din bǎtrânǐ (Bucharest, 1878-79); L. Şǎineanu, Istoria filologieǐ
române (Bucharest, 1895), id., Influenţa orientalǎ asupra limbeǐ şi
culturei române (3 vols., Bucharest, 1900); S. C. Mândrescu, Elemente
unguresţi în limba românǎ (Bucharest, 1802); S. Puşcariu, “Studii
istroromâne” in Annalele of the Academia Românǎ, ser. 2, vol. xxviii.;
T. Gartner, Darstellung der rumänischen Sprache (Halle, 1904);
G. Weigand, Praktische Grammatik der rumänischen Sprache
(Leipzig, 1903). Important studies on the separate dialects of
Moldavia, Walachi, the Dobrudja, Bessarabia, Bukovina, the
Banat, Macedonia, Istria, &c., have been published by G. Weigand,
cither in book form or in the Leipzig Jahresbericht des Instituts für
rumänische Sprache, which he edited from its foundation in 1894. (X.)
Literature
The intellectual development of Rumania has never until modern times been affected by Latin culture, but it has been profoundly influenced first by Slavonic literature, then by the Greek or Byzantine literature, and last, by the Western, notably French and Italian novels. The history of Rumanian literature can be divided into three distinct periods: the Slavonic, from the beginnings of Rumanian literature in the middle of the 16th century down to 1710; the Greek, from 1710-1830, corresponding with the era of Phanariote rule; and the modern period, from 1830 to the present. The change from Slavonic to Rumanian was very gradual. Slavonic had been the language of the Church from the early middle ages, and was therefore hallowed in the eyes of the people and the clergy; through the political connexion with the Slavonic kingdoms of the south, Bulgaria and Servia, it had also been the language of the chancelleries and of the court. Even when the Rumanian language at last supplanted the Slavonic, it did not emancipate itself from the original; the new was merely a translation from the old, and at the beginning it was as literal as possible. We have therefore in the first period a medieval literature transplanted to Rumania and consisting of translations from the Slavonic. The reason of the change from Slavonic into Rumanian is to be sought in the influence the Reformation had among the Rumanian inhabitants of Transylvania.
The second period is marked by a complete waning of Slavonic influence, through the literary activity of the Greek hospodars. The Slavonic kingdoms of the south had lost their independence; they had ceased to produce anything worth having, whilst the Greeks brought with them the old literature from Byzantium and thus drove out the last remnants of Slavonic. They also treated Rumanian as an uncouth and barbarian language, and imposed upon the Church their own Greek language, Greek literature and Greek culture. This literature may be taken to represent the period of the Renaissance in the West; but when the yoke of the Phanariotes was shaken off, the link that connected Rumanian literature with Greek was also broken, and under modern influences began the romantic movement which has dominated Rumanian literature since 1830.
Much of the Rumanian literature of the first two periods has been preserved only in MSS.; few of these have been investigated, and a still smaller number have been compared with their original. The Rumanian Academy keeps jealous watch over the treasures it has accumulated, and few have had access to the riches entombed in its archives; nor has any private or public collection been catalogued. An exhaustive history of Rumanian literature is, for the time being, a pious wish.
