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Dimitrie Cantemir
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Dimitrie Cantemir (October 26 1673 – August 21 1723) was twice Prince of Moldavia (in March-April 1693 and in 1710–1711). He was also a prolific man of letters – philosopher, historian, composer, musicologist, linguist, ethnographer, and geographer.
His name is spelled Dimitrie Cantemir in Romanian, Dmitri Konstantinovich Kantemir (??????? ?????????????? ????????) in Russian, Dimitri Kantemiroglu in Turkish, Dymitr Kantemir in Polish and Demetre Cantemir in several other languages.
Life and family
Born in Silisteni (renamed Dimitrie Cantemir and now located in Vaslui County, Romania), Dimitrie was the son of Moldavian Voivode Constantin Cantemir (and brother to Antioh Cantemir, himself Prince), of the low-ranking boyar Cantemiresti family.
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Dimitrie Cantemir (October 26 1673 – August 21 1723) was twice Prince of Moldavia (in March-April 1693 and in 1710–1711). He was also a prolific man of letters – philosopher, historian, composer, musicologist, linguist, ethnographer, and geographer.
His name is spelled Dimitrie Cantemir in Romanian, Dmitri Konstantinovich Kantemir (??????? ?????????????? ????????) in Russian, Dimitri Kantemiroglu in Turkish, Dymitr Kantemir in Polish and Demetre Cantemir in several other languages.
Life and family
Born in Silisteni (renamed Dimitrie Cantemir and now located in Vaslui County, Romania), Dimitrie was the son of Moldavian Voivode Constantin Cantemir (and brother to Antioh Cantemir, himself Prince), of the low-ranking boyar Cantemiresti family. His mother, Ana Bantas, was a learned woman of noble origins. (Cantemir never forged his paternal ancestry, but while in Constantinopol because of his name similarity locals inspired him to pretended to descend from Khan Temir, an early 17th century khan of the Budjak Tatars – see Moldavian Magnate Wars' on some occasions'.)
His education began at home, where he learned Greek and Latin and acquired a profound knowledge of the classics. Between 1687 and 1710 he lived in forced exile in Istanbul, where he learned Turkish and studied the history of the Ottoman Empire at the Patriarchate's Greek Academy, where he also composed music.
In 1693, he succeeded his father as Prince of Moldavia – in name only, as the Ottomans appointed Constantin Duca, favoured by Wallachian Prince and, despite many shared goals, forever rival of the Cantemirs Constantin Brâncoveanu; his bid for the throne was successful only in 1710, after two rules by his brother (whom he represented as envoy in the Ottoman capital). He had ruled only for less than a year when he joined Peter the Great in his campaign against the Ottoman Empire (see Russo-Turkish War, 1710–1711) and placed Moldavia under Russian suzerainty, after a secret agreement signed in Lutsk.
Defeated by the Turks in the battle of Stanilesti (July 18–July 22, 1711), Cantemir sought refuge in Russia, where he and his family finally settled (he was accompanied by a sizeable boyar retinue, including the chronicler Ioan Neculce). There, he was awarded the title of Knyaz (Prince) of the Russian Empire by Peter the Great and received the title of Reichsfürst (Prince) of the Holy Roman Empire from Charles VI. He died at his Dmitrovka estate near Oryol in 1723 (on the very day he was awarded the Roman-German princely title). In 1935, his remains were carried to Iasi.
He was married twice: in 1699, to Kassandra Cantacuzene (1682–1713), member of the Cantacuzino family (the daughter of Prince Serban Cantacuzino), and in 1717 to Anastasia Trubetskaya (1700–1755; from the Trubetskoy house).
Cantemir's children were rather prominent in Russian history. His elder daughter Maria (1700–1754) attracted the attention of Peter the Great who allegedly planned to divorce his wife Catherine and marry her. Upon Catherine's ascension to the throne, she was forced to enter a convent. His son Antioh Cantemir (Antiokh Dmitrievich in Russian) (1708–1744) was also the Russian ambassador to London and Paris, a prominent satirical poet, and Voltaire's friend. Another son, Constantin (Konstantin Dmitrievich; 1703–1747), was implicated in the Galitzine conspiracy against Empress Anne and exiled to Siberia. Finally, Dimitrie's younger daughter Smaragda (1720–1761), the wife of Prince Dmitriy Mikhailovich Galitzine, was a friend of Empress Elizabeth and one of the great beauties of her time.
