48 Facts About Alecu Beldiman

Alecu Beldiman himself held high commission in the Moldavian military forces and bureaucracy, but secretly resented the Phanariote regime which had awarded them.

Alecu Beldiman's family continued to have a role in Moldavian, and later Romanian politics; his grandson Alexandru Beldiman was a journalist.

Alecu Beldiman later served as Hetman and Logothete, and, in late 1615, led the boyars into rebellion against Prince Stefan IX Tomsa.

Alecu Beldiman was captured in neighboring Wallachia and beheaded, his remains being disposed of in the Siret River.

In 1711, following the Pruth River Campaign, the Cantemirs were chased out of the country; a Alecu Beldiman branch left Moldavia and settled in the Russian Empire.

Alecu Beldiman remained a noted figure in the Russophile party, and as a result earned a permanent appointment to the Moldavian Divan in 1774.

Alecu Beldiman was born in 1760, either in Iasi, the Moldavian capital, or in the smaller town of Husi.

Early on, Alecu Beldiman became fluent in Greek and more unusually for his generation, in French.

At age 34, Alecu Beldiman became a Paharnic at the princely court of Michael Drakos Soutzos, before being moved to serve as Ispravnic in Neamt County.

In 1800, under Prince Constantine Ypsilantis, Alecu Beldiman was appointed Parcalab of Galati.

Alecu Beldiman was married three times, but scholars provide contradictory details on this issue.

Literary historian George Calinescu reports that Alecu Beldiman's first wife, name unknown, was a member of the Romano clan; the second was Ileana, sister of the Logothete and poet Costache Conachi, making him in-laws with Nicolae Vogoride, future Kaymakam of Moldavia.

In parallel, Alecu Beldiman became identified as one of the earliest contributors to the popularization of Western theater.

Dumitrache and Alecu Beldiman remained interested in both literature and politics; Filip withdrew to a monastery in 1792, while Iancu died later that same decade.

Bogdan-Duica hypothesizes that Alecu Beldiman handed his manuscript to Wolf, who took it to Hermannstadt and promised to publish it there.

Alecu Beldiman was advanced to Postelnic in 1818, and finally became the Ispravnic of Iasi in 1819, under Prince Michael Soutzos.

Alecu Beldiman's estate grew to include parts of Popeni and Vinderei, in Tutova County, as well as several other townhouses in Iasi.

Alecu Beldiman owned several hamlets populated by Romanies, which he kept as boyar slaves.

At this new stage, Alecu Beldiman blended Romanian nationalism with an interest in modern education, declaring himself a direct contributor to the "material progress of the Romanian people".

Philologist Andreea Giorgiana Marcu notes that, as a translator of Western literature, Alecu Beldiman was necessarily a participant in the Age of Enlightenment.

Alecu Beldiman resonated most with Neoclassicism, and especially with its "obviously moralizing" accounts.

The Neoclassical trait of Alecu Beldiman's poems was highlighted by literary historian Emil Manu; their "lucid moralism", Manu notes, makes him akin to La Rochefoucauld.

Over 40 years, Alecu Beldiman arguably became the most prolific among Moldavia's contributors to Westernizing translations.

Alecu Beldiman's texts had to introduce theatrical terminology for which there was yet no equivalent: he proposed obraz for "character", and schini for "scene".

However, Eliade proposes that Alecu Beldiman was directly inspired to write for the stage by witnessing Moldavia's first first-ever theatrical experiment, produced in December 1816 by Gheorghe Asachi.

Alecu Beldiman soon signed contracts with the Wallachian publisher, Zaharia Carcalechi, who was active in the literary circles of Habsburg Hungary.

In 1818, Alecu Beldiman put out Invatatura sau povatuire pentru facerea painii, ultimately based on a text by Christian Albert Ruckert, but directly translated from the Greek version penned by Dimitrios Samurkasis.

Also that year, Alecu Beldiman completed a translation of Salomon Gessner's Der Tod Abels, from the French intermediary.

Alecu Beldiman followed up in 1820 with Istoria lui Numa Pompilie.

Alecu Beldiman completed numerous other translations, without ever submitting them for print.

However, Alecu Beldiman discovered that the texts were being slowly altered in the process, and decided to create his own authorized copies.

One was Ionita Sion, who took dictation from Alecu Beldiman in writing "all sorts of verse and stories"; he was not paid for the job, but was allowed to make and keep his own copies.

Alecu Beldiman penned, but never printed, other renditions of tragedies and stories by Antoine Francois Prevost, Madame Cottin, Rene-Charles Guilbert de Pixerecourt, Louis d'Ussieux, and various unknown authors.

Similarly, Densusianu notes that Alecu Beldiman demanded from his readers a patience that he never repaid.

Alecu Beldiman's vocabulary is "flooded" with Greek, Ottoman, or Slavonic terms.

Complex descriptions remain rare, as Alecu Beldiman often dismisses the Eterists and his other adversaries with just one epithet, sometimes bordering on the obscene.

One line refers to a "Lividi Nicolaki, that base and ugly soul", who, according to Alecu Beldiman, had been appointed commander of Moldavia's Romanies by Ypsilantis' government.

Historian AD Xenopol notes that Alecu Beldiman was sarcastic in his treatment of the Moldavian republican boyars, whom he called Decemviri.

Alecu Beldiman, having been appointed Vornic, made the return trip to Iasi.

From 1823, Alecu Beldiman preserved a copy of what he claimed to be Moldavia's Capitulation to the Ottomans, outlining the ancient rights of its inhabitants.

In reality, Alecu Beldiman was at odds with the new regime.

Alecu Beldiman was ultimately released and made a discreet return to politics, living in relative seclusion for the rest of his life.

Alecu Beldiman was famous for raising her husband's illegitimate son, the half-Romani Dinca, who was formally her house slave.

Vasile died in 1853, and was survived by a son, Alexandru Alecu Beldiman, who was the head of Romanian Police and close friend of the United Principalities' first Domnitor, Alexandru Ioan Cuza.

Alecu Beldiman was made famous by her affair with poet Alexandru Hrisoverghi; according to one account, Hrisoverghi died after jumping out a window in Iordachi's townhouse.

Alecu Beldiman's niece, Maria or Marghioala, was a locally famous philanthropist, married to politician Scarlat Miclescu.

Alecu Beldiman became a noted agitator on the far-left of Romanian liberalism and renounced all claim to boyar privilege, including his family name.

One of its promoters was the antiquarian George Ionescu-Gion, who insisted that Alecu Beldiman was without philosophical merit, but a genuine patriot.