V. A. Urechia
Encyclopedia
V. A. Urechia was a Moldavia
n-born Romania
n historian, Romantic
author of historical fiction
and plays, academic and politician. The author of Romanian history syntheses, a noted bibliographer
, heraldist
, ethnographer
and folklorist
, he founded and managed a private school, later holding teaching positions at the University of Iaşi and University of Bucharest
. Urechia was also one of the founding members of the Romanian Academy
and, as frequent traveler to Spain
and fluent speaker of Spanish
, a corresponding member of the Royal Spanish Academy
. He was the father of satirist Alceu Urechia.
As an ideologue, Urechia developed "Romanianism", which offered a template for cultural and political cooperation among Romanians
from several historical regions
, and formed part of a Pan-Latinist campaign. An activist in favor of the Moldavia's union
to Wallachia
and a representative of the liberal wing
, he was briefly Moldavian Minister of Religious Affairs, and later a prominent member of the National Liberal Party
. For more than three decades, Urechia represented Covurlui County in the Romanian Kingdom
's Chamber of Deputies
and Senate
. He was Education Minister under two successive National Liberal administrations, and, during the 1890s, he founded the Cultural League for the Unity of All Romanians, which focused on encouraging the aspirations of Romanians living in Austria-Hungary
.
Often portrayed as an amateurish and inconsequential presence in Romanian literature
and science, Urechia was involved in a decade-long controversy with Junimea
, a conservative
literary society which advocated professionalization
. Among those involved on the Junimist side were literary critic Titu Maiorescu
and poet Mihai Eminescu
. Like other contributors to the liberal magazine Revista Contimporană, Urechia was a notorious target of Maiorescu's campaign against "inebriation with words", and ultimately sided with the anti-Junimist author Alexandru Macedonski
, becoming a contributor to Literatorul magazine. The polemics touched on his private life, after claims surfaced that he was secretly leading a polygynous
lifestyle.
for "the ear"), often transcribed as ureche ("ear"). An occasional rendition of the name, reflecting antiquated versions of the Romanian alphabet
, is Urechiă.
The writer was initially known as Vasile Alexandrescu, the latter being his patronymic
, of which his family name, Popovici, was an alternative. Spanish sources occasionally rendered Urechia's first name as Basilio, and his full name was at times Francized
as Basil Alexandresco.
, Urechia was the son of Alexandru Popovici, a member of the boyar
class in Moldavia
and a titular culcer; his mother, Eufrosina (or Euphrosina) née Manoliu. Both had been widowed or divorced from previous marriages, and Vasile had stepsiblings from each parent. After the culcer 's death, he and three other of Eufrosina's youngest children, all of them below legal age, moved in with their mother, who remarried serdar
Fotino. In spring 1848, he was in Iaşi
, where he witnessed the failed rebellion
provoked by the Romantic nationalist
and liberal current
with which he would later affiliate. He debuted in journalism upon the end of the 1840s, when he wrote pieces condemning Transylvania
n-born educators for promoting a version of Romanian which overemphasized the language's connection with Latin
.
During most of the 1850s, the young Vasile Alexandrescu was in France
, spending most of his time in Paris
, where he received his Baccalauréat
(1856), and trained for a Licence ès Lettres degree. Urechia frequented exiles from both Danubian Principalities
(Moldavia and Wallachia
), growing close to the Wallachian politico C. A. Rosetti
. Having written his debut literary works, some grouped in 1854 under the title Mozaic de novele, cugetări, piese şi poezii ("A Mosaic of Novella
s, Musings, Plays and Poetry"), he also completed a debut novel, Coliba Măriucăi ("Măriuca's Cabin", in 1855). The plot was loosely based on Uncle Tom's Cabin
, by the American
abolitionist
writer Harriet Beecher Stowe
, and was adapted to the realities of Romani
slavery
in Moldavia. He was at the time collaborating on Steaua Dunării
, a unionist magazine co-edited by the Moldavian intellectuals Mihail Kogălniceanu
and Vasile Alecsandri
, where he published a Romanian-language translation of Canción a las ruinas de Itálica ("Song to the Ruins of Italica"), a Spanish Renaissance
poem written by Rodrigo Caro
, but attributed by scholars of the day to Fernando de Rioja.
