DIMITRIE CANTEMIR – AN EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE OF EDUCATION
CRISTIAN SORIN DUMITRESCU
Motto: Flowers have bloomed on our soil.
Dimitrie Cantemir
Abstract: The famous Romanian ruler Dimitrie Cantemir was a polyvalent man of letters whose vast work has left a mark on the evolution of Europe. Thus, this paper is an attempt at outlining the European perspective of Cantemir with regard to an important field: education.
Keywords: Dimitrie Cantemir, European perspective, European dimension, Humanism, Renaissance.
1. Introduction
During its sitting held of August 1, 1714, with the agreement of the Protector (King of Prussia), the Council of the Royal Academy of Berlin confirmed the acceptance of Dimitrie Cantemir as member of the Academy. The acceptance of Dimitrie Cantemir’s application, dating July 11, 1714, materialised in the granting of the Diploma of member of the Berlin Academy of Science, which read:
“When Mars was a stronger ruler than Pallas, such an encounter was more a desire than a hope. And this is being fulfilled now, as his serene lordship, literate Dimitrie Cantemir, Prince of the Russian Empire, hereditary ruler of Moldavia, giving a dignified as well as rare example, has dedicated his illustrious name to scientific research. His dedication has brought unmatched brilliance and value to our Society. We humbly thank the Prince for the benevolence he shows to us and to our work”.
2. Europe of Dimitrie Cantemir – at the border between theology, humanism and Enlightenment
Dimitrie Cantemir lived in a border period. From an ideological point of view this period marks the transition from the world led by theology to a new world characterised by confidence in man’s ability to grasp the natural order of things. Dimitrie Cantemir is a humanist due to the variety of his interests and their new horizon.
Due to his high level of culture, varied interests, advanced thinking and life experience, Dimitrie Cantemir is a Renaissance type of humanist.
Humanism, as a philosophic trend, emerged in the 14th and the 15th centuries in Italy and spread all over Europe. At the beginning, it was the idea of a limited circle of intellectuals interested in freeing the human personality from the arbitrary actions of the feudal power and from the influence of theological concepts.
In the Romanian principalities, humanism is not determined by internal conditions. The clergy and the boyars, who studied abroad, were the promoters of the humanistic ideas. The Romanian humanism emerged as part of the chronicle literature, which started disseminating the idea of national oppression and liberation from the Ottoman yoke. It is also the chronicles that started laying stress on the Roman origin of the Romanian people and language.
Since Dimitrie Cantemir wanted to publish, the literary genre was imposed by the very stage of our literature at that time, still dominated by the religious thinking. Analysing the printed products of the epoch, one comes across books of rituals, of sermons, of anti-catholic polemics, of morals and laws, most of them from Wallachia. Chronicles had not been printed yet, the other lay genres had not been cultivated. An original work in the field of ethics offered the twofold advantage of novelty and neutrality.
That is how “TheDivan” was written, one of the most important works of the Romanian and south-east European thinking. The rich and nuanced substance of this writing, where the ideas of the still young rationalism are interwoven, in an interesting effort of synthesis, with those of the mediaeval thinking, that were undergoing a transformation, turned the first work of Dimitrie Cantemir into a book representative for an epoch and for the great struggle of ideas that will segregate religion from secularity and made the latter triumph in the Romanian and neo-Greek cultures. This struggle was long and difficult. The process of transition from the traditional mediaeval thinking to a new perception of man and of the world took longer in Eastern than in the Western Europe. The various stages and particularities of this process have not been thoroughly studied either for the Greek or the Romanian thinking. The materialisation of the new attitude towards man and life accredited to the 18th century and to the penetration of the Enlightenment ideas in the Balkan countries actually happened a longer time ago. The plea for reason in TheDivan is one of the proofs that the ground for a new trend in thinking had been prepared in the Romanian culture before Enlightenment.
TheDivan comprises the most numerous references to the favourite sources of the mediaeval thinkers (Aristotle, Augustine, Ausonius, Bernard, Boethius, Cato, Cicero, Epictetus, Erasmus, Hesiod, Lactantius, Plato, Plutarch, Seneca, Socrates, Valerius Maximus), and to the origin only recently explored of the name of Unitarian Crellius, quoted together with his work Ethica Christiana in a Moldavian writing of the 17th century.
To conclude the presentation of the sources of TheDivan, the quotations from Augustine and Seneca in Book II should also be explained. Most of them are from Pierre Bersuire. Others seem to come from the usual dictionaries of sententiae and dicta widely circulated in the Middle Ages, used either by Cantemir, or by the author of the writing that inspired him. These books, too, were from the Western World, written in Latin. Cantemir does not resort to Albina (The Bee) by Antonie Mobahul, or Locurile comune (Common Places) by Maxim Mărturisitorul (The Confessor), to Sacra parallela by Ioan Damaschin – the usual moral dictionaries of the byzantine literature.
TheDivan is a work of thinking, and from this perspective it raises the interest of the researchers of our philosophy, one of the old works written in Romanian in an artistic form – which justifies the attention paid to it by philology and literary historiography – and, at the same time, one of the valuable sources of information about the varied knowledge of the Romanian 17th century scholars and readers.
