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August Treboniu Laurian (; 17 July 1810 – 25 February 1881) was a
Transylvania
Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...
n
Romanian
Romanian may refer to:
*anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania
**Romanians, an ethnic group
**Romanian language, a Romance language
***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language
**Romanian cuisine, traditional ...
politician, historian and linguist. He was born in the village of Hochfeld,
Principality of Transylvania,
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central-Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence, ...
(today Fofeldea as part of
Nocrich
Nocrich (german: Leschkirch; hu, Újegyház) is a commune in Sibiu County, Romania, in the region of Transylvania. The commune is situated between Agnita and Sibiu. It is composed of five villages: Fofeldea, Ghijasa de Jos, Hosman, Nocrich and Ți ...
,
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
). He was a participant in the 1848 revolution, an organizer of the Romanian school and one of the founding members of the
Romanian Academy
The Romanian Academy ( ro, Academia Română ) is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 active members who are elected for life.
According to its byl ...
.
Laurian was a member of the
Transylvanian School
The Transylvanian School ( ro, Școala Ardeleană) was a cultural movement which was founded after part of the Romanian Orthodox Church in Habsburg-ruled Transylvania accepted the leadership of the pope and became the Greek-Catholic Church (). The ...
, a mainly-Transylvanian movement in the Romanian culture which promoted the idea that Romanians are pure Romans, whose history was a continuation of the history of the Roman Empire.
[Boia p.87]
His book on ''History of the Romanians'' began with the
Foundation of Rome
The tale of the founding of Rome is recounted in traditional stories handed down by the ancient Romans themselves as the earliest history of their city in terms of legend and myth. The most familiar of these myths, and perhaps the most famous o ...
in 753 BC and after the demise of Rome, it continues with the history of the Romanians, with all dates being converted to the Roman system,
Ab urbe condita
''Ab urbe condita'' ( 'from the founding of the City'), or ''anno urbis conditae'' (; 'in the year since the city's founding'), abbreviated as AUC or AVC, expresses a date in years since 753 BC, the traditional founding of Rome. It is an exp ...
. Thus, in his book it is written that Vladimirescu's rebellion occurred in the year 2574 AUC.
[Boia p.46–47]
Because of this alleged continuity, he supported the purification of the
Romanian language
Romanian (obsolete spellings: Rumanian or Roumanian; autonym: ''limba română'' , or ''românește'', ) is the official and main language of Romania and the Moldova, Republic of Moldova. As a minority language it is spoken by stable communi ...
by stripping it of non-Latin elements and attempting to bring it as close to Latin as possible. Between 1871 and 1876, Laurian collaborated with
Ioan Massim for a two-volume Romanian language dictionary, commissioned by the Romanian Academy. The dictionary was stripped of non-Latin words, including neologisms as replacements for such words, which were supposed to be eliminated from the language. The dictionary was also written in an etymological spelling system, the result being an artificial language which only vaguely resembled Romanian and it provoked laughter, discrediting the Latinist school.
[
]
See also
*Wallachian Revolution of 1848
The Wallachian Revolution of 1848 was a Romanian liberal and nationalist uprising in the Principality of Wallachia. Part of the Revolutions of 1848, and closely connected with the unsuccessful revolt in the Principality of Moldavia, it sought t ...
*Nicolae Bălcescu
Nicolae Bălcescu () (29 June 181929 November 1852) was a Romanian Wallachian soldier, historian, journalist, and leader of the 1848 Wallachian Revolution.
Early life
Born in Bucharest to a family of low-ranking nobility, he used his mother's ...
*Mihail Kogălniceanu
Mihail Kogălniceanu (; also known as Mihail Cogâlniceanu, Michel de Kogalnitchan; September 6, 1817 – July 1, 1891) was a Romanian liberal statesman, lawyer, historian and publicist; he became Prime Minister of Romania on October 11, 1863, ...
Notes
External links
*
Encyclopedia of 1848 Revolutions: August Treboniu Laurian
References
*Lucian Boia
Lucian Boia (born 1 February 1944 in Bucharest) is a Romanian historian. He is mostly known for his debunking of historical myths about Romania, for purging mainstream Romanian history from the deformations due to ideological propaganda. I.e. as ...
, ''History and Myth in Romanian Consciousness'', Budapest: Central European University Press, 2001
{{DEFAULTSORT:Laurian, August Treboniu
1810 births
1881 deaths
19th-century Romanian people
Romanian philologists
Romanian revolutionaries
Presidents of the Romanian Academy
Founding members of the Romanian Academy
Romanian Greek-Catholics
People of the Revolutions of 1848
Romanian people in the Principality of Transylvania (1711–1867)
Austrian Empire emigrants to Romania
People from Sibiu County
Burials at Bellu Cemetery
19th-century Romanian historians