A believer in Pan-Latinism, he popularized the cause of Romanians
through articles published in the Romance
-speaking press of France and Spain, and founded Opiniunea, a magazine for Moldo-Wallachian exiles in Paris. During 1856, as the Crimean War
brought an end to Imperial Russian
administration in the two countries and its Regulamentul Organic
regime, the exiles saw an opportunity for action in favor of the union. During the Peace Treaty Conference
of that year, Urechia was secretary of a Romanian Bureau which popularized the unionist cause among the participants, and proposed a Romanian state under a foreign ruler, whom Urechia wanted to be of "Latin
" origin.
. The wedding at the Romanian Orthodox
Chapel in Paris. He was in Spain from 1857 to 1858 and again in 1862, researching local archives and Spanish education
. Francisca introduced her husband to several figures in Spain's cultural and political life: poets Ramón de Campoamor y Campoosorio
and Gaspar Núñez de Arce
, the future leaders of the First Republic
Emilio Castelar y Ripoll
and Francisco Pi y Margall
, as well as dramatist Manuel Tamayo y Baus
. During the following decade, Urechia also traveled to Greece
, Switzerland
, Italy
and the German Empire
.
Upon his 1858 return to Moldavia, Urechia was appointed court inspector in Iaşi County
and Romanian language teacher at a gymnasium
level. After 1860, he held a Romanian-language and Classical Literature
chair at the newly-founded University of Iaşi. His wife Francisca died a young woman, most likely before 1860, and Urechia remarried, to the German
amateur musician Luiza "Zettina" Wirth. In 1859-1860, as the political union
was being effected under the rule of Alexander John Cuza
as Domnitor
, V. A. Urechia briefly served as Moldavia's Minister of Religious Affairs in the Kogălniceanu administration. During his term in office, he awarded scholarship
s to local undergraduates
, sending them to complete their education in the universities of France, Spain, Portugal
and the Kingdom of Sardinia
. Also then, he published the literary criticism volumes Schiţări de literatură română ("Sketches of Romanian Literature", 1859) and O vorbă despre literatura desfrînată ce se încearcă a se introduce în societatea română ("A Word on the Profligate Literature that Threatens to Introduce Itself into Romanian Society", 1863).
He was still involved in building connections with France while pursuing his interest in ethnography
, and joined the Paris-based Société d'Ethnographie, collaborating closely with its chairman Léon De Rosny. He also became an active member of the Institut d'Ethnographie and the Heraldry Society of France. Beginning in 1861, he was publishing the Iaşi
-based magazine Atheneul Român. A pro-liberal venue, it was noted for reacting against Urechia's former associate Alecsandri over the latter's conservative
views. The Atheneul Român society was the nucleus of a country-wide cultural movement, which Urechia claimed was instrumental in establishing both the Romanian Academy
(founded 1866) and the Romanian Athenaeum
(founded 1888). Urechia's initiative was inspired by his admiration for the Spanish institution Ateneo de Madrid
.
, having been granted a seat at the local university
's Faculty of Letters, but continued to manage a "V. A. Urechia Institute", his private school. He was also employed as Head of Department in the Education Ministry, in which position he helped his future rival, Titu Maiorescu
, who was at the time facing allegations of misconduct and pressured to resign from his teaching position. Also then, as a bibliographer
and avid book collector
, he was among those tasked by Cuza with drafting the common statute of public libraries
throughout the country. He was one of the Romanian Academy's original members upon its 1866 foundation as the Academic Society, and subsequently participated in setting up its Library. Urechia served as vice-chairman and general secretary of the Academy for several terms, was president of its Historical Section, and supervised a number of its cultural programs. Dissolved in Iaşi due to lack of members, the Atheneul Român club was reestablished in the capital during 1865. That year, he published two books: Femeia română, dupre istorie şi poesie ("The Romanian Woman in History and Poetry") and Balul mortului ("The Dead Man's Ball").
After Cuza's replacement with Carol I
, Urechia successfully ran in the November 1866 election for a Chamber
seat in Covurlui County. He was a member of Parliament
for the next 34 years, moving from Chamber to the Senate
, and pushing legislation to modernize
the education system
.
