The first Romanian neohellenist : Constantin Erbiceanu (1838-1913)
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Abstract
Constantin Erbiceanu, a pioneer in the field of Neogreek studies (especially on the field of Greek influences in the Romanian culture), accepted without
uproars in the historians and the theologians conclave as a reliable specialist,
enjoyed fame and great authority in the final decades of the 19th century but,
after his disappearance was soon forgotten; the present study, conjoining the
historiographic and prosopographic perspectives, aims at redeeming an inequity of the Romanian historiography, the damnation to a century of oblivion
and disregard. Bom on the 5th of August 1838 in the Erbiceni village of Moldavia, he remained motherless at the age of 10. After graduated the “Socola” Theological Seminary in 1858, he enrolled for the preuniversitary courses of the future “National Highschool” from Iassy, and, in 1860, he decides to attend the Faculty of Theology at the University of Iassy. Being a remarkable student, conscientious, sobre and diligent, he proposed in 1865 for a scholarship in Athens, where he learned well Ancient and Modem Greek up to 1868.
Returned home, he become a professor and married in 1873 Aglaea Negrescu, related to the rich Zappas. The next ten years were peaceful and his
greatest concern was to support his family, getting ever larger (2 girls and 3
boys). The chance to assert himself came pretty late, in 1882, when the metropolitan bishop asked him to publish a clerical magazine, financially supported by the Church. Erbiceanu was the man-of-all-trades of the new magazine and his career and life gets for a constant ascent. In 1885, at an anniversary festivity his lecture made a strong impact on the audience and the Minister of Public Education (D. A. Sturdza) invited him to Bucharest, to teach at the Central Theological Seminary. The neohellenist accepted and he was appointed in 1887 professor at the Central Seminary, Manager of the Church Printing House, editor at the “Biserica Ortodoxă Română” magazine and substitute teacher at the Faculty of Theology. His work as a Neohellenist brings him a great authority in the fields of history and philology and Greek erudite societies close him as a member in 1886 and 1889. He was awarded numerous medals and badges that tell their own story about his claiming, yet his supreme recognition, the designation for an academic chair, came in the spring of 1899, at the age of 61. Nonetheless, his activity gradually slows down, because of his sickness and great age. He began to write late (but this is common to almost all his succesors in the field) and he spent his life especially publishing and translating some historical and literary sources, publishing studies on ecclesiastic history or dealing with the Greek cultural influences. In order to draw up his work, Erbiceanu appealed to his knowledge of Ancient and Medieval Greek history, always seeking to be well informed. He was analysing carefully the manuscripts and the documents, “his loyal friends”, as V. Pârvan wrote, and he frequently visit the monasteries throughout the country hoping to find new
sources of information about the past. For his opinions regarding the Greek influence and the Phanariot century, Erbiceanu was acussed by enemies to be “the Greeks’ man”, to play the game of the Greek propaganda, but the evolution of his career, the audience and the prestige that he came to enjoy contravene with those suppositions. Having to fight against the prejudices of his time according to which the cultural creations within Romanian borders were not written in the national language and, moreover, they originated in the Phanariot epoch or in the entire epoch of the Greek influence and were not interesting for the study of the Romanian culture, Erbiceanu tried, fighting sometimes the windmills, to alter his contemporaries’ beliefs and mentality and his on-goings were mostly successeful.
uproars in the historians and the theologians conclave as a reliable specialist,
enjoyed fame and great authority in the final decades of the 19th century but,
after his disappearance was soon forgotten; the present study, conjoining the
historiographic and prosopographic perspectives, aims at redeeming an inequity of the Romanian historiography, the damnation to a century of oblivion
and disregard. Bom on the 5th of August 1838 in the Erbiceni village of Moldavia, he remained motherless at the age of 10. After graduated the “Socola” Theological Seminary in 1858, he enrolled for the preuniversitary courses of the future “National Highschool” from Iassy, and, in 1860, he decides to attend the Faculty of Theology at the University of Iassy. Being a remarkable student, conscientious, sobre and diligent, he proposed in 1865 for a scholarship in Athens, where he learned well Ancient and Modem Greek up to 1868.
Returned home, he become a professor and married in 1873 Aglaea Negrescu, related to the rich Zappas. The next ten years were peaceful and his
greatest concern was to support his family, getting ever larger (2 girls and 3
boys). The chance to assert himself came pretty late, in 1882, when the metropolitan bishop asked him to publish a clerical magazine, financially supported by the Church. Erbiceanu was the man-of-all-trades of the new magazine and his career and life gets for a constant ascent. In 1885, at an anniversary festivity his lecture made a strong impact on the audience and the Minister of Public Education (D. A. Sturdza) invited him to Bucharest, to teach at the Central Theological Seminary. The neohellenist accepted and he was appointed in 1887 professor at the Central Seminary, Manager of the Church Printing House, editor at the “Biserica Ortodoxă Română” magazine and substitute teacher at the Faculty of Theology. His work as a Neohellenist brings him a great authority in the fields of history and philology and Greek erudite societies close him as a member in 1886 and 1889. He was awarded numerous medals and badges that tell their own story about his claiming, yet his supreme recognition, the designation for an academic chair, came in the spring of 1899, at the age of 61. Nonetheless, his activity gradually slows down, because of his sickness and great age. He began to write late (but this is common to almost all his succesors in the field) and he spent his life especially publishing and translating some historical and literary sources, publishing studies on ecclesiastic history or dealing with the Greek cultural influences. In order to draw up his work, Erbiceanu appealed to his knowledge of Ancient and Medieval Greek history, always seeking to be well informed. He was analysing carefully the manuscripts and the documents, “his loyal friends”, as V. Pârvan wrote, and he frequently visit the monasteries throughout the country hoping to find new
sources of information about the past. For his opinions regarding the Greek influence and the Phanariot century, Erbiceanu was acussed by enemies to be “the Greeks’ man”, to play the game of the Greek propaganda, but the evolution of his career, the audience and the prestige that he came to enjoy contravene with those suppositions. Having to fight against the prejudices of his time according to which the cultural creations within Romanian borders were not written in the national language and, moreover, they originated in the Phanariot epoch or in the entire epoch of the Greek influence and were not interesting for the study of the Romanian culture, Erbiceanu tried, fighting sometimes the windmills, to alter his contemporaries’ beliefs and mentality and his on-goings were mostly successeful.
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