| Dimitrie Cantemir | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Portrait from the first edition of theDescriptio Moldaviae, 1716 | |
| Prince of Moldavia | |
| Reign | March 1693 – April 1693 |
| Predecessor | Constantin Cantemir |
| Successor | Constantin Duca |
| Reign | January 1710 – August 1711 |
| Predecessor | Nicholas Mavrocordatos |
| Successor | Lupu Costachi |
| Born | 26 October 1673 Silișteni (now Dimitrie Cantemir),Vaslui County,Principality of Moldavia |
| Died | 21 August 1723 (aged 49) Dmitrovsk,Oryol Oblast,Russian Empire |
| Burial | |
| Spouse | Casandra Cantacuzino Anastasiya Trubetskaya |
| Issue | Matei Șerban Maria Cantemir Constantin Antiochus Kantemir Ekaterina Golitsyna |
| House | Cantemirești |
| Father | Constantin Cantemir |
Dimitrie orDemetrius[1] Cantemir (Romanian pronunciation:[diˈmitri.ekanteˈmir]ⓘ;Russian:Дмитрий Кантемир,romanized: Dmitry Kantemir; 26 October 1673 – 21 August 1723), also known byother spellings, was aMoldavian prince, statesman, and man of letters.[2][3] He twice served asvoivode of Moldavia (March–April 1693 and 1710–1711). During his second term, he allied his state withRussia in awar against Moldavia'sOttoman overlords; Russia's defeat forcedCantemir's family into exile and the replacement of the nativevoivodes byGreekphanariots. Cantemir was also a prolific writer, variously a:philosopher,historian,composer,musicologist,linguist,ethnographer andgeographer. His son,Antioch, Russia's ambassador toGreat Britain andFrance and a friend ofMontesquieu andVoltaire, would become known as "the father ofRussian poetry".
Dimitrie is theRomanian form of the nameLatinized as Demetrius and, less often,anglicized asDemeter.[1] TheRussian form of his name wasDmitri Konstantinovich Kantemir (Дми́трий Константи́нович Кантеми́р). He is also known asDimitri Kantemiroğlu inTurkish contexts,Dymitr Kantemir inPolish, andDēmētrios Kantimērēs (Δημήτριος Καντιμήρης) inGreek. His surname Cantemir (Kantemir) is of Turkic/Tatar origin, "kan" meaning "blood" and "temir" meaning "iron".[1]
Dimitrie was born inSilişteni,Moldavia (nowVaslui County,Romania) on 26 October 1673[1] toConstantin Cantemir and Ana Bantăș.[4] His mother was a learned daughter of a local noble family. In 1685, Constantin was named voivode of Moldavia by its Turkish overlords.[1]
Although Constantin himself was illiterate, he educated his sons Dimitrie andAntioh thoroughly. Dimitrie learnedGreek andLatin to read theclassics as a child. One of his tutors was the scholarJohn Komnenos Molyvdos. Between 1687 and 1710, Dimitrie spent most of his time as a hostage or envoy inConstantinople, living inthe palace he owned, where he learnedTurkish and studiedOttoman history at thePatriarchate'sGreek Academy.[citation needed] While there, he alsocomposedOttoman music.[5]
Upon Constantin's death in 1693, Dimitrie briefly succeeded him to the voivodeship but was passed over within three weeks in favour ofConstantin Duca, whose candidacy was supported by his father-in-law, theWallachianvoivodeConstantin Brâncoveanu.[6] When his brother Antioh eventually succeeded to the control of Moldavia, Dimitrie served as his envoy to the Porte.[citation needed] During these years, he also served with distinction in the Turkish army on its campaigns.[1]
In 1710, Dimitrie was appointed voivode in his own right. Believing Ottoman Turkey to be collapsing,[1] he placed Moldavia underRussian control through a secret agreement signed atLutsk (Treaty of Lutsk). Then he joinedPeter the Great inhis war against the Turks. This ended in failure atStănilești (18–22 July 1711) and theCantemirs were forced into Russian exile.[7] In 1712, Peter I presentedBogorodskoye District (Black Mud) to the former Moldavian ruler.
He travelled to Russia along with many other noble families, most important and close beingSeptilici family and Abaza, who were also made princely/noble in russian ranks. Dimitrie was made both a Russian prince (knyaz) byPeter and aprince of theHoly Roman Empire byCharles VI. He lived on an estate at Dmitrovka nearOryol, with a sizableboyar retinue (including the chroniclerIon Neculce). There he died on 21 August 1723, on the very day he was awarded his German title. In 1935, his remains were returned toIași.
