Constantin Brancoveanu's Legacy from Cross-Cultural Perspectives
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International Journal of Cross-Cultural Studies and Environmental Communication Special Issue: CONSTANTIN BRANCOVEANU’S LEGACY FROM CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES 2015 ISSN 2285 – 3324 ISSN-L = 2285 – 3324 DOI: (Digital Object Identifier):10.5682/22853324 2015 , ecial Issue p 1 IJCCSEC S EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Ana-Maria Munteanu Universitatea Ovidius Constanţa, RO [email protected] ASSOCIATE EDITOR Florentina Nicolae Universitatea Ovidius Constanţa, RO [email protected] EDITOR Nicoleta Stanca Universitatea Ovidius Constanţa, RO [email protected] MEMBERS James Augerot University of Washington, Seattle, USA [email protected] Ruxandra Boicu University of Bucharest, RO [email protected] Paul Michelson Huntington University, USA [email protected] Vasile Muscalu Director Editura Universitara, RO [email protected] Aida Todi Universitatea Ovidius Constanţa, RO [email protected] Lucica Tofan Universitatea Ovidius Constanţa, RO [email protected] Mariana Cojoc Ovidius University of Constanta, RO [email protected] 2015 , Site Administrators Alina Costiana Stan & Valentin Vanghelescu [email protected] [email protected] ecial Issue p 2 IJCCSEC S International Journal of Cross-Cultural Studies and Environmental Communication http://crossculturenvironment.wordpress.com/ Special Issue: CONSTANTIN BRANCOVEANU’S LEGACY FROM CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES 2015 Coordinators Florentina Nicolae and Nicoleta Stanca Ovidius University Constanta, RO 2012 Editura Universitară 2, 2015 www.editurauniversitara.ro , & Issue 1, Asociaţia pentru Dezvoltare Interculturală (ADI) www.adinterculturala.wordpress.com ecial Issue olumep V 3 IJCCIJCCSEC S 3 SEC ADVISORY BOARD Marta Árkossy Ghezzo Maria Do Rósario Laureano Santos Lehman College, New York, USA Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal [email protected] [email protected] Adina Ciugureanu Ileana Marin Universitatea Ovidius Constanþa, RO University of Washington, Seattle, USA [email protected] [email protected] Augusto Rodrigues Da Silva Junior Ludmila Patlanjoglu Universidade de Brasilia, Brasil National University of Theatre and Cinematography ¨I. L. Caragiale¨ of [email protected] Bucharest, RO [email protected] Timothy Ehlinger University of Wisconsin, Charles Moseley Milwaukee, USA University of Cambridge, UK [email protected] [email protected] Victor A. Friedman University of Stephen Prickett Chicago, USA Professor Emeritus, University of [email protected] Glasgow/Kent [email protected] Ana-Cristina Halichias University of Bucharest, RO Giovanni Rotiroti [email protected] Universita Occidentale, Naples, Italy [email protected] Ioan Ianos University of Bucharest, RO Daniela Rovenţa – Frumuşani [email protected] University of Bucharest, RO [email protected] Cornelia Ilie Malmö University, Sweden Leonor Santa Bárbara [email protected] Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal [email protected] Mihai Coman University of Bucharest, RO Ana Rodica Stăiculescu [email protected] Ovidius University Constanta, RO [email protected] Cristina Coman University of Bucharest, RO Eduard Vlad 2015 , [email protected] Universitatea Ovidius Constanþa, RO [email protected] Claudia Jensen University of Washington, Seattle, USA ecial Issue p [email protected] 4 IJCCSEC S International Journal of Cross-Cultural Studies and Environmental Communication CONTENTS Introduction ...................................................................................................... 7 Florentina NICOLAE Constantin Brâncoveanu - Patron of the Arts at a Global Scale ........................ 9 Aida TODI Constantin Brâncoveanu in the Consciousness of his Age and of Posterity ....... 15 Ruxandra LAMBRU Slavonic Inscriptions in the “Brâncovenesc” Style Monuments. Features and Influences ........................................................................................................... 25 Cristina TAMAŞ, Carmen-Liliana MĂRUNŢELU Orthodoxy between the Dream of Constantine the Great and Constantin Brâncoveanu's Sacrifice ..................................................................................... 31 Iulian ISBĂŞOIU The Personality of the Saintly Prince Constantin Brâncoveanu as Revealed in the Prefaces of the Books Printed in his Age ..................................................... 39 Adriana CÎTEIA Constantin Brâncoveanu and the Byzantine Epinoia .......................................... 49 Ioana COSTA Historia Othmanica: Sources and Personal Memories ...................................... 55 Oana Uţă BĂRBULESCU Cultural and Linguistic Avatars of a Monstrous Creature. History of the Bat ... 