Also in 1866, Urechia published an essay of fable
s, which centered on the work of Dimitrie Ţichindeal (or Chichindeal), an early 19th century poet from Banat
. In 1867, he completed work on his best-known literary contribution to local theater, a three-act drama
or melodrama
inspired by events in Romanian history, and titled Vornicul Bucioc ("Vornic
Bucioc" or "Minister Bucioc"). The same year and the next, he published Despre elocinţa română ("On Romanian Eloquence"), Poezia în faţa politicei ("Poetry vs. Politics") and Patria română ("The Romanian Motherland"). He was in Spain from spring 1867 to autumn 1868, perfecting his knowledge of Castilian
and carrying out an extended research into local archives, being received as corresponding member of the Royal Spanish Academy
(April 2, 1868). Together with fellow intellectual and amateur archaeologist
Alexandru Odobescu
, Urechia represented Romania at the 1869 World Archaeological Congress
in Paris. He and Luiza Wirth divorced at some point after 1868.
In parallel, Urechia published several new works of historical fiction
, including, in 1872, the drama Episod de sub Alecsandru cel Bun ("An Episode from the Rule of Alexander the Good"). In 1872, he also premiered the one-act comedy
Odă la Elisa ("An Ode to Elisa"), which he had written during 1869.
society in Iaşi. At the time, Urechia was editing the journal Adunarea Naţională, which initially regarded the Junimists with sympathy, despite the fact that Maiorescu was already making his anti-liberal agenda public. By the early 1870s however, Urechia had become engaged in a major cultural polemic with the Junimists, which reflected the liberal-conservative and Romantic
-Neoclassical
splits within Romanian society. Although usually adverse to other liberal factions, including the group formed around historian Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu
and Nicolae Ionescu
's Fracţiunea liberă şi independentă, he united with them in condemning Junimea 's views and cultural guidelines. Also during that decade, he openly sided with the radicals
around C. A. Rosetti, who would, in 1875, contribute to the creation of the National Liberal Party
.
Urechia collaborated with D. A. Laurian and Ştefan Michăilescu on the anti-Junimist, Romantic and pro-liberal tribune Revista Contimporană after 1873. Critic and historian Tudor Vianu
saw Urechia as the group's spiritus rector, while literary historian George Călinescu
wrote: "[the journal] had prestige and, intimately, the Junimists grew worried." In its first issue, it hosted Urechia's study on 17th century Moldavian chronicler Miron Costin
and his writings, as well as historical pieces by Gheorghe Sion and Pantazi Ghica
, all of which were soon after criticized by Maiorescu in his essay Beţia de cuvinte ("Inebriation with Words"). In parallel, Urechia had a conflict with the Jewish
writer and pedagogue Ronetti Roman, whom he had employed teacher at his Institute. In his pamphlet Domnul Kanitferstan (Mr. Kanitferstan"), Ronetti Roman reported having been shocked to discover that Urechia was an antisemite.
After the Russo-Turkish War which granted Romania its independence, Urechia represented the country to the International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, and presided over one of its sessions. Later in the year, he was invited to participate in the Congress on literature in London
, England
. In 1879, he was elected member of an Aromanian
cultural league, the Macedo-Romanian Cultural Society, becoming its president the following year and editing its historiographic
textbook, Albumul macedo-român ("The Macedo-Romanian Album"). He was presented with a bronze medal by the Société d'Ethnographie in 1880, and, the following year, received its medal of honor. The same body created the Urechia Prize for Ethnographic Research, first awarded in 1882, and awarded him lifetime membership of the Institut d'Ethnographie. Between 1878 and 1889, he grouped his earlier writings under the title Opere complete ("Complete Works").
Dimitrie Brătianu
and Ion Brătianu
, in the newly-proclaimed Kingdom of Romania
. According to George Călinescu, his appointment had been prepared since 1880. Călinescu cites Urechia's intense correspondence with Alexandru Odobescu, who was then living in Paris. Odobescu had initially asked Urechia to manage his chair at the University, and, Călinescu argues, his tone became "fawning" as Urechia received confirmation for his political ambitions. As Minister, Urechia tasked Odobescu with approaching Hermiona, the widow of French historian Edgar Quinet
and daughter of Romanian intellectual Gheorghe Asachi
, and recovering some of Quinet's notes for publishing in Albumul macedo-român. While reviewing and reshuffling the Ministry, Urechia dismissed the socialist
and atheist
activist Ioan Nădejde from his position as teacher, and played a part in the decision to curb the spread of socialism among the faculty of Iaşi University. However, he cast aside political preferences to assign Junimist author Ion Luca Caragiale
the position of inspector in the counties of Suceava
and Neamţ
. Urechia had prepared a program for administrative reform at several levels, but the brevity of his term prevented him from putting it into practice.
