Constantin Cantacuzino (stolnic)

Constantin Cantacuzino on a 2000 Romanian stamp

Constantin Cantacuzino (c. 1650 – Constantinople, 7 June 1716)[1] was a Romanian nobleman and historian who held high offices in the Principality of Wallachia. In his History of Wallachia, he "accepted a Daco-Roman mixing" (Lucian Boia)[2] in connection with the origin of the Romanians. Promoter of an anti-Ottoman policy, he was executed together with his son.

Life

Constantin Cantacuzino was born in a boyar family of Greek origin.[1] He started his studies in Constantinople in 1665.[1] He also studied in the University of Padua.[1] He collected a notable collection of books on various subjects.[1][3] He was a humanist scholar who drew the first local map of Wallachia in 1700, and started to write a History of Wallachia which remained unfinished.[1]

Appointed stolnic ("High Steward"), he became one of the closest advisors of his nephew, Constantin Brâncoveanu, the prince of Wallachia between 1688 and 1714.[4] He promoted an anti-Ottoman policy aiming at the liberation of the Christian peoples of Southeastern Europe.[1][5]

His views on the origin of the Romanians were widely accepted after Dionisie Fotino published his own History of Old Dacia in 1818 which also refer to the "crosbreeding" of Dacians and Romans.[6]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Treptow, Popa 1996, p. 60.
  2. ↑ Boia 2001, p. 85.
  3. ↑ Georgescu 1991, p. 65.
  4. ↑ Treptow, Popa 1996, pp. 47., 60., 192.
  5. ↑ Georgescu 1991, p. 57.
  6. ↑ Georgescu 1991, p. 116.

Sources

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Constantin Cantacuzino (stolnic).
  • Boia, Lucian (2001). History and Myth in Romanian Consciousness (Translated by James Christian Brown). CEU Press. ISBN 963-9116-96-3.
  • Georgescu, Vlad (1991). The Romanians: A History. Ohio State University Press. ISBN 0-8142-0511-9.
  • Treptow, Kurt W.; Popa, Marcel (1996). Historical Dictionary of Romania. Scarecrow Press, Inc. ISBN 0-8108-3179-1.


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