61 Constantin NICOLAE th th Dobrudja in the 17 -18 Centuries: Hârşova – A Case Study ........................... 93 2015 Review ............................................................................................................... 103 , Constantin Brâncoveanu (1654-1714), coroană a voievozilor şi sfânt al Împărăţiei veşnice (Constantin Brâncoveanu (1654-1714), Crown of Voevods and Saint of the Eternal Kingdom), Editura Arhiepiscopia Tomisului, ecial Issue Constanta, 2014, 259 pages (Florentina NICOLAE) ......................................... 105 p Notes on Contributors ..................................................................................... 107 5 IJCCSEC S IJCCSEC Special Issue, 2015 6 INTRODUCTION In the Special Issue of 2015, the editors aim to pay homage to one of the most important personalities of Romanian culture, the ruler Constantin Brâncoveanu, whose economic, political and cultural activity was relevant for the modernization of the Romanian society. In the second half of the 18th century and the early 19th century, the Romanian space, of multiple risks of overexposure to three empires, found compensation in a multiple cultural manner as a place of scholars (Dimitrie Cantemir, Nicholas Milescu, Constantin Cantacuzino, the brothers and Radu Şerban Greceanu etc). The Romanian principality benefitted from, between 1688 and 1714, the leadership of Constantin Brâncoveanu, whose innovative vision on various sectors of political, social and cultural development led to the designation of this period as the Brancovan age. The rule of the Wallachian leader was important through maintaining a political balance between the European empire of Habsburg, the Tsarist and the Ottoman ones; tax reform; the administrative reform of the state for international cooperation; the promotion of a Romanian architectural style, the Brancovan style. Due to the political and cultural importance of the Brancovan era for Romanian culture up to modern times, we would like to pay homage to the cultural heritage left by Constantin Brâncoveanu through a volume of inter-and transdisciplinary nature. Florentina Nicolae and Nicoleta Stanca 2015 , ecial Issue p 7 IJCCSEC S IJCCSEC Special Issue, 2015 8 CONSTANTIN BRÂNCOVEANU PATRON OF THE ARTS AT A GLOBAL SCALE Florentina Nicolae1 Abstract: Constantin Brâncoveanu was one of the most powerful Romanian rulers of the pre-modern times. In his 26 years of reign (1688-1714), the Wallachian diplomacy was at its peak, managing to maintain the political balance between the empires that surrounded the country. The political stability influenced the cultural life, in terms of an unprecedented circulation of books, scholarships, sponsorships, donations and people. Brâncoveanu’s influence was sensed from Venice, to Jerusalem and Georgia; he received great appreciation for his support by patriarchs, metropolitans, politicians all over the world, being acknowledged as the main maintainer and supporter of the Orthodoxy and Byzantine politics and culture. This article underlines the large areas of influence that Brâncoveanu exerted as a patron of Arts, a true Maecena, in the Orthodox communities all over the world. Keywords: Byzantine tradition, printing, education, donation, the Academy of Bucharest. The time of Constantine Brâncoveanu’s reign is of a great importance for the entire Europe. It was a time of crisis of the European conscience, which led to ideas such as unity, Latinity, continuity of the Romanian people, ideas that appeared increasingly in the historical and religious literature of the end of the 17th century and become programmatic and active in the fight for earning political rights, in the following century (Pop 59). Brâncoveanu’s reign covered the moment of transition between these moments, marked by the efforts to maintain the Byzantine traditions and also to modernize the Romanian society in all the aspects. In the second half of the 17th century, Moldavia and Wallachia maintained close connections with the Orient, resulting in not only a movement of people, but also a movement of books and ideas. After the Ottoman sultans banned the Arab orthodox communities from using the Arab script in printing, their spiritual rulers searched for help and found it in the Romanian countries. Even though the help offered by Romanian rulers to Near-Eastern Orthodox Communities had a long history, during the reign of Constantin Brâncoveanu it was doubled by the intense activity of the ruler to promote the use of the Romanian language in the local 2015 , Orthodox Church, as part of his strategic plan of making Wallachia a bastion of the Byzantine glory. Constantin Brâncoveanu continued the policy of maintaining the Byzantine ecial Issue mentality regarding the role of the Romanian countries – especially