Works
History, geography, philosophy and linguistics
In 1714 Cantemir became a member of the Royal Academy of Berlin. Between 1711 and 1719 he wrote his most important creations. Cantemir was known as one of the greatest linguists of his time, speaking and writing eleven languages, and being well versed in Oriental scholarship. His oeuvre is voluminous, diverse, and original; although some of his scientific writings contain unconfirmed theories and inaccuracies, his expertise, sagacity, and groundbreaking researches are widely acknowledged.
The best known is his History of the Growth and Decay of the Ottoman Empire. This volume circulated throughout Europe in manuscript for a number of years. It was finally printed in 1734 in London, and later it was translated and printed in Germany and France. It remained the seminal work on the Ottoman Empire up to the middle of the 19th century – notably, it was used as reference by Edward Gibbon for his The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Afterwards, the work was largely contested, for some of its sources were doubtful.
In 1714, at the request of the Royal Academy in Berlin, Cantemir wrote the first geographical, ethnographical and economic description of Moldavia, Descriptio Moldaviae. As many of his books it circulated first in manuscript and was only later published in Germany (first in 1769 in a geographical magazine, and then in 1771 the first edition as a book). Around the same time he prepared a manuscript map of Moldavia, the first real map of the country. It contained a lot of geographical detail as well as administrative information. Printed in 1737 in the Netherlands, it has been used by all cartographers of the time as an inspiration for their own maps of Moldavia.
Other writings:
- A history of Oriental music, which is no longer extant.
- The first critical history of Romania as a whole, under the name of
Hronicul vechimii a romano-moldo-valahilor – aprox. "Chronicle of the durability of Romans-Moldavians-Wallachians" (1719–1722).
- The first Romanian language novel, the cryptic
Historia Hieroglyphica (1705), to which he furnished a key, and in which the principal persons are represented by mythological beasts; it is the history of the two Wallachian ruling houses of Brâncoveanu and Cantacuzino.
Divanul sau Gâlceava Înteleptului cu lumea sau Giudetul sufletului cu trupul (Iasi, 1698) – Le divan ou la dispute du sage avec le monde ou le jugement de l'âme avec le corps in French ("The Divan or The Wise Man's Parley with the World or The Judgement of the Soul with the Body").
- An unfinished second treatise (Istanbul, 1700),
Sacrosantae scientiae indepingibilis imagio or Imaginea stiintei sacre, care nu se poate zugravi ("The Image of the Sacred, Undepictable Science").
Due to his many esteemed works he won great renown at the high courts of Europe. His name is among those who were considered to be the brightest minds of the world on a plaque at the Library of Sainte-Genevieve in Paris, next to those of Leibnitz, Newton, Piron, and other great thinkers.
Musicology
A well-trained performer and composer of Ottoman music, Cantemir was also one of the most remarkable theoricians it had. His book, Kitâbu 'Ilmi'l-Műsikí alâ Vechi'l-Hurűfât (Ottoman Turkish for "The Book of the Science of Music through Letters") which he presented to Sultan Ahmed II in 1693, not only deals with melodic and rhythmic structure and practice of Ottoman music, but also contains the scores for works composed during and before the time of the author, as well as his own, in an alphabetical notation system he invented. For some of the works, the scores presented in this book are the only surviving source and would have been lost otherwise.
“During his stay at Constantinople, he studied the Turkish language and music, in which he afterwords excelled to such a degree, that he was the first introducer of musical notes among the Turks, and composed several pieces of music…” (The Life of Demetrius Cantemir Prince of Moldavia // Demetrie Cantemir Historian of South East European and Oriental Civilization. Bucharest, 1973). Some of the works are part of the regular repertory of Turkish music ensembles. In 1999, the Bezmara ensemble have recorded an album, Yitik Sesin Pesinde ("In Search of the Lost Sound") from the Cantemir transcriptions using period instruments.
The most recent publication of his abovementioned work, reprint along with complete transcription and explanations, is: Kantemiroglu, Kitâbu 'Ilmi'l-Műsiki alâ Vechi'l-Hurűfât, Műsikiyi Harflerle Tesbit ve Icrâ Ilminin Kitabi, Yalçin Tura, Yapi Kredi Yayinlari, Istanbul 2001, ISBN 975-08-0167-9. Romanian historian and musicologist Eugenia Popescu-Judetz has numerous works on Cantemir, the most recent of which being a monograph (in English, also translated into Turkish): Prince Dimitrie Cantemir, Theorist and Composer of Turkish Music, Eugenia Popescu-Judetz, Pan Yayincilik, Istanbul 1999, ISBN 975-7652-82-2.
External links
Works
Descriptio Moldaviae at Latin Wikisource
Istoria ieroglifica at Romanian Wikisource
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