First Period: c. 1550-1710.—Rumanian literature begins, like all modern European literature, with translations from the Bible. The oldest of these are direct translations from Slavonic texts, following the original word for word, even in its grammatical construction. The first impetus towards the printing of the Rumanian translations came from the princes and judges in Transylvania. It is under their orders and often at their expense that the first Slavonic printing-presses were established in places like Kronstadt (Brashov) Oraştia, Sasz-Shebesh and Belgrad (Alba Julia, in Transylyania) where Slavonic and Rumanian books appeared. The foremost printer and translator was a certain Diakonus Koresi, of Greek origin, who had emigrated to Walachia and thence to Transylvania. He was assisted in his work by the “popes” (parish priests) of those places where he worked. The very first book published in Rumanian is the Gospels printed in Kronstadt between 1560 and 1561. An absolutely identical Slavonic text of the Gospels appeared in the same year, or one year earlier, which no doubt was the original for the Rumanian translation. Following up the list of publications of the books of the Bible in chronological The Bible. order, we find Diakonus Koresi immediately afterwards—the date has not yet been definitely ascertained—printing a Rumanian translation of the Acts of the Apostles; in 1577 he printed at Sasz-Shebesh a Psalter in both Slavonic and Rumanian; the Rumanian follows the Slavonic verse for verse. A MS. Psalter more recently discovered shows close affinity to this edition, and, in spite of the opinions held by some critics, must be considered as a copy of it made about 1585; it even reproduces the printer's errors of Koresi's edition. To the 16th century belong also the first attempts to translate the historical books of the Old Testament which appeared in Oraştia in 1582, under the title Palia. The example thus set could not fail to react upon the Rumanians in Walachia, with whom the Transylvanians stood in close commercial and political connexion. The Slavonic language still reigned supreme in the Church; yet once the example had been set in Transylvania, and the influence of the Slavonic nations had begun to slacken, it was inevitable that the Rumanian language should sooner or later come to its own. It was in Transylvania that the first complete Rumanian translation of the New Testament appeared (Belgrad, 1648). This translation was based upon the Slavonic original, but the text had been verified and corrected, by comparison with a Calvinistic translation, and had been collated with the Greek. The chief author of this translation, which may be termed classical, seems to have been a certain Hieromonach Sylvestre who lived in Walachia and who had undertaken, by order of the prince Betlengabor of Transylvania (1613-29), a translation of the whole Bible. Upon this version, no doubt, are based the editions of Iordache Cantacuzene (Bucharest, 1682), and that of Şerban Greceanu (1693), in which for the first time the Greek text is printed side by side with the Rumanian; and the edition of Anthim the Iberian (1703). In these may also be traced a few reminiscences of the older version by Koresi, of which a copy, made by Radu Gramatik (1574), and once the property of Peter Cercel, is now in the British Museum. Sylvestre also prepared a new edition of the Psalter as part of his Bible (Belgrad, 1651), verifying the text by reference to the Hebrew and Greek originals. The first edition of the complete Bible was published (1688) by order of Prince Ioan Serban* Cantacuzene, by Radu Greceanu, assisted by his brother Serban* and by Metrofan the bishop of Buzeu. This may be considered as the supreme monument of Rumanian literature in Walachia in the 17th century. No other Rumanian translation approaches it in style and diction, although the authors, as they own, utilized the older translations, and for the New Testament and the Psalter they utilized Sylvestre's work. At least a hundred years had to pass ere a new edition of the whole Bible was undertaken, nor was the Bible used for private reading, except such passages as were included in the lessons read in church. These were translated independently by Dositheiu under the title of Pirimiar (Jassy, 1683), and were almost the last work that came from his prolific pen. As far back as 1600 Dositheiu had made a new translation of the Psalter from the Slavonic and printed it in both languages (Jassy, 1680). Upon this translation he based the rhymed Psalter at which he had worked from 1660-73, when it appeared in Uniev. This is the first example of rhymed psalms in Rumanian, the author following the Polish rhymed version of Ian Kohanowski. Albert Molnar had translated a French rhymed Psalter into Hungarian (1607) and this served as the basis for a literal translation made by Ianos Viski (1697). About the same time Theodor Korbea attempted to versify the Psalter and dedicated his work to Peter the Great of Russia. A new translation of the Psalter from Slavonic, with a commentary, the first of its kind, was made in 1697 by Alexander Dascalul (Alexander Preceptor Polonus). All these last-mentioned Psalters are still in MS.
Turning from the Bible to homilies and the liturgy, we find the ancient collections of homilies in Rumania to be due to the same Homilies. proselytizing movement. Almost the first book printed by Koresi (at the expense of the magistrate of Kronstadt, Foro Miklaus, c. 1570), seems to have been a translation from some Calvinistic compilation of homilies, one for every Sunday in the year. A Slavonic original sent by the metropolitan Serafim of Walachia served as the basis for a second collection of homilies known as Evangelie invâţǎtoare (1580). It differs from the former in language and tendency and proves that Koresi was only a translator and printer. The first collection of homilies, henceforth known as Cazanii, appeared in Dlǔgopole, i.e. Câmpulung, in Walachia, in 1642. It was compiled by a certain Melchisedec and contained thirteen homilies, very voluminous is the next collection, Evangelie invâţǎtoare talcuitǎ, translated from the Russian by Sylvestre (Govora, 1643). One year later appeared the first book printed in Moldavia, the collection of homilies Carte româneascǎ de invâţǎturǎ (Jassy, 1643). It is a volume of 1000 folio pages, of which the first half is absolutely identical with Sylvestre's collection. A similar unacknowledged loan was made by Meletie the Macedonian, compiler of the homilies which appeared at Deal in 1644. Of special interest
