemir was formed as a European Enlightenment thinker during the years he lived and studied in the center of the Islamic world. He was a prince of the East who dazzled with talent, work and originality and with Western allure and universal vision. 

In Paris, his name is engraved on the facade of the Sainte Geneviève Library among luminaries and encyclopedists, a sign of recognition of his value, alongside other personalities who have marked European culture.

Studying Dimitrie Cantemir in the 20th and 21st centuries

In Paris, the Franco-Romanian historian Ștefan Lemny studied the personality and work of Dimitrie Cantemir, publishing valuable works dedicated to the scholar, Cantemirestii: the European adventure of a princely family from the 18th century and Dimitrie Cantemir: a Romanian prince at the dawn of the European Enlightenment, appeared both in French and in Romanian.


Cantemir Institute – research center of Oxford University has had a decisive role in the knowledge and study of the life and work of the Romanian humanist throughout Europe and even in the world.

Selective Bibliography

📖 Dimitrie Cantemir (1673-1723), principe român și cărturar european. Editura Trinitas, Iași, 2003

📖 Dimitrie Cantemir : Viața lui Constantin-vodă Cantemir. Text latin revăzut și traducere românească de N.Iorga. București, Tipografia cărților bisericești, 1924

📖 Dimitrie Cantemir, Descrierea Moldovei, Socec, 1909,  http://bp-soroca.md/soroca/Cantemir%20Dimitrie.%20Descrierea%20Moldovei.%201909.pdf

📖 Dimitrie Cantemir, Viața lui Constantin Cantemir, https://cantemir.asm.md/files/u1/viata_lui_constantin_cantemir.pdf

📖 Ștefan Ciobanu, Dimitrie Cantemir în Rusia, https://bcub.ro/lib2life/Dimitrie%20Cantemir%20in%20Rusia_Ciobanu%20Stefan_Bucucresti_1925.pdf

📖 Alexandru Duțu, Paul Cernovodeanu (editori), Dimitrie Cantemir, historian of South Eastern European and Oriental Civilisation, Bucharest, 1973, https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/files/riverbed_seashore/files/cantemir.pdf

📖 Ștefan Lemny, Cantemireștii: aventura europeană a unei familii princiare din secolul al XVIII-lea, Polirom, 2013

Dimitrie Cantemir

(1673- 1723)

(Youthful portrait of Dimitrie Cantemir, Author Unknown, attributed to Jean Baptiste Vancmour, in the heritage of Le Musée Des Beaux-Arts De Rouen, France)

Among the personalities from the Romanian space who made the transition from the Middle Ages to the Modern Era, Dimitrie Cantemir represents a unique figure due to his European and oriental allure at the same time and due to the way he blended his qualities as a scholar with those of a politician and a military strategist.

350 years after his birth and 300 years after his death, his commemoration through a series of projects of the Ministry of Culture is commendable.Popularizing the life and especially the work of Dimitrie Cantemir has an extremely important role – it reminds us all of where we come from, it explains how the Romanian people and their linguistic unity were formed, of traditions and culture preserved during hundreds of years of fragmentation.

Three centuries of Romanian music. From Cantemir to contemporaries is a project that combines the music of the 18th century with that of the 21st century, while also recalling the fascinating existence of the great scholar who went down in universal history as the first enlightener of the Moldavian-Wallachian space.

Dimitrie Cantemir was a homo universalis with varied passions, studies, talents brought to perfection through a lot of work. He combined diplomacy, politics and study in a spectacular way, remaining in history as one of the world’s great scholars of the 18th century.

His knowledge accumulated over years of studies in an extended variety of fields such as: history, geography, contemporary languages, including ancient ones such as: Latin, Greek, Persian (he knew 11 languages), music, architecture, together with his literary talent turned him into a creator of works that remained in the universal culture. Some of the most important are, in our opinion, the Descriptio Moldaviae, the Hieroglyphic History, the Chronicle of Romanian-Moldo-Wallachian antiquity and the Divan or the wise man’s quarrel with the world.(Youthful portrait of Dimitrie Cantemir, Author Unknown, attributed to Jean Baptiste Vancmour, in the heritage of Le Musée Des Beaux-Arts De Rouen, France)

 

 

How did Dimitrie Cantemir appear in the history and culture of Moldova?

(18th century lithograph representing Dimitrie Cantemir – from the heritage of the National History Museum of Romania. The lithograph appeared in the first edition of the work “Descriptio Moldavae” in 1716, afterwards being reproduced countless times)

A legitimate question to be asked about any genius, especially in the tumultuous 17th and 18th centuries to which he was bound to, when the rulers were mostly illiterate or had little knowledge of books, and scholars rarely reached the throne.

