Panorama Cultural Society

Tudor Dinu, Dimitrie Cantemir şi Nicolae Mavrocordat, Rivalităţi politice şi literare la începutul secolului XVIII (Dimitrie Cantemir and Nicholas Mavrocordatos. Political and Literary Rivalries at the Beginning of the 18th Century), Humanitas Publishing House, Bucharest, 2011, 464 + 16 pages

This book contains the first biography of Nicholas Mavrocordatos, key figure of the early Greek Enlightenment. Mainly resorting to primary sources (Romanian, Greek, Turkish and Western), Tudor Dinu reconstructs the tumultuous political career of Mavrocordatos, twice prince of both Moldavia (1709-1710; 1711-1716) and Wallachia (1716; 1719-1730), but also treats his literary work extensively (the novel The Respites of Filotheos, the treatise On Duties, The diatribe against tobacco etc.). The activity of the Greek prince is not perceived in an isolated way, but integrated in the socio-political context in which he activated, and presented in its permanent interdependence to that of History’s other protagonists he came in contact with or confronted. Among them, the most formidable rival of the great dragoman was the Romanian prince Dimitrie Cantemir (1673-1723), both statesman and scholar, one of the greatest cultural personalities of south-eastern Europe at the beginning of the 18-th century (orientalist, historian, geographer, ethnologist, musicologist and novelist). In 1710 Cantemir managed to replace Mavrocordatos on the throne of Moldavia, but, after forging an anti-Ottoman alliance with Peter the Great and the defeat of the Christians in 1711, was forced to seek refuge in Russia, allowing Mavrocordatos to regain his throne. Following the tradition of Plutarch's Parallel Lives the volume also reconstructs Cantemir's biography and thoroughly analyzes his varied work. In addition to its scientific contribution, Tudor Dinu's book may also provide, thanks to its attractive literary style, an accessible and pleasant reading for a wide public.

You may order the book directly from the publisher at http://www.humanitas.ro/tudor-dinu