- Ienăchiţă Văcărescu
Ienăchiţă Văcărescu (
1740 -July 11 ,1797 ) was aWallachia n Romanian poet, historian, philologist, andboyar belonging to theVăcărescu family . A polyglot, he was able to speak Ancient andModern Greek ,Old Church Slavonic , Arabic, Persian, French, German, Italian, and Ottoman Turkish.Biography
Văcărescu wrote one of the first printed books on
Romanian grammar in 1787, an edition which also included a section dedicated to the study of prosody; it was titled "Observaţii sau băgări de seamă asupra regulilor şi orânduielilor gramaticii româneşti" ("Observations or Reckonings on the Rules and Dispositions of Romanian Grammar"). He also completed a work onGreek grammar ("Gramatica greacă completă").Văcărescu's lyrical works take inspiration from bothAnacreon andfolklore , and center onromantic love . The best-known poems he left behind are "Amărâta turturea" ("EmbitteredTurtle Dove ") and the minuscule "Într-o grădină" ("In a Garden"). Aside from these, he was also the author of a "Istorie a Preaputernicilor Împăraţi Otomani" ("History of the All Mighty Ottoman Emperors").On several occasions, Ienăchiţă Văcărescu served Wallachia as a
diplomat in missions abroad, including negotiations carried out in the Habsburg realms for the sons of Prince Alexander Ypsilantis to return after their 1782 flight toVienna ; he met and conversed with Emperor Joseph II, and also befriended the French ambassador,Baron de Breteuil . His impressive knowledge of Italian was the subject of a 1929 study by historianNicolae Iorga , "De unde a învăţat italieneşte Ienăchiţă Văcărescu" ("Where Has Ienăchiţă Văcărescu Learned His Italian From?").References
*
Neagu Djuvara , "Între Orient şi Occident. Ţările române la începutul epocii moderne", Humanitas, Bucharest, 1995, p.345
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.