By then, Urechia had also begun collaborating with the younger anti-Junimist and later Symbolist
poet Alexandru Macedonski
. In 1881, Minister Urechia granted Macedonski the Bene-Merenti medal 1st class, even though, Călinescu argues, the poet had been a civil servant for no more than 18 months. A year later, he appointed Macedonski to the post of Historical Monuments Inspector. Also in 1882, he accepted Macedonski's offer to become president of a society formed around the magazine Literatorul. In 1883, following Macedonski's attacks on Junimist author Mihai Eminescu
, later recognized as national poet, the irreverent exposure of Eminescu's mental illness
and the widespread condemnation which ensued, Literatorul went out of print. It resurfaced sporadically after that date, notably in 1885, as Revista Literară, and continued to receive contributions from Urechia, Anghel Demetriescu
, Th. M. Stoenescu and Bonifaciu Florescu, but was eventually turned by Macedonski into a voice for the local Symbolist movement
.
Urechia grew disillusioned with National Liberal politics, and voted against his party when he felt that their politics no longer coincided with his own views. By 1885, he also made his peace with Junimea, which was generally offering its support to the newly-founded Conservative Party, and became a collaborator of its mouthpiece Convorbiri Literare, contributing essays and stories until 1892. Also in 1885, he published his novella Logof. Baptiste Veleli ("The Logofăt Baptiste Veleli"), set in the 17th century. His varied scientific interests led him to correspond with Iuliu Popper, the Romanian-born explorer of Patagonia
, who notably described to Urechia the lawlessness of Punta Arenas, Chile
.
Late in his life, V. A. Urechia concentrated on historical research. This led him to write and publish Istoria românilor ("The History of Romanians", 14 vols., 1891–1903) and Istoria şcoalelor ("The History of Schools", 4 vols., 1892–1901). After 1889, he also resumed activities in the area of bibliography, turning his own collection into a public library to benefit Galaţi
city. He also edited and collected the work of Miron Costin, producing and editing an eponymous 1890 monograph
, together with a similar work dedicated to 19th century Moldavian intellectual Gheorghe Asachi
. In 1891, his scattered essays, novellas, memoir
s and stories based on Romanian folklore
themes were collectively published by as Legende române ("Romanian Legends"). That year, he left for London, where he attended the International Congress of Orientalists and received the honorary diploma for supporting the Congress' activities at an international level.
During the final part of the 1880s, V. A. Urechia partook in a scandal involving Lazăr Şăineanu
, a foreign-educated Jewish-Romanian linguist, during which time he made a series of antisemitic statements. Şăineanu, who, like most other members of the Jewish community, was not legally emancipated
, had been assigned to a Faculty of Letters position by Titu Maiorescu, at the time Education Minister in a Conservative Party cabinet. Urechia and his partisans reacted strongly against this measure, arguing that Şăineanu was made unqualified by his ethnicity, until Şăineanu presented his resignation to Maiorescu.
In 1889, when Şăineanu requested naturalization
, Urechia intervened with the National Liberal politician Dimitrie Sturdza
, head of a committee charged with enforcing nationality law
, asking him to deny the request. A deadlock ensued and, in both 1889 and 1895, the matter came to be deliberated by the Senate. Although it won support from both Conservative Premier Petre P. Carp
and the Chamber, Urechia again spoke out against enfranchise in the Senate, and, largely as a result of this appeal, a majority of his colleagues voted with him on both occasions.
