Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu ( 26 February 1838 – )
[ was a ]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 ...
n writer and philologist, who pioneered many branches of Romanian philology
Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...
and history.
Life
He was born Tadeu Hâjdeu in Cristineștii Hotinului (now Kerstentsi in Chernivtsi Oblast
Chernivtsi Oblast ( uk, Черніве́цька о́бласть, Chernivetska oblast), also referred to as Chernivechchyna ( uk, Чернівеччина) is an oblast (province) in Western Ukraine, consisting of the northern parts of the regio ...
, Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
), northern Bessarabia
Bessarabia (; Gagauz: ''Besarabiya''; Romanian: ''Basarabia''; Ukrainian: ''Бессара́бія'') is a historical region in Eastern Europe, bounded by the Dniester river on the east and the Prut river on the west. About two thirds of Be ...
, at the time part of Imperial Russia
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...
.[ His father was the writer ]Alexandru Hâjdeu
Alexandru Hâjdeu or Alexander Faddeevich Hizhdeu (russian: Алекса́ндр Фадде́евич Хижде́у; 30 November 1811 – 9 November 1872) was a Russian Imperial writer of Romanian descent, who lived in Bessarabia, now Moldova. ...
, a descendant of the Hâjdău family of Moldovan boyars, with noted Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...
connections.
After studying law at the University
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...
of Kharkiv
Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.[hussar
A hussar ( , ; hu, huszár, pl, husarz, sh, husar / ) was a member of a class of light cavalry, originating in Central Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries. The title and distinctive dress of these horsemen were subsequently widely ...]
in the Crimean War
The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia.
Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...
. In 1858 he settled in Iași
Iași ( , , ; also known by other alternative names), also referred to mostly historically as Jassy ( , ), is the second largest city in Romania and the seat of Iași County. Located in the historical region of Moldavia, it has traditionally ...
as a high school teacher and librarian. In 1865, Hasdeu published a monograph
A monograph is a specialist work of writing (in contrast to reference works) or exhibition on a single subject or an aspect of a subject, often by a single author or artist, and usually on a scholarly subject.
In library cataloging, ''monograph ...
on Ioan Vodă the Terrible, renaming him for the first time ''cel Viteaz''—"the Brave". The portrayal of this violent, short rule as a glorious moment (and of Ioan himself as a reformer) drew criticism from the ''Junimea
''Junimea'' was a Romanian literary society founded in Iași in 1863, through the initiative of several foreign-educated personalities led by Titu Maiorescu, Petre P. Carp, Vasile Pogor, Theodor Rosetti and Iacob Negruzzi. The foremost personali ...
'' society, a conflict which was to follow Hasdeu for the rest of his life. Still, Hasdeu's version of Ioan's character and his anti-boyar
A boyar or bolyar was a member of the highest rank of the Feudalism, feudal nobility in many Eastern European states, including Kievan Rus', Bulgarian Empire, Bulgaria, Russian nobility, Russia, Boyars of Moldavia and Wallachia, Wallachia and ...
actions were to be reclaimed as a founding myth by Communist Romania
The Socialist Republic of Romania ( ro, Republica Socialistă România, RSR) was a Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist One-party state, one-party socialist state that existed officially in Romania from 1947 to 1989. From 1947 to 1965, the s ...
.
In 1863, Hasdeu again moved his residence, from Iași to Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...
; he began editing the satirical
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...
magazine ''Aghiuță'', which ceased publication the following year.
Scientific works
In Romania, Hasdeu started work on the ''Arhiva historică a României'' (1865-1867), the first history work to use sources in Slavonic and 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, tradition ...
. He also published the 1870 philological review ''Columna lui Traian'', the best at the time in Romania. With the work ''Cuvente dân Batrâni'' (2 volumes, 1878-1881), he was the first to contribute to the history of apocryphal literature in Romania.
