| Constantin Stamati | |
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Alexander Pushkin and Constantin Stamati, painting by Boris Lebedev. House-museum "A. S. Pushkin" in Chişinău |
Constantin Stamati (1786, Iaşi–September 12, 1869, Ocniţa) was a Romanian/Moldovan writer and translator.
He settled in Chişinău, Bessarabia (presently in Moldova) after the 1812 partition of Moldavia at the end of the Russo-Turkish War, but made his literary debut in Iaşi.
Stamati became a civil servant and official translator under the first Russian administration of the region. He was rewarded by the Russian Emperor with the Medal of Saint Anne and became a knight of that order.
He made the acquaintance of the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin at the time of latter's exile to Chişinău in 1820-1823. Stamati's most important work, Povestea poveştilor ("The Tale of Tales"), an idealized description of Moldavia's beginnings in verse, was published in Iaşi in 1843. His other works include contemporary satires and glorifications of Moldavia's past.
In 1866, he became one of the founding members of the Romanian Academy.