living outside the confines of the Old Kingdom
. Like other liberal activists, he hoped to see Romania united with Transylvania
and the Banat
, regions then included in Austria-Hungary
and administered by the Kingdom of Hungary
. Urechia viewed with sympathy the formation of a National Party
in that region, and supported it throughout the Transylvanian Memorandum
movement of 1892, when many of its leaders were jailed by Hungarian authorities. He appealed for support throughout Europe, and, in 1893, collected the interventions of his foreign peers in a single volume, known in Romanian as Voci latine. De la fraţi la fraţi ("Latin Voices. From Brothers to Brothers"). As leader of the newly-founded Cultural League for the Unity of All Romanians, he campaigned in the international press, resulting in some 500 newspaper articles on the Memorandum trial. These actions made partisans of Austria-Hungary regard him as an agent of dissent. In 1894, he was engaged in a heated polemic over these issues with the Hungarian officer István Türr, who had published articles condemning the Memorandum participants and their Bucharest-based partisans. It involved other politicians in 1895, when Urechia attended the Interparliamentary Union's Conference in Brussels
, Belgium
, and debated the matter with members of the Hungarian legislature
.
Urechia was vice-president of the Senate in 1896-1897. During those years, he became Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur
, honorary member and later honorary president of the Conseil Héraldique de France, foreign member of the French Archaeological Society, and associate member of the Spanish Red Cross, and Ecuador
's consul general to Romania. Attending the October 1899 International Congress of Orientalists in Rome
, he organized a Pan-Latinist festivity centered on Trajan's Column
, with the participation of Luigi Pelloux
cabinet ministers and the Transylvanian peasant activist Badea Cârţan
. Although the ceremony enjoyed popularity and coverage in the press, Urechia and his Cultural League were frustrated by lack of funds in their attempt to organize a living exhibit of Romanian customs. He attended the 1900 congress of the Union of Latin Students, meeting in the French town of Alès
, and delivered an opening speech in which the main theme was Pan-Latinism. The same year, he published a series of memoirs and travel writing
pieces, under the title Din tainele vieţii ("Some of Life's Secrets").
Urechia died in Bucharest at age 67. His funeral oration was delivered by archaeologist Grigore Tocilescu
, while the Academy's commemorative session was presided over by his former rival Hasdeu.
argues that, while Urechia stood above all his pro-liberal academic colleagues in respect to his "industriousness", they all lacked scientific competence. Boia, who notes that Urechia's works are generally compilations, concludes that their author was motivated by "fervent but naïve patriotism
".
Urechia's main contribution was as an ideologue of the liberal current
, and relates to his version of patriotism, called românism ("Romanianism"). Seen by him as distinct from nationalism
, it involved the ongoing promotion of a common spiritual identity among Romanians
, a focus on popularizing local folklore
, and a cultural version of Pan-Latinism. From early on, Urechia argued in favor of a federal Latin
bloc to counter the threats of Pan-Slavism
and Pan-Germanism
. In 1859, a letter he sent to Sardinian
Premier Camillo Benso di Cavour, in which he introduced the Moldavian scholarship recipients to the University of Turin
, made reference to Pan-Latin sentiments and the Romanian origins: "Turn our young Romanians into something better than savants; make them Latins, proud descendants of Rome
, the mother of their nation." Part of his subsequent studies dealt with the comparative linguistics
of Romance
: like many of his fellow intellectuals, Urechia was determined to find the exact position of Romanian in relation to the Latin language, Standard Italian
or Italian dialects
(see History of the Romanian language
). Thus, in an 1868 essay, Urechia theorized a "parallelism" between Romanian and Friulian
, his conclusion being similar to one earlier voiced (and eventually discarded) by Graziadio Isaia Ascoli
.
Urechia saw in the application of Romanianism a cultural battle for improvement, writing: "A nation incapable of developing is incapable of defending its existence. This is why all nations, recognizing in culture the primordial condition of their existence and grandeur, have struggled to make use of all their forces in order to advance culturally. [...] For today culture is the strongest and non-invincible weapon." His writings frequently made the controversial claim that Romanians had perfected various elements of human civilization before all other peoples (see Protochronism
). Based on his theories about social cohesion, Urechia also expressed his distaste for political factionalism. An article of his in Adunarea Naţională reacted against the split between the National Liberal group (the "Reds") and the Conservative Party (the "Whites"): "Victory will only be possible when Romanianism is neither red nor white".
