Damaschin Bojincă (1802–1869) was an Imperial Austrian-born

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 ...

writer and lawyer. He is credited, among other things, with the introduction of numerous loanwords in Romanian, of which about 260 remained in the language.

Early life

Born into an

ethnic Romanian Romanians (, ; dated exonym ''Vlachs'') are a Romance-speaking ethnic group and nation native to Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. Sharing a common culture and ancestry, they speak the Romanian language and live primarily in Roma ...

family in

Gârliște The Gârliște is a left tributary of the river Caraș (''Karaš'') in Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and e ...

Caraș-Severin County Caraș-Severin () is a county ( județ) of Romania on the border with Serbia. The majority of its territory lies within the historical region of Banat, with a few northeastern villages considered part of Transylvania. The county seat is Reșița ...

, he attended primary school in

Oravița Oravița (; ; ; ; sh-Latn-Cyrl, Oravica, separator=/, Оравица) is a town in the Banat region of Romania, in Caraș-Severin County, with a population of 9,346 in 2021. Its theater is a fully functional scaled down version of the old Burgth ...

and

Vršac Vršac ( sr-Cyrl, Вршац, ) is a city in the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. As of 2022, the city urban area had a population of 31,946, while the city administrative area had 45,462 inhabitants. It is located in the geographical ...

(''Vârșeț''), finishing high school in

Timișoara Timișoara (, , ; , also or ; ; ; see #Etymology, other names) is the capital city of Timiș County, Banat, and the main economic, social and cultural center in Western Romania. Located on the Bega (Tisza), Bega River, Timișoara is consider ...

. Entering the Vršac theological seminary, he soon left the institution, preferring to study philosophy and later law in Timișoara,

Oradea Oradea (, , ; ; ) is a city in Romania, located in the Crișana region. It serves as the administrative county seat, seat of Bihor County and an economic, social, and cultural hub in northwestern Romania. The city lies between rolling hills on ...

and

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

Professional career

After receiving his law degree in 1824 and taking up work as a lawyer, he also began a cultural activity, working as an editor at '' Biblioteca românească'' in

Buda Buda (, ) is the part of Budapest, the capital city of Hungary, that lies on the western bank of the Danube. Historically, “Buda” referred only to the royal walled city on Castle Hill (), which was constructed by Béla IV between 1247 and ...

under Zaharia Carcalechi. His preferred subjects were philology and history, in the latter field publishing '' Istoria românilor'' (''The History of the Romanians''), '' Istorie a lumii pe scurt'' (''Short History of the World''), and studies of rulers such as

Dimitrie Cantemir Dimitrie or Demetrius; Cantemir (; ; 26 October 1673 – 21 August 1723), also known by other spellings, was a Moldavian prince, statesman, and man of letters. He twice served as voivode of Moldavia (March–April 1693 and 1710–1711). Durin ...

Radu Șerban Radu Șerban (? – 23 March 1620) was a Wallachian nobleman who reigned as the principality's ''voivode'' during two periods from 1602 to 1610 and during 1611. Biography A supposed descendant of Neagoe Basarab, he attained high office during ...

and

Michael the Brave Michael the Brave ( or ; 1558 – 9 August 1601), born as Mihai Pătrașcu, was the Prince of Wallachia (as Michael II, 1593–1601), Prince of Moldavia (1600) and ''de facto'' ruler of Principality of Transylvania (1570–1711), Transylvani ...

. He also entered in polemics with historian Sava Tököly regarding the origin of Romanians, publishing in Latin ''Animadversio in Dissertationem Hallensem'' in 1827, then in Romanian in 1828 ''Respundere desgurzătoare la cârtirea cea în Halle în anul 1823 făcută'' which were meant to combat Tököly's arguments in ''Erweis, daß die Walachen nicht römischer Abkunft sind, und dieß nicht aus ihrer Italienisch-Slavischen Sprache folgt'' (''Proof that the Wallachians are not of Roman descent, and this does not follow from their Italo-Slavic language''). The work to which he devoted the most time, that he considered his most important and that essentially capped his career in

historiography Historiography is the study of the methods used by historians in developing history as an academic discipline. By extension, the term ":wikt:historiography, historiography" is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiog ...

was the 1832-1833 ''Anticile romanilor'' (''Antiquities of the Romans''). Moving to

Moldavia Moldavia (, or ; in Romanian Cyrillic alphabet, Romanian Cyrillic: or ) is a historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester River. An initially in ...

in 1833, he remained there for the rest of his life, working as a jurisconsult. In 1834 he published ''Învățătura legilor împărătești'', one of his main contribution to Romanian law. He was also rector of

Iași Iași ( , , ; also known by other #Etymology and names, alternative names), also referred to mostly historically as Jassy ( , ), is the Cities in Romania, third largest city in Romania and the seat of Iași County. Located in the historical ...

Socola Monastery Socola Monastery or ''Schimbarea la Față'' (" Transfiguration") was a Romanian Orthodox establishment located in the eponymous quarter of southern Iaşi, Romania. Founded during Moldavia's existence as a state, it was erected and dedicated by ...

seminary and, since 1842, professor of civil law,

Roman law Roman law is the law, legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (), to the (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor Justinian I. Roman law also den ...

and Moldavian law at

Academia Mihăileană was an institution of higher learning based in Iași, Moldavia, and active in the first part of the 19th century. Like other Eastern European institutions of its kind, it was both a high school and a higher learning institute, housing several fa ...

. In 1860–1861, during the

United Principalities The United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia (), commonly called United Principalities or Wallachia and Moldavia, was the personal union of the Moldavia, Principality of Moldavia and the Wallachia, Principality of Wallachia. The union was ...

period, he served as Justice Minister at

.Ionel Maftei, ''Personalități ieșene'', p.69. Comitetul de cultură și educație socialistă al județului Iași, 1972

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bojinca, Damaschin 1802 births 1869 deaths People from Caraș-Severin County Immigrants to the Principality of Moldavia Emigrants from the Austrian Empire Writers from the Principality of Moldavia Romanians in Hungary Romanian jurists 19th-century Romanian historians Romanian schoolteachers Government ministers of the Principality of Moldavia Members of the Romanian Orthodox Church Transylvanian School 19th-century Moldavian people