Dora d'Istria

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Portrait of Dora d'Istria by Petre Mateescu (1876).
Portrait of Dora d'Istria by Petre Mateescu (1876).

Dora d'Istria (January 22, 1828 – 1888), pen-name of duchess Helena Koltsova-Massalskaya, born Elena Ghica or Gjika, was a Romanian and Albanian Romantic writer and feminist.

[edit] Early life

Born in Bucharest as a member of the Ghica family (the daughter of Mihai Ghica and the niece of the reigning Prince Grigore IV Ghica), she received a thorough education, continued abroad—first at Dresden, then at Vienna, Venice and Berlin, where she gave a sample of her mastery of the ancient Greek language to Alexander Von Humboldt.

D'Istria returned to her home country in 1849, married the Russian duke Alexander Koltsov-Massalski, and lived for several years in Russia, mostly in Saint Petersburg, but never cherished the Russian nationalist views of her husband, nor the Eastern Orthodox bigotry at the Court of the despotic Emperor Nicholas. As her health decayed in the Russian climate, she took her husband's advice and headed for Central Europe, first to Switzerland for several years, then to a journey through Greece and Anatolia. Finally, she returned to Italy, living in a villa in Florence, sporadically traveling to France, Ireland and the United States.

As a writer (under the name d'Istria, mostly in French), she was first noticed in 1855. She published a number of works that not only showed her proficiency in Romanian, Italian, German, French, Latin, Ancient and Modern Greek, Russian and Albanian, but also her knowledge of scientific topics, her liberal views on religious and political topics, as well as talent for presenting her points. Her general stance was cosmopolitan, but she viewed as her main duty to make the sources of Western civilization to the East, and working towards the emancipation of her gender.

She died in Florence.

[edit] In culture

Lithographed portrait of Dora d'Istria.
Lithographed portrait of Dora d'Istria.

Her first work was La vie monastique dans l'Église orientale – "Monastical Life in the Eastern Church" (Brussels 1855; 2.Ed., Paris 1858), where she called for the abolishment of monastic orders. It was followed by La Suisse allemande - "German Switzerland" (Geneva 1856, 4 Vols.; German, 2. Ed., Zürich 1860, 3 Vols.), a description of country and people of Switzerland, with a portion describing a climb up the Mönch.

In the tract Les femmes en Orient - "Women in the Orient" (Zür. 1859, 2 Vols.), she spoke out for the emancipation of women in the Levant; in another, Des femmes, par une femme - "About Women, by a Woman" (2. Ed., Brussels 1869, 2 Vols.), she compared the situation of women in Latin Europe with that in Germany, and demanded with strong words the equal treatment of men and women. Before this volume, the Excursions en Rouméllie et en Morée - "Excursions in Rumelia and Morea" (Zürich 1863, 2 Vols.) were published, where she tried to show that Ancient Greece had the same civilizatory task as the Germany of her time.

She also published the narrative Au bord des lacs helvétiques – "Sailing the Swiss Lakes" (Geneva 1861), the novels Fylétia e Arbenoré prèj Kanekate laoshima (Livorno 1867), Gli Albanesi in Rumenia, a history of the dukes of Ghika in the 17th to 19th centuries (2. Ed., Florence 1873), and La poésie des Ottomans (2. Ed., Paris 1877), as well as numerous writings on literary history, poetics, political, social and religious questions, history, art etc. in renown French journals (especially in the Revue des Deux Mondes), the Belgian Libre Recherche, Italian Diritto, Antologia nuova, Rivista europea etc. and Swiss, Greek, Romanian and American journals.

D'Istria was also a painter. She was a member of many scholarly societies, such as the Italian academy; she was also named honorary citizen by the Greek parliament and many Italian cities.

And finally, she was the first woman ever to climb the Mont Blanc, on June 1, 1860.

[edit] References