Cantemir was married twice: to Princess CassandraCantacuzino (1682–1713), daughter of PrinceȘerban Cantacuzino and supposed descendant of theByzantine Kantakouzenoi, in 1699, and to PrincessAnastasiya Trubetskaya (1700–1755) in 1717. Cantemir's children were rather prominent in Russian history. His elder daughterMaria Cantemir (1700–1754) so attracted Peter the Great that he allegedly planned to divorce his wifeCatherine to be with her. Upon Catherine's own ascension to the throne, however, Maria was forced to enter a convent. Cantemir's sonAntioch (1708–1744) was the Russian ambassador at London and Paris, a friend ofVoltaire andMontesquieu, and so influential a poet, satirist, and essayist as to be considered "the father ofRussian poetry". Another son Constantin (1703–1747) was implicated in theGolitsyn conspiracy against the empressAnna and was exiled toSiberia. Dimitrie's younger daughterSmaragda (1720–1761), reckoned one of the great beauties of her time, was the wife of PrinceDmitriy Mikhailovich Golitsyn and a friend of the empressElizabeth.
Cantemir was a polyglot known as one of the greatest linguists of his time, speaking and writing eleven languages. Well-versed in Oriental scholarship, hisoeuvre is voluminous, diverse, and original, although some of his scientific writings contain unconfirmed theories or simple inaccuracies. Between 1711 and 1719 he wrote his most important creations. In 1714,[8] he was named a member of theRoyal Academy of Berlin.
Cantemir's best-known history work was hisHistory of the Growth and Decay of the Ottoman Empire[1] (the original title was inLatin,Historia incrementorum atque decrementorum Aulae Othomanicae[9]). This volume circulated throughoutEurope inmanuscript for a number of years. It was finally printed in 1734 inLondon[10] and was later translated and printed in Germany[11] and France.[12] It remained the seminal work on theOttoman Empire up to the middle of the 19th century; notably, it was used as a reference forEdward Gibbon's ownDecline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Later scholarship contests many points owing to the dubiousness of some of Cantemir's sources.
He also published the first critical history ofRomania as a whole,[1] theChronicle of the Antiquity of the Romano-Moldavo-Wallachians (Hronicul vechimei a romano-moldo-vlahilor), from 1719 to 1722. It asserted theLatin origin of theRomanian language and the Roman origin of the people living within the former land ofDacia.[13]
Cantemir wrote hisDescriptio Moldaviae ("Description of Moldavia" in Latin) in 1714[1] at the request of the Royal Academy in Berlin. Covering geographical, ethnographical, and economic aspects of Moldavia, it was similarly circulated in manuscript and only published much later. It appeared in a German geographical magazine in 1769 and was published as a book in 1771.[14] Hisc. 1714 manuscript map of Moldova was the first real map of the country, containing geographical detail as well as administrative information. Printed in 1737 in theNetherlands, it formed the basis of most European maps of the country for decades.
His 1705roman à clefA Hieroglyphic History[15] was the first Romanian novel, representing the history of the WallachianBrâncoveanu andCantacuzino dynasties throughallegorical andmythological animals.
He also wrote an introduction toIslam for Europeans, a biography ofJan Baptist van Helmont,[16] a philosophical treatise in Romanian and Greek,[17][18][19] and an unfinished second treatise on theUndepictable Image of Sacred Science.[20][21]
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 inParis, next to those ofLeibniz,Newton,Piron, and other great thinkers.
A few of Cantemir's roughly forty Ottoman compositions are still performed today as part of the Turkish repertoire, but his greatest service was in preserving 350 traditional instrumental pieces by publishing them in a musical notation he developed from theOttoman Turkish alphabet in his workEdvar-i Musiki, offered as a present toSultan Ahmed III in 1703 or 1704 and recently reprinted with modern explanations.[22]
In 1999, theBezmara ensemble recordedYitik Sesin Peşinde ("In Search of the Lost Sound") from the Cantemir transcriptions using period instruments.[23] His compositions, those of his European contemporaries and Moldavian folk music of the period were explored onCantemir (Golden Horn Records, 2000) performed byİhsan Özgen and the Lux Musica ensemble underLinda Burman-Hall's direction.[24] Seven of Cantemir's compositions were also featured onHespèrion XXI's 2009Istanbul, under the direction ofJordi Savall, with focus on Cantemir's “Book of the Science of Music”.[25]
One of the houses inhabited by Dimitrie Cantemir during his exile in Constantinople was restored and opened as a museum in 2007.[26] It lies in theFener quarter ofthe walled city betweenPhanar College and theGolden Horn.
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| Preceded by | Prince/Voivode of Moldavia 1693 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Prince/Voivode of Moldavia 1710–1711 | Succeeded by |
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