The general philosophic and ethical core of TheDivan is that of the Christian orthodox doctrine, dominated by the South-East European culture of the epoch when Dimitrie Cantemir lived. It would be a mistake to believe that this doctrine is understood by laymen and clergymen, by scholars and uneducated people, by secular clergy and monastic clergy alike.
Among the main trends embraced by the lay scholars in South-East Europe, one should consider first the evolution towards a still religious thinking but based on reason, where fundamental truths were subject to reason arbitrage and morals relied on a more lenient understanding of man. These thinkers, observant of the movements of ideas in Western Europe, familiarised with Scholastics and Reform, gradually detached themselves from the traditional sources of the eastern doctrine (works by the Fathers of the Church) and showed a growing interest in the neo-Aristotelian thinking in particular and humanistic in general.
The predilection for the anti-reformist humanism of Jesuit inspiration and the neo-Aristotelianism of protestant inspiration generated controversies and fierce battles among the lay scholars, like those between Teofil Coridaleu and Maletie Sirigul, but, in general, the renewing trends, towards an independent philosophic thinking were common to these thinkers, and their disputes steadily weakened the authority of theology in the eastern European intellectuals. Dimitrie Cantemir was part of that movement of ideas, just as Constantin Cantacuzino, Nicolae Milescu and other Romanian scholars of the time.
In relation to these trends, TheDivan comprises numerous elements that places it among the works linking two epochs and two worlds as it brings together tradition and innovation, eastern and western thinking.
3. Dimitrie Cantemir – the first European Romanian
Dimitrie Cantemir, the Moldavian prince, was the personality with the most complex and prolific European-Renaissance thinking.
His erudition, the excellent knowledge of Greek, Latin, Arabic, Syrian, French, English, Slavonic and, of course, Turkish and Romanian languages placed him among the great men of letters of the 18th century Europe, arresting the attention of the European intellectuals, who accepted him.
The intercultural character of Dimitrie Cantemir’s personality is closely linked to the historical context of his epoch, linguistic, religious as well as mythological.
In his youth, Dimitrie Cantemir acquired remarkable knowledge. He began his education at home under the guidance of Ieremia Cacavelas, a cultivated monk from Crete, who spoke Greek, Latin, German and Italian. He had studied in Leipzig and Vienna, being a connoisseur of the Greek civilisation. He was also well versed in theology. This monk’s lessons laid the foundation of Dimitrie Cantemir’s classical and theological education. At the age of 15 he was sent as hostage to Constantinople. There he had the opportunity to get acquainted with the most important cultural circles among which the GreatSchool, or the Orthodox Patriarchate’s Academy, the continuator of the ByzantiumUniversity. He acquired profound knowledge of Turkish-Arab civilisation, about which he wrote in his creations. He learnt mathematics, history, philosophy, Islam etc from the Turkish scholars.
With a mind open to everything that was new, Dimitrie Cantemir got also acquainted with the diplomatic circles at the Sultan’ court, enjoying their appreciation and learning through them about the culture of numerous European countries. Thus, he met the ambassadors of France, Château-Neuf and Fériol, of Holland, Colyer, of Russia, P. A. Tostoi and others. Having quite rare abilities, Cantemir assimilated, as almost none other in his epoch, vast knowledge as byzantinologist, Romanist, Orientalist, continuously enriching it throughout his life.
Worth mentioning is the fact that Dimitrie Cantemir became well known for his intellectual qualities before any of his works had been published. A Polish diplomat, Raphael Leaszynski, who had met Dimitrie Cantemir in Iaşi, in 1700, was amazed by his erudition, by his command of the Latin language, by his fine education “as if he had been educated in Poland,” he said.
Literary historian Milan Sesan wrote in two articles titled “Dimitrie Cantemir the academician” about the circumstances that favoured the acceptance of the cultured Moldavian prince as member of the BerlinAcademy. These articles show that Peter the Great met with German philosopher Leibniz, president of the Berlin Academy of Science on October 20, 1711, at Torgau, with the help of German baron Heinrich von Huyssen, who had been in the service of Peter the Great since 1702. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the setting up of an academy of science in Petrograd. On that occasion, when Leibniz asked about the Russian scholars with whom such a scientific forum could be organised, the tsar also mentioned Dimitrie Cantemir.
German philosopher Leibniz – the founder of German Enlightenment – president of the Berlin Academy of Science, aimed at creating as many cultural forums in Europe as possible, which were to develop close relationships among them so as to establish a republic of sciences above the existing political bodies. Inspired by these ideas as he was, Dimitrie Cantemir’s admission to this forum was fully explainable. The Moldavian prince enjoyed a great intellectual prestige due to the works he had written and the grandiose projects he was to submit to the high-status scientific forum.
The Yablonsky brothers played a particularly important role within the BerlinAcademy and an active part in the admission of Dimitrie Cantemir as a member of the BerlinAcademy.
