Iancu Văcărescu (1786–1863) was a

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 ...

Wallachia Wallachia or Walachia (; ; : , : ) is a historical and geographical region of modern-day Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians. Wallachia was traditionally divided into two sections, Munteni ...

boyar A boyar or bolyar was a member of the highest rank of the feudal nobility in many Eastern European states, including Bulgaria, Kievan Rus' (and later Russia), Moldavia and Wallachia (and later Romania), Lithuania and among Baltic Germans. C ...

and poet, member of the

Văcărescu family The House of Văcărescu was a boyar family of Phanariote Greek descent in Wallachia (now part of Romania). * Read online: The family produced the first poets in Romanian literature. Notable members * Ianache Văcărescu (1654–1714) grand ...

Biography

The son of

Alecu Văcărescu Alecu Văcărescu (1769–1798) was a Romanian Wallachian boyar and poet. Son of Ienăchiță Văcărescu, he was a member of the Văcărescu family that gave Romanian literature its first poets. In 1796 a collection of his poems appeared in Ro ...

, descending from a long line of Wallachian men of letters — his paternal uncle,

Ienăchiță Văcărescu Ienăchiță Văcărescu (; 1740 – 11 July 1797) was a Wallachian Romanian poet, historian, philologist, and boyar belonging to the Văcărescu family. A polyglot, he was able to speak Ancient and Modern Greek, Old Church Slavonic, Arabic, Pe ...

, was author of the first

Romanian grammar Standard Romanian (i.e. the '' Daco-Romanian'' language within Eastern Romance) shares largely the same grammar and most of the vocabulary and phonological processes with the other three surviving varieties of Eastern Romance, namely Aromanian, ...

; Iancu was the grandfather of writer

Elena Văcărescu Elena Văcărescu, or Hélène Vacaresco (September 21, 1864 in Bucharest – February 17, 1947 in Paris), was a Romanian- French aristocrat writer, twice a laureate of the Académie Française. Life Through her father, Ioan Văcărescu, she d ...

. He received a quality education not only in

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

(the preferred language of teaching in Wallachia at the time), but also in

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

and

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

, and was well versed in

Western literature Western literature, also known as European literature, is the literature written in the context of Western culture in the languages of Europe, and is shaped by the periods in which they were conceived, with each period containing prominent weste ...

. A

patriot A patriot is a person with the quality of patriotism. Patriot(s) or The Patriot(s) may also refer to: Political and military groups United States * Patriot (American Revolution), those who supported the cause of independence in the American R ...

during the Phanariote epoch, he sided with the national movement in 1821 (around

Tudor Vladimirescu Tudor Vladimirescu (; c. 1780 – ) was a Romanian revolutionary hero, the leader of the Wallachian uprising of 1821 and of the Pandur militia. He is also known as Tudor din Vladimiri (''Tudor from Vladimiri'') or, occasionally, as Domnul Tudor ...

's Wallachian Uprising), and assisted in establishing the Romanian theatre, translating many books and plays from German and French into Romanian, notably the ''

Britannicus Tiberius Claudius Caesar Britannicus (12 February AD 41 – 11 February AD 55), usually called Britannicus, was the son of Roman Emperor Claudius and his third wife, Valeria Messalina. For a time, he was considered his father's heir, but t ...

'' of Racine, a literary event of no small importance at the time. He inaugurated modern Romanian poetry. During the debates in the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

over the drafting of an

organic law An organic law is a law, or system of laws, that form the foundation of a government, corporation or any other organization's body of rules. A constitution is a particular form of organic law. By country France Under Article 46 of the Constitutio ...

for the

Danubian Principalities The Danubian Principalities (, ) was a conventional name given to the Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, which emerged in the early 14th century. The term was coined in the Habsburg monarchy after the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca (1774) ...

(''see

Regulamentul Organic ''Regulamentul Organic'' (, ; ; )The name also has plural versions in all languages concerned, referring to the dual nature of the document; however, the singular version is usually preferred. The text was originally written in French, submitt ...

''), Văcărescu spoke out against

Imperial Russia Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor/empress, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * ...

n overseeing, and was placed under arrest before being

exile Exile or banishment is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons ...

d for the following years.Djuvara, p.323 Văcărescu was also one of the founders of the modern Romanian school system. He wrote

philosophical Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

poems, and ballads that found their inspiration in

folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...

. The first volume of verse he published was in 1830. Before the

1848 Wallachian revolution 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 sough ...

, he presided a

literary society A literary society is a group of people interested in literature. In the modern sense, this refers to a society that wants to promote one genre of writing or a specific author. Modern literary societies typically promote research, publish newslet ...

(''Societatea Literară'') which served as a front for the

radical Radical (from Latin: ', root) may refer to: Politics and ideology Politics *Classical radicalism, the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and Latin America in the 19th century *Radical politics ...

secret association ''Frăţia''. Văcărescu died in 1863.

Published books

* ''Poezii alese'' (1830) * ''Colecţie din poeziile domnului marelui logofăt Iancu Văcărescu'' (1848)

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 famil ...

, ''Între Orient şi Occident. Ţările române la începutul epocii moderne'', Humanitas, Bucharest, 1995 {{DEFAULTSORT:Vacarescu, Iancu Iancu Vacarescu Iancu Vacarescu 19th-century male writers 19th-century Romanian poets Romanian male poets Romanian schoolteachers Romanian translators Logothetes of Wallachia Iancu Organizers of the Wallachian Revolution of 1848 Burials at Bellu Cemetery 19th-century translators