One answer to this question is that the young boyar, son of a ruler, had a brilliant mind that quickly accumulated the knowledge of past ages, learned the languages ​​of existing documents and writings, assimilated them and then found those elements of novelty and originality in historical-geographical literature, in philosophy and even in the study of music, writing syntheses and having many original ideas, creating an unparalleled work for the era and the place in which he lived.

 

Biographical milestones

Plachetă reprezentându-l pe Dimitrie Cantemir, realizată după o sculptură a lui P. Medrea din anul 1977

Dimitrie Cantemir was born on October 26, 1673, in the village of Siliștea, Făciului, Moldova, being the son of Ana Bantaș, a descendant of a family of small boyars, and of Constantin Cantermir (1612-1693), the father to whom he will dedicate a book Vita Contantini Cantemyri – The Life of Constantin Cantemir, a romanticized and largely invented history of a ruler with a short reign and who relained in history for the deed of murdering the Costin brothers in 1691, Miron Costin, the great chronicler, and of the orator Velicico Costin, who had plotted against the said ruler.

Constantin Cantemir came from a family of small boyars, but his son attributed him a Tartar descent – totally invented according to later studies – and also heroic deeds in the service of Moldavia.

Constantin Cantemir was a soldier, a mercenary in the Polish army for almost two decades and became a cavalry captain. Back in his native Moldova, he took advantage of the prestige offered by his bravery that gained him a good reputation. Self-taught, almost illiterate, Constantine had lived in Paris for several years, where he understood the importance of writing, reading, the power that culture gives you, so he educated his two sons Dimitrie and Antioh, paying for the best teachers.

With a typical 17th century adventurer profile, Constantin Cantemir got rich and, due to being a good strategist, he took advantage of the support of Șerban Cantacuzino, lord of the Wallachia, to reach the throne. He was an indigenenous noble, opposed to the Phanariot lordships. Despite being a good military leader, he was old when he became a ruler (at 73) and thus had a short reign.(Plaque representing Dimitrie Cantemir, made after a sculpture by P. Medrea from 1977)

 

 

Dimitrie Cantemir was sent to Constantinople (Istanbul) as early as 1688, when he was 15 years old, as a hostage, chezaș (pledge) for his father’s reign. He became a scholar according to the canons of his era, having knowledgeof Slavic, Greek, Latin, studying theology.

He continued his studies at the School of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, studying Turkish-Ottoman oriental history, philosophy, culture and civilization, medicine, theology, geography, folklore, languages ​​such as Turkish, Persian and Arabic, the Muslim religion, the history of the Ottoman Empire, but also drawing, and the architecture of the East and West, being also fond of music and studying Oriental music.

 

After more than two centuries since it was written in Latin, Nicolae Iorga translated, in 1924, Vita Constantini Cantemyri, Dimitrie Cantemir’s work dedicated to his father, showing that a son could only write laudatory about a father who offered him a chosen education and the necessary money for books and teachers, and who died after a reign of about 8 years, leaving his reign to him for a few weeks (March-April 1693). At only 19 years old, the boyars elected him ruler, but after the intrigues of Constantin Brâncoveanu, the High Porte put Constantin Duca on the throne.

After his brief reign in 1693, he returned to Constantinople continuing his studies and writings. The former Moldavian hostage became in the more than two decades spent in the capital of the Ottoman Empire a scholar, a diplomat who spoke many languages, known and appreciated both by the Ottoman aristocracy and by Western diplomats from the High Gate.

He won them all with his erudition, with his special skillfulness of speaking their languages ​​with them, but also with his pleasant appearance and special charm.

 

 

 

 

(Historisch-Geographisch Und Politische Beschreibung Der Moldau (Description of Moldavia), Johann Kretschmer, Biography of Dimitrie Cantemir (Colligat Editorial), translated from Latin to German by Johann Ludwig.Redslob, 1771, From the Emilian Radu Collection, classified work by dr. Ginel Laza, with thanks.Pictured above, engraving of portrait of the Prince, engraved by Joseph Friedrich Rein (Engraver of the City of Augsburg) )

His older brother, Antioh Cantemir (1670-1726), had two reigns in Moldova between 1696-1700 and 1705-1707, being supported by Dimitrie Cantemir. However, the documents of the period narrate how Antioh appropriated the entire inheritance left by their father.

Antioh Cantemir went down in history by establishing the Royal Academy in Iași – the first important cultural institution in Moldova that followed the model of those existing in Europe, but also by the heavy punishments he subjected the people leading to his removal from the throne by rival boyars Moldova. 