Thus, Johann Theodor Yablonsky, wrote to Dimitrie Cantemir in 1714: “Please, allow us to take advantage of your offer and ask you to give us accurate and clear information about the real situation of the two provinces, Moldavia and Wallachia, about the borders separating them and the countries neighbouring them, as well as about their capitals and other towns. It is very sad to see how maps and other geographical papers differ as far as they are concerned, some placing Moldavia beyond the Dniester and Wallachia over the Danube, and others just the other way round. In this way, you will hold the public and us in particular in your debt should you bring clarifications in this respect. The readers will be in Your Highness’s debt should you be willing to enlighten them with regard to the history of the sultans you have, illustrated with their portraits and accompanied by the remarks you could add based on your own knowledge”.
The admittance of Dimitrie Cantemir among the members of the BerlinAcademy was a stimulus for his scientific activity. Prestigious scholars such as Eduard Winter and H. Gratzhof pointed to the scientific value of Dimitrie Cantemir’s works. Likewise, they insisted on the educated prince’s links with the early German Enlightenment (Frühaufklärung).
All the discussions related to the election of Dimitrie Cantemir as member of the Berlin Academy of Science in July 1714, evinces that, at that moment, our fellow countryman was a prestigious public figure in Europe due to his scientific activity. Some of the requested works had already been commenced or at least thought about by the cultured prince as early as his stay in Constantinople. Their finalisation was stimulated by the interest shown by the prestigious institution that had accepted him. The scientific level of his works placed him above all those who had written before him in the Romanian provinces. In a European context, he was on a par with the scholars of his time, opening the series of the Romanians who honoured world science.
4. European dimension of Dimitrie Cantemir’s work
In a relatively short life, divided between varied and demanding activities – politician, crown prince and ruling prince, soldier, traveller – Dimitrie Cantemir most truthfully followed his vocation as a scholar. Aged only 25, he published his first book (TheDivan) and on the eve of his death his last book (Sistemul religiei muhammedane – The System of the Islamic Religion – an introduction to the Islam written for Europeans), leaving to posterity a treasure of works in manuscripts which experts have been studying for almost three centuries.
In 1697, Dimitrie Cantemir participated, with the Turkish army, in the campaign in Hungary of Sultan Mustafa II. The confrontation, which ended in disaster for the Ottoman troops on September 11, at Zenta – where Eugene of Savoy won an extraordinary victory, made the young Romanian scholar consider that date as the beginning of the descent of the Ottoman power.
Divanul sau Gîlceava înţeleptului cu lumea sau Giudeţul sufletului cu trupul (The Divan or The Wise Man's Parley with the World or The Judgement of the Soul with the Body) was published in 1697 in Iaşi, work which Cantemir had sent at the end of the previous year to monk Ieremia Cacavela for translation into Greek and publication.
In 1700, Dimitrie Cantemir finished Sacrosanctae scientiae indepingibilis imago or Imaginea ştiinţei sacre care nu se poate zugrăvi (The Image of the Sacred, Undepictable Science)published only in 1928 under the title Metafizica (Metaphysics), a work of religious philosophy, inspired by the works of Flemish thinkerJohannes Baptista Van Helmont which Cantemir read. Addressing problems of contemporary philosophers (theory of knowledge, atomic theory and the theory of the origin of matter, the notion of time, man’s destiny etc), Cantemir asserted himself as a forerunner in the history of the modern Romanian thinking.
The same year, 1700, Dimitrie Cantemir finished the collection of excerpts titled Ioannis Baptistae Van Helmont physices universalis doctrina, referring to the theories of physics of the thinker (theories about the origin of nature which Cantemir deemed in consensus with the Christian doctrine). The excerpts are preceded by an introduction in Latin and Romanian: Encomium in I.B. Van Helmont et virtutem physices universalis doctrinae eius (Praise to the author and to the virtue of his teaching), an eulogy to the work of Van Helmont which he wanted to introduce to the Romanian scholars.
In 1701 he most probably began writing Compendiolum universae logices institutiones (Little Compendium on All Lessons of Logic), known under the title of Logica. Permanently interested in logic, Cantemir wanted to write a systematic manual of correct thinking norms.
Over 1703-1704, based on a new notation system he had developed, Cantemir wrote a treatise of Turkish music which placed him among the classics of this musical tradition: Tarifu ilmi musiki ala vegni maksus (Brief Explanation of Theoretical Music). Fragments were published in “Revue Musicale”, VII; Paris, 1907, presented, in Romania in “Annals of the Romanian Academy”, memoirs of Literary Section, series 2, volume 32, 1910, by T.T. Burada in the paper: Scrierile muzicale ale lui Dimitrie Cantemir (Dimitrie Cantemir’s musical works). As part of Cantemir’s work, the interest in music adds to the portrait of the humanist man of letters.
In 1705, Dimitrie Cantemir finished Istoria ieroglifica (Historia Hieroglyphica), a cryptic, allegoric story (of the rivalry between the Wallachian ruling houses of Brâncoveanu and Cantacuzino) and autobiographic novel. It was the second book Cantemir wrote in Romanian.