Late in his life, the writer coined another term, daco-românism ("Daco-Romanianism"), which referenced the ancient territory of Dacia
and, through it, to the ideal of grouping together all territories inhabited by Romanians outside the Old Kingdom
's borders. This allusion to Transylvania
contributed to his polemic with Austro-Hungarian
authorities, who came to regard the term with suspicion. At the same time, Urechia sought to build contacts with representatives of other Romance-speaking communities in the Balkans
, Aromanians
as well as Megleno-Romanians
and Istro-Romanians
, as well as with Romanian leaders from Bukovina
and Bessarabia
. After the Russo-Turkish War, when Romanian rule was extended to formerly Ottoman
Northern Dobruja
, he called for the region's Romanianization
through colonization and changes in toponymy
.
Urechia's had conflicting attitudes on the cohabitation of Romanians and ethnic minorities
. His Coliba Măriucăi, one of the first novels in Romanian literature
to explore social problems from a critical perspective, and written just as slavery
was being outlawed in Moldavia, he expresses sympathy for the persecuted Romani community
. In contrast with this approach, the statements made by Urechia in his conflict with Lazăr Şăineanu
show an antisemitic side to his Romanianism, which academic Michael Shafir rates as "cultural" and "economic" rather than "racial". While debating Şăineanu's status in academia, Urechia claimed: "A person foreign to our nation's fiber could never awaken in the mind and heart of the young generation the image of our past [...]. How will that person recognize those pulsations in the historical life of Romanians, when he has nothing in common with [the people's] aspirations?" Urechia was especially adverse to Şăineanu's study on the traditional references to Jews as "Tatars
" and Uriaş
i, as a reference to an Early Medieval
presence of Khazars
in present-day Romanian territories. He therefore publicly accused Şăineanu of making it seem that the Jews had a historical precedent over Romanians. Literary critic Laszlo Alexandru writes that Urechia's reading of the text was "in bad faith", and his conclusions "slanderous". In 1895, during the final Senate vote on Şăineanu's naturalization
, Urechia gave an applauded speech in which he likened the linguist with the Trojan Horse
, urging his fellow parliamentarians not to allow "a foreigner into the Romanian citadel".
reaction against the Junimist call for professionalization
, controlled modernization
and Westernization
, the Revista Contimporană group sought to portray the liberal approach as motivated by historical precedence. George Călinescu
writes: "By studying, as superficially and bombastically as they did, a [medieval] chronicler [...], the group sought to inculcate the idea of tradition." Titu Maiorescu had by then reacted against this approach, accusing his adversaries of enforcing "forms without substance" (that is, ill-adapted to the Romanian realities which they claimed to address), and directed his accusations specifically against the University of Bucharest
faculty, exposing the heads of department for lacking training in their fields of choice.
Maiorescu replied to his adversaries in Beţia de cuvinte, where he emphasized his group's overall rejection and occasional derision of traditional Romanian literature, and commented that both the model and its defenders had produced a characteristically prolix style. The Junimist figure also focused on discussing errors in Urechia's works, particularly when it came to his pronouncements on the philosophy of history
. According to Maiorescu, the context had conflated two separate topics into one phrase, and unwittingly made it seem that the 18th-century philosophe
Voltaire
was active in the 17th century. Călinescu used this point to illustrate Maiorescu's polemic technique, which involved presenting his adversaries with "proposition
s cruelly selected from the textbook on logic". The text referenced other false claims made by Urechia, questioning his competence. It cited him arguing that the 4th-century Imperial Roman
historian Ammianus Marcellinus
was a source on the 5th-century rule of Attila the Hun
, that philosophers Gottfried Leibniz
and René Descartes
were historians, and that painter Cimabue
was an architect. In what Lucian Boia deems "perhaps [his] most successful page", Maiorescu ridiculed Urechia's claim that 18th-century Wallachian poet Ienăchiţă Văcărescu
was superior to Germany
's Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
.