During the years of his brother’s reign, Dimitrie Cantemir was capuchehaie (representative of the lord near the High Gate), being well anchored in the Ottoman diplomatic environment and a fine connoisseur of the diplomatic relations of those times. Dimitrie Cantemir’s marriage in 1699 with Casandra, the daughter of the former lord of Wallachia, Șerban Cantacuzino, led to an open conflict with Constantin Brâncoveanu, lord of Wallachia between 1688-1714, due to Cantemir’s claims to his father-in-law’s throne. 

The rivalry between the two rulers remained in history, being also mentioned in the writings of Dimitrie Cantemir. 

This rivalry also strained the relations between Antioh Cantemir and Constantin Brâncoveanu.  

Influential and rich, Constantin Brâncoveanu caused the Porte to banish the scholar who had to leave Istanbul. He returned thanks to the French ambassador’s intervention, not of his own brother. 

Following his return, the scholar improved relations with Brâncoveanu who offered compensation to Cassandra Cantacuzino for the properties of her father, Şerban Cantacuzino, which had been confiscated after his death by poisoning.

Ruler of Moldavia and ally of Peter I

(Map of Moldova made by Cantemir and published in Historisch-Geographisch Und Politische Beschreibung Der Moldau (Description of Moldova)

Dimitrie Cantemir became ruler of Moldavia on November 14th 1710 in the context of a danger occurrence at the Black Sea, the Russian danger that arose with the defeat of Sweden by Tsar Peter the Great and the retreat of King Charles XII of Sweden to Ottoman territory.

 Dimitrie was appointed believing that he would be loyal to the Porte, where he had lived most of his life and written his works, and that he would also closely oversee Brâncoveanu, the ruler of Wallachia.

 
The tribute paid by the Romanian rulers contributed to the support of the Ottoman army and the entire administration. 

But the scholar who became the ruler of Moldavia opted for an alliance with Russia, abandoning Ottoman interests, a choice later justified in his works by historical and religious arguments.

During the eight months of his reign, Dimitrie Cantemir tried to remove Moldova from Ottoman influence with the help of Peter I of Russia. 

The conclusion of the Lutsk treaty (April 13, 1711), drafted by Cantemir and signed by the tsar, stipulated that “the tsar took under his wing the ruler and the whole of his people”. 

After signing the alliance, Moldova stopped paying tribute to the Turks, and the tsar obliged not to interfere in the country’s internal affairs. 

Also, the Country of Moldavia was to get back its southeastern part of Moldavia taken by the Ottomans and also to be defended with the help of the Russian army.


According to the treaty, Moldova passed under the protectorate of Russia, with the reign reserved to a Cantemir dynasty on the model of hereditary monarchies.

The year 1711 went down in history also through the visit of Petru I to Iasi, in July, as narrated by the chronicler Ion Neculce. 

He walked around the city, visited the great churches and praised the beauty of the city and the country.
But the Russo-Ottoman war in the summer of 1711, fought on the territory of Moldavia and supported by Dimitrie Cantemir, was a resounding failure.

The huge Ottoman army that crossed the Danube in July 1711 surrounded the outnumbered, poorly fed and armed Russian-Moldovan army. 

The Battle of Stănilești on July 8-9, 1711 brought a serious defeat to Cantemir and the Russians, and through the armistice of July 12, 1711, the Porte imposed the Russian army to leave Moldova.

Exilul

(The Chronicle of the Romano-Moldo-Vlachs Compiled by the Ruler of Moldavia Dimitrie Cantemir in the 1710s (Vol. I), Dimitrie Cantemir, Edited by Gheorghe Săulescu, Printed in Iași, in the Metropolitan Printing House, 1835, under its cultural patronage, printed in Iași, at the Printing House Metropolis, from the Emilian Radu Collection, work classified by dr. Ginel Lazăr, with thanks)

Dimitrie Cantemir together with several thousand Moldovans, boyars, merchants, servants, fled to Russia. 

The country was one step away from becoming a Turkish Pashaluk, with areas in the South were occupied and separated from Moldova, and for more than a century the rulers were brought from Fanar (1711-1821). 

The scholar Dimitrie Cantemir continued his studies and writings, becoming a renowned character among European scholars (especially in Germany) a valued Orientalist and elected a member of the Berlin Academy for Oriental Sciences in 1714.

From 1719, Dimitrie Cantemir was one of Tsar Peter I’s close advisers on Eastern political affairs, the Tsar willing to resume his campaigns on the Romanian Lands and the battles with the Ottoman Empire.During 1722-1723, Dimitrie Cantemir led the Imperial Chancellery and was a close adviser of Peter I. The efforts he made, the long Persian campaign, led to the exacerbation of the illness he had (diabetes) followed by his death in 1723. 

He was buried in a Greek church that was built according to his architectural plans, in Moscow. 

Dimitrie Cantemir remained in history for his impressive work known all across Europe and in the Ottoman Empire. 

The great scholar was a forerunner of modern and contemporary Romanian culture and the one who opened the European and universal path for the Romanian culture. 

His reference works that remained in Romanian and universal culture and historiography are divided into three large categories of works: historical, philosophical and literary, to which are added those in the fields of music and architecture. 

He wrote most of his work in Latin precisely so that it could be read across the entire known world. 

He was an encyclopedist scholar whose works can currently be found in the great libraries of Europe, as well as those of the East.

Among his historical works, the most important are:

(The Chronicle of the Romano-Moldo-Vlachs compiled by the Ruler of Moldavia Dimitrie Cantemir in the 1710s (Vol. I), Dimitrie Cantemir, Edited by Gheorghe Săulescu, printed in Iași, in the Metropolitan Printing House, 1835, under its cultural patronage, printed in Iași, in the Printing House Metropolis, from the Emilian Radu Collection, work classified by dr. Ginel Lazăr, with thanks)

The chronicle of the ancient Romano-Moldo-Wallachians or the Chronicle of the whole Wallachia, which was afterwards divided into Moldova, Muntenia and Transylvania, from its founding by Trajan, the emperor of the Râmnu. 

In this work, he presents the ideas about the unity of language and the unity of origin of the Romanians, the Latin descent being presented as the element that united the Romanians from the Romanian countries and outside their territories. 

 Cantemir read and commented on all existing documents, those written by scholars before him, supporting with historical-linguistic arguments the Latin origin of all Romanians and the uninterrupted continuity in the space where they lived at the beginning of the 18th century. 

He commented and contradicted the testimonies of foreign travelers who did not understand the linguistic unity and origin of all Romanians.

The Chronicle is his masterpiece to which he devoted years of his life, much study, erudition and all the information accumulated in a lifetime. 

This work first entered Transylvania in the second half of the 18th century, being used by the Ardelean School, then it was printed in Iasi in 1835-1836 in the Cyrillic alphabet and in 1901 in Latin characters.

He wrote it until his death, not being diverted by his life in Russia, nor byhis  intense political activity. 

Dimitrie Cantemir remained the Moldovan who supported the unity of origin of the Romanians, the unity of their traditions and a history that divided them which did not separate them culturally, religiously and linguistically.

(The Chronicle of the Romano-Moldo-Vlachs compiled by the Ruler of Moldavia Dimitrie Cantemir in the 1710s (Vol. I), Dimitrie Cantemir, Edited by Gheorghe Săulescu, printed in Iași, in the Metropolitan Printing House, 1835, under its cultural patronage, printed in Iași, in the Printing House Metropolis, from the Emilian Radu Collection, work classified by dr. Ginel Lazăr, with thanks)

Descriptio Moldaviae (1716) was the first history of Moldavia including the first descriptions of the Moldavian lands made with a unique plasticity.  

The work was written during his years of exile in Russia. 

Divided into several chapters, it starts with the geographical description, the physical geography of the territory, also offers etymological explanations “About the old and current name of Moldova”, settlement, borders, climate, waters, the lands and villages existing at the beginning of the century 18th century, distribution of the population, organization and governance, mountains and minerals of Moldavia, plains and forests, wild and domestic animals. It is a work that includes emotional and full of a special nostalgia passage, demonstrating Cantemir’s bond to the Romanian nation and the appreciation of his country, even though he lived most of his life in Constantinople and then in Moscow.

The second part is the one dedicated to politics “Of state organization” in which the scholar presents the “way of governing”, from Dacia, to Ștefan cel Mare and Petru Rareș, to the reign of Dimitrie Cantemir “which for some good reasons left all honor and easy life, passing with his army onto the side of Christendom”.

The History of the Rise and Decline of the Ottoman Empire (1716) was and remains a fundamental work for the history of the Ottoman Empire, written in Latin, and which placed him among the most famous historians and scholars of the East, being until the 19th century a work of reference and remaining a historiographic landmark in the 21st century.Cantemir analyzes the structure of the empire, the institutions, life in the imperial palace, predicting its decline and disappearance, makes the biographies of 19 sultans and also presents a history of Ottoman diplomacy, but also one of the religious traditions of the Turks.

(The Chronicle of the Romano-Moldo-Vlachs compiled by the Ruler of Moldavia Dimitrie Cantemir in the 1710s (Vol. I), Dimitrie Cantemir, edited by Gheorghe Săulescu, Printed in Iași, in the Metropolitan Printing House, 1835, under its cultural patronage, printed in Iași, in the Printing House Metropolis, from the Emilian Radu Collection, work classified by dr. Ginel Lazăr, with thanks)

Comocpеndіolum unіvеrѕaе logіcеѕ іnѕtіtutіonеѕ (1701) – A small compendium on the entire teaching of logic which was then published under the title of Logica, a work on logic and logical thinking, in fact the first manual of logic in this geographical area. 

Short theoretical musical explanation (1703-1704) in this work Dimitrine Cantemir writes a treatise on Turkish music for which he invented a system of musical notation, thanks to which the era of writing this music started and is still in use. 

After years of study in Istanbul the musical types of the Ottoman Empire, the work proved itself to be a proof of his erudition and universal spirit. Cantemir was formed as a European Enlightenment thinker during the years he lived and studied in the center of the Islamic world. 

He was a prince of the East who dazzled with talent, work and originality and with Western allure and universal vision. 

In Paris, his name is engraved on the facade of the Sainte Geneviève Library among luminaries and encyclopedists, a sign of recognition of his value, alongside other personalities who have marked European culture.

(The Chronicle of the Romano-Moldo-Vlachs Compiled by the Lord of Moldavia Dimitrie Cantemir in the 1710s (Vol. I), Dimitrie Cantemir, Edited by Gheorghe Săulescu, Printed in Iași, in the Metropolitan Printing House, 1835, Under the Cultural Patronage of Printed in Iași, in the Printing House Metropolis, From the Emilian Radu Collection, Work Classified by dr. Ginel Lazăr, With Thanks)

Puțini realizează că Dimitrie Cantemir a introdus în spațiul moldo-valah filosofia. Dintre scrierile sale filosofice se remarcă Divanul sau gâlceava înțeleptului cu lumea ѕau Gіudеţul ѕuflеtuluі cu trupul – 1697 prima carte a tânărului Cantemir, lucrare trimisă în 1696 călugărului Іеrеmіa Cacavеlaocs pentru traducere în greacă și publicare. 

Divanul a fost prima lucrare românească care tratează gândirea religioasă, fiind influențată de mentorul său călugăr grec Іеrеmіa Cacavеlaocs care semnează și cuvântul înainte al lucrării, operă în care studiul teologiei se îmbină cu ideile etice ale tânărului cărturar. 

Lucrarea a apărut într-o ediție bilingvă româno-greacă, fiind tipărită cu ajutorul și la porunca fratelui său, Antioh Cantemir, domn al Moldovei în anul publicării.

Această lucrare a avut și are un larg ecou european târziu, inclusiv în secolul XXI s-au scris teze de doctorat care interpretează preceptele etico-religioase ale cărturarului român.

 

Studying Dimitrie Cantemir in the 20th and 21st centuries

In Paris, the Franco-Romanian historian Ștefan Lemny studied the personality and work of Dimitrie Cantemir, publishing valuable works dedicated to the scholar, Cantemirestii: the European adventure of a princely family from the 18th century and Dimitrie Cantemir: a Romanian prince at the dawn of the European Enlightenment, appeared both in French and in Romanian.


Cantemir Institute – research center of Oxford University has had a decisive role in the knowledge and study of the life and work of the Romanian humanist throughout Europe and even in the world.

Selective Bibliography

📖 Dimitrie Cantemir (1673-1723), principe român și cărturar european. Editura Trinitas, Iași, 2003

📖 Dimitrie Cantemir : Viața lui Constantin-vodă Cantemir. Text latin revăzut și traducere românească de N.Iorga. București, Tipografia cărților bisericești, 1924

📖 Dimitrie Cantemir, Descrierea Moldovei, Socec, 1909,  

http://bp-soroca.md/soroca/Cantemir%20Dimitrie.%20Descrierea%20Moldovei.%201909.pdf

📖 Dimitrie Cantemir, Viața lui Constantin Cantemir, https://cantemir.asm.md/files/u1/viata_lui_constantin_cantemir.pdf

📖 Ștefan Ciobanu, Dimitrie Cantemir în Rusia, https://bcub.ro/lib2life/Dimitrie%20Cantemir%20in%20Rusia_Ciobanu%20Stefan_Bucucresti_1925.pdf

📖 Alexandru Duțu, Paul Cernovodeanu (editori), Dimitrie Cantemir, historian of South Eastern European and Oriental Civilisation, Bucharest, 1973, https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/files/riverbed_seashore/files/cantemir.pdf

📖 Ștefan Lemny, Cantemireștii: aventura europeană a unei familii princiare din secolul al XVIII-lea, Polirom, 2013

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