His ''Istoria critică a Românilor'' (1875), though incomplete, marks the beginning of critical investigation into the history of Romania. Hasdeu edited the ancient ''Psalter of Coresi
Coresi (also known as diaconul coresi)d. 1583, Brașov) was a Romanian printer of the sixteenth century. He was the editor of some of the earliest printed books in the Romanian language.
Biography
Coresi first became active at Târgoviște, but th ...
'' of 1577 (''Psaltirea lui Coresi'', 1881).
His ''Etymologicum magnum Romaniae'' (1886) was the beginning of an encyclopaedic dictionary of the Romanian language, though he never covered letters after ''B''. While the completed parts of the work do aim to be exhaustive, and are remarkably detailed, many of its entries reflect more of Hasdeu's own vision than historical facts (in one famous entry, he claims to be able to trace Basarab I
Basarab I (), also known as Basarab the Founder ( ro, Basarab Întemeietorul; c. 1270 – 1351/1352), was a ''voivode'' and later the first independent ruler of Wallachia who lived in the first half of the . Many details of his life are uncerta ...
's ancestry in a direct line to the Dacia
Dacia (, ; ) was the land inhabited by the Dacians, its core in Transylvania, stretching to the Danube in the south, the Black Sea in the east, and the Tisza in the west. The Carpathian Mountains were located in the middle of Dacia. It thus r ...
n rulers, with Dacia as a developed state that would have had, at times, dominated the Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...
—to the point where the single ruling family would have given Rome a large number of emperors).
Hasdeu got involved in the dispute over the Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
origin of the Romanian language. Being challenged by numerous arguments which pointed to the central position occupied by words of Slavic origin in 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 ...
, Hasdeu developed an influential verdict, deemed ''the theory of words' circulation''. The conclusion he reached was that Slavic words were never as widely used as Latin ones, with usage giving the language its character.
In 1876 he was appointed head of the State Archives
State may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State
* ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States
* ''Our S ...
in Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...
, and in 1878 professor of philology at the University of Bucharest
The University of Bucharest ( ro, Universitatea din București), commonly known after its abbreviation UB in Romania, is a public university founded in its current form on by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princel ...
. In 1877, Hasdeu was elected as a titular member 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 ...
, and in 1883 he became a foreign member of the Russian Academy of Sciences
The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across t ...
,[
]
Other activities
Hasdeu was a politician often at odds with the Romanian establishment. For example, he was placed under arrest for a nine-day interval after Captain Alexandru Candiano-Popescu's " Republic of Ploiești" conspiracy (1870). Although he had been a staunch defender of the deposed Alexandru Ioan Cuza
Alexandru Ioan Cuza (, or Alexandru Ioan I, also anglicised as Alexander John Cuza; 20 March 1820 – 15 May 1873) was the first ''domnitor'' (Ruler) of the Romanian Principalities through his double election as prince of Moldavia on 5 Januar ...
, he eventually backed the movement against him (led by 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, ...
), and was not opposed to the new ''Domnitor
''Domnitor'' (Romanian pl. ''Domnitori'') was the official title of the ruler of Romania between 1862 and 1881. It was usually translated as "prince" in other languages and less often as "grand duke". Derived from the Romanian word "''domn''" ...
'' (future King of Romania
The King of Romania (Romanian: ''Regele României'') or King of the Romanians (Romanian: ''Regele Românilor''), was the title of the monarch of the Kingdom of Romania from 1881 until 1947, when the Romanian Workers' Party proclaimed the Romanian ...
) Carol I
Carol I or Charles I of Romania (20 April 1839 – ), born Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, was the monarch of Romania from 1866 to his death in 1914, ruling as Prince (''Domnitor'') from 1866 to 1881, and as King from 1881 to 1914. He w ...
.
However, Hasdeu was a Liberal Party
The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left.
__TOC__ Active liberal parties
This is a li ...
activist (he was elected to Parliament on its list for two non-consecutive terms), and close to its most radical, republican wing—the one led by C. A. Rosetti. As the republican experiment coincided with worsened relations between Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
Ion Brătianu
An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge.