Urechia, Laurian, Ghica and Petru Grădişteanu decided to issue a common reply to Maiorescu's accusations, using Rosetti's newspaper Românul as their venue. One of Urechia's texts in the series accused Maiorescu of "mocking for the urge of mocking", and called Beţia de cuvinte "an unqualifiable diatribe". He defended his group as the true representatives of a cultural line leading back to the Wallachian uprising of 1821
, and rhetorically asked Maiorescu: "could it be true that in these 50 years all that was planted in the national soil are feather grass and creeping thistle?" Tudor Vianu
, who believes Urechia had "too much knowledge of things", cautions that "[his] pen would slide too fast over paper". He defines Urechia's reply as "gauche and prolix". While he criticizes Urechia's views on history, literary historian Z. Ornea believes that he was justified in opposing Junimist "exclusivism", especially when rejecting Maiorescu's theory that the state needed to redesign its educational system
by closing down universities and building more primary schools.
Maiorescu himself answered to his critics in another article, detailing their rebuttals and arguing that they were proof of ignoratio elenchi
. Elsewhere, the same critic stated his amusement at reading in Adunarea Naţională that the 1859 union
had spurred on the Risorgimento and German unification, and that the 1784 Transylvanian rebellion
had made possible the French Revolution
. An unsigned article published the conservative newspaper Timpul
in 1877, believed by literary historian Z. Ornea to be the work of Maiorescu, accuses V. A. Urechia, Xenofon Gheorghiu, Nicolae Ionescu
, Ştefan Şendrea, Andrei Vizanti and others of being inactive academics and corrupt
public figures. Such criticism was being repeated in later years: writing some twenty years later, Urechia expressed his disappointment that a Bucharest journal had more recently mocked his activist stance and had referred to him as a "road junction orator".
", was the topic of innuendo and scandal. Painter Nicolae Grigorescu
was allegedly in love with Luiza Wirth, and painted several portraits of her, including one in the nude. The latter painting was described by Călinescu as "indiscreet [and] voluptuous". Their marriage was allegedly a ménage à trois
, involving Luiza's sister Ana. Rumors also had it that a the two other Wirth sisters, Carlotta, who was Queen Elisabeth
's music tutor, and Emilia, wife of Romanian Army General Staff Chief Nicolae Dona, were also V. A. Urechia's lovers. Such claims of sororal polygyny
were notably popularized by Eminescu, who once described Urechia as a "poor fellow who has two keep two sisters as his wives."
Story has it that Dona's son, officer Alexandru Guriţă, was Urechia's illegitimate son. Oblivious to this, Guriţă had fallen in love with Corina and was planning to marry her, before Urechia stepped in and revealed that they would be committing incest
. The two lovers committed suicide. After her divorce from Urechia, Luiza lived with I. G. Cantacuzino; their son was Gheorghe Cantacuzino-Grănicerul, future general and provisional leader of the fascist
Iron Guard
. In early 1882, after she remarried a man named Hristu Cuţiana, but died in August of the same year.
From early on, Urechia was defended against criticism by people who shared his views. In his speech to commemorate the writer's death, Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu
claimed: "As an agitator for the benefit and growth of the Romanian nation, Urechia was sublime; no one shall replace him, nothing shall be able to shadow him when it comes to our national history, in which he will endure as an archangel
of enthusiasm in the memory of all Romanians". According to cultural historian Ovidiu Pecican
, Hasdeu, with political support from National Liberal leader Ion Brătianu
, managed to impose a nationalist cultural model to compete with Junimea, thus ensuring that both Urechia and his rival Şăineanu, alongside George Dem. Teodorescu, Grigore Tocilescu
, George Ionescu-Gion, Alexandru Vlahuţă
and other Bucharest-based figures, addressed an alternative and autonomous milieu. Partly building on the observations made by literary critic Alexandru George, Z. Ornea notes that, for all his "real inadequacies", Urechia "was but moreover became incontestably superior to many members of [Junimea] who were much amused when reading Maiorescu's admirable lampoon." Ornea also concluded that, with his final historical works, particularly Istoria şcoalelor, Urechia contributed texts "relevant to this day". Although Maiorescu's early treatment of Urechia's work left an enduring impact on his public image, the author came to be viewed with more sympathy during the 20th century. Among the influential monograph
s which reclaimed part of his writings was one published by Alexandru George in 1976. According to Ornea, it and other such works "reclaim a fairer and more lenient posterity." Urechia's work as a teacher and cultural promoter also reflected on intellectual life: dramatist Alexandru Davila
was one of the V. A. Urechia Institute graduates, and, according to Tudor Vