Nicolae Densuşianu

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Nicolae Densuşianu (1846–1911) was a Romanian ethnologist and collector of Romanian folklore (Vechi cîntece şi tradiţii populare româneşti: texte poetice din răspunsurile la "Chestionarul istoric", 1893-97). His main work, for which he is chiefly remembered, was the posthumously printed Dacia Preistorică (1913), with a preface contributed by C. I.Istrati; in Dacia Preistorică Densuşianu combined the studies of folklore and comparative religion with archaeology to illuminate Prehistoric cultures of Dacia, methods prefiguring those used by Marija Gimbutas; the work has drawn criticism for unprofessionalism being motivated by Densuşianu's nationalism, and for standing at the source of Protochronism.[1]

He spoke of a Dacian-centered "Pelasgian Empire", created in the 6th millennium BC, that would have been governed by Uranus and Saturn, and comprising all of Europe.[2] Densuşianu also claimed that Dacians had migrated to the Italian Peninsula sometime during the Antiquity, and had established Rome itself (with Latin being in fact a dialect of Dacian).[3] Part of this thesis was adopted by several official historians during the late years of Nicolae Ceauşescu's communist regime, serving as inspiration for a new discourse, one autarkic and nationalist tone.[4]

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[edit] Biography

Born in the little village of Densuş, in Transylvania, which was part of Austria-Hungary, he was raised in a Romanian cultural environment. Having received his law degree from the University of Sibiu (1872), he practiced law at Făgăraş, then Braşov, then in other parts of the region. In 1877, at the beginning of the Russo-Turkish War, he returned to Romania and received citizenship in the newly-independent state. In Bucharest, attached to the Court of Appeal, Densuşianu became involved with the nationalistic movement in favor of a Greater Romania. He published— in French, for a wider audience— L’element Latin en orient. Les Roumains du Sud: Macedoine, Thessalie, Epire, Thrace, Albanie, avec une carte ethnographique.[5]

In 1878 he received a commission from the Romanian Academy to research and collect historical documents in the libraries and archives of Hungary (Budapest) and in Transylvania at Cluj, Alba Iulia and Braşov. In fifteen months he discovered hundreds of original documents, manuscripts, chronicles, treaties, manifestos, old drawings, paintings and facsimiles. For his contribution, he was elected in 1880 to a corresponding membership and the ill-paid position of librarian archivist. In 1884 he received the position of translator for the Romanian Army General Staff and published The revolution of Horia in Transylvania and Hungary, 1784-1785, written on the basis of 783 official documents; its sale was banned in Hungary. Among others, the latter composed a historical tradition linking the rebel leader Vasile Ursu Nicola with Dacian prehistory.[6]

In 1885 his Monuments for the history of the country of Fogaras compared the ancient history of the Romanians of Transylvania to their repressed situation under Austro-Hungarian rule.

With the view of his major project taking shape in his mind he departed in 1887, towards Italy; in the library of the Academy of Agram along his route, he studied manuscripts regarding the Vlachs settled in the valley of the Kupa in Croatia, who were already losing their ethnic identity; in Istria he collected material in local villages with Romanian traditions; at Dubrovnik in Dalmatia, he studied the archives of the Ragusan Republic. Finally in Italy, he spent seven months in the Vatican Archives and travelled through the Mezzogiorno before returning home.

Between 1887 and 1897 six volumes appeared of his Documents regarding the History of Romanians, 1199-1345, and in 1893 he wrote the study The religious independence of the Romanian Metropolitan Church of Alba-Iulia.

In 1894 he retired to finish his monumental work, Prehistoric Dacia.

His editor Istrati quotes his statement of purpose, identifying and documenting a Romanian diaspora:

"I always had in my sight the history of the entire Romanian element, in whatever countries it found itself in ancient times, either constituted in bigger states, or organized in districts only, provinces and national counties, or, finally, scattered in smaller and more remote ethnic islands, because of other superimposed nations, but leading a Romanian way of life."

In 1902 he was named a member correspondent of the Romanian Geographical Society. In 1904 he published a study about the development of the Romanian language, affirming its origins in "the most remote of times”. Articles on Romanian military history appeared sporadically during the long years he spent readying his major work for the printer. It was almost complete at the time of his death.[7]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Boia, p.147-149, 353-354
  2. ^ Boia, p.148
  3. ^ Boia, p.148
  4. ^ Boia, p.156-157
  5. ^ "The Latin element in the east. The Romanians of the South: Macedonia, Thessaly, Epirus, Thrace, Albania, with an ethnographic map"
  6. ^ Boia, p.147-148
  7. ^ Biographical material condensed from Istrati's Preface to Prehistoric Dacia

[edit] References

  • Lucian Boia, Istorie şi mit în conştiinţa românească, Bucharest, Humanitas, 1997

[edit] External links

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