The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by conven ...
and Carol, all Liberal Party members became suspect of involvement. Together with several Party leaders, Hasdeu was tried and acquitted.
Last years and death
After the death of his only child, his daughter Iulia, in 1888, he became a spiritualist and a firm adept of the spiritism
Spiritism (French: ''spiritisme''; Portuguese: ''espiritismo'') is a spiritualist, religious, and philosophical doctrine established in France in the 1850s by the French teacher, educational writer, and translator Hippolyte Léon Denizard Riva ...
. He retreated to a Câmpina
Câmpina () is a municipiu, city in Prahova County, Romania, north of the county seat Ploiești, located on the main route between Wallachia and Transylvania. Its existence is first attested in a document of 1503. It is situated in the historical r ...
mansion, and arranged it as a temple to his newly found beliefs and to his daughter. He died there and was buried in Bellu cemetery
Șerban Vodă Cemetery (commonly known as Bellu Cemetery) is the largest and most famous cemetery in Bucharest, Romania.
It is located on a plot of land donated to the local administration by Baron Barbu Bellu. It has been in use since 1858. T ...
, Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...
.
His works include two dramas, '' Răsvan și Vidra'' (romanticizing the actions of an obscure 1590s Moldavian-Romani
Romani may refer to:
Ethnicities
* Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia
** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule
* Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...
Voivode
Voivode (, also spelled ''voievod'', ''voevod'', ''voivoda'', ''vojvoda'' or ''wojewoda'') is a title denoting a military leader or warlord in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe since the Early Middle Ages. It primarily referred to the me ...
, Ștefan Răzvan
Ștefan Răzvan (died December 1595) was a Voivode (Prince) of Moldavia (between 24 April 1595 and August 1595) of Romani descent from the historical state of Wallachia.
Biography
The father of Ștefan Răzvan was a Muslim Roma from the Ottoman ...
), and ''Domnița Ruxandra''. In 1891-92, he wrote ''Sic Cogito'', a theoretical work of spiritism as a philosophy. In addition to his interest in science, Hasdeu was the author of many poems, usually short ones. The Romanian critic Mircea Eliade
Mircea Eliade (; – April 22, 1986) was a Romanians, Romanian History of religion, historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. He was a leading interpreter of religious experience, who establ ...
described him as a "genius of an amazing vastness".The B. P. Hasdeu Memorial House
Note on his name
''Hasdeu'' is pronounced as if spelled with the Romanian version of '' ș'' (''Hașdeu''); Hasdeu never spelled it with any diacritic (most likely because the Romanian alphabet
The Romanian alphabet is a variant of the Latin alphabet used for writing the Romanian language. It is a modification of the classical Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used b ...
appeared and went through several major changes during his lifetime).
Although many times taken for a first surname, ''Petriceicu'' is in fact his second name. The confusion can be ascribed to the name's uniqueness, and to the misguided assumption that ''cu'' is the same as the extremely common suffix for Romanian family names. The name was chosen by the writer himself, and it reflected the Hasdeu family claim to have descended from 17th century Moldavian ruler Ștefan Petriceicu.
See also
*Protochronism
Dacianism is a Romanian term describing the tendency to ascribe, largely relying on questionable data and subjective interpretation, an idealized past to the country as a whole. While particularly prevalent during the regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu ...
References
External links
Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu Memorial Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hasdeu, Bogdan Petriceicu
1838 births
1907 deaths
People from Chernivtsi Oblast
People from Khotinsky Uyezd
National Liberal Party (Romania) politicians
Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Romania)
Romanian philologists
Romanian dramatists and playwrights
Romanian essayists
19th-century Romanian historians
Linguists from Romania
Romanian magazine editors
Romanian magazine founders
Romanian opinion journalists
Romanian schoolteachers
Romanian esotericists
New religious movements
Spiritism
National University of Kharkiv alumni
University of Bucharest faculty
Titular members of the Romanian Academy
Corresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences
19th-century Romanian dramatists and playwrights