Ienăchiță Văcărescu (; 1740 – 11 July 1797) was a

Wallachia Wallachia or Walachia (; ro, Țara Românească, lit=The Romanian Land' or 'The Romanian Country, ; archaic: ', Romanian Cyrillic alphabet: ) is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and s ...

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 ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...

, historian, philologist, and boyar belonging to the Văcărescu family. A

polyglot Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all Eu ...

, he was able to speak

Ancient Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history cov ...

and

Modern Greek Modern Greek (, , or , ''Kiní Neoellinikí Glóssa''), generally referred to by speakers simply as Greek (, ), refers collectively to the dialects of the Greek language spoken in the modern era, including the official standardized form of the ...

, Old Church Slavonic,

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

, French,

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

, 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 on

Greek grammar Greek grammar may refer to: *Ancient Greek grammar *Koine Greek grammar *Modern Greek grammar The grammar of Modern Greek, as spoken in present-day Greece and Cyprus, is essentially that of Demotic Greek, but it has also assimilated certain elem ...

(''Gramatica greacă completă''). Văcărescu's lyrical works take inspiration from both

Anacreon Anacreon (; grc-gre, Ἀνακρέων ὁ Τήϊος; BC) was a Greek lyric poet, notable for his drinking songs and erotic poems. Later Greeks included him in the canonical list of Nine Lyric Poets. Anacreon wrote all of his poetry in the ...

and

folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...

, and center on

romantic love Romance or romantic love is a feeling of love for, or a strong attraction towards another person, and the courtship behaviors undertaken by an individual to express those overall feelings and resultant emotions. The ''Wiley Blackwell Ency ...

. The best-known poems he left behind are ''Amărâta turturea'' ("Embittered Turtle 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 A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. T ...

Alexander Ypsilantis Alexandros Ypsilantis ( el, Αλέξανδρος Υψηλάντης, Aléxandros Ypsilántis, ; ro, Alexandru Ipsilanti; russian: Александр Константинович Ипсиланти, Aleksandr Konstantinovich Ipsilanti; 12 Dece ...

to return after their 1782 flight to

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

; he met and conversed with

Emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

Joseph II Joseph II (German: Josef Benedikt Anton Michael Adam; English: ''Joseph Benedict Anthony Michael Adam''; 13 March 1741 – 20 February 1790) was Holy Roman Emperor from August 1765 and sole ruler of the Habsburg lands from November 29, 1780 un ...

, and also befriended the French ambassador, Baron de Breteuil. His impressive knowledge of Italian was the subject of a 1929 study by historian

Nicolae Iorga Nicolae Iorga (; sometimes Neculai Iorga, Nicolas Jorga, Nicolai Jorga or Nicola Jorga, born Nicu N. Iorga;Iova, p. xxvii. 17 January 1871 – 27 November 1940) was a Romanian historian, politician, literary critic, memoirist, Albanologist, poet ...

, ''De unde a învăţat italieneşte Ienăchiţă Văcărescu'' ("Where Has Ienăchiţă Văcărescu Learned His Italian From?").

References

Neagu Djuvara Neagu Bunea Djuvara (; 18 August 1916 – 25 January 2018) was a Romanian historian, essayist, philosopher, journalist, novelist, and diplomat. Biography Early life A native of Bucharest, he was descended from an aristocratic Aromanian family ...

, ''Între Orient şi Occident. Ţările române la începutul epocii moderne'', Humanitas, Bucharest, 1995, p. 345 {{DEFAULTSORT:Vacarescu, Ienachita 1740 births 1797 deaths Romanian diplomats 18th-century Romanian historians Linguists from Romania 18th-century Romanian poets Romanian male poets Burials at Bellu Cemetery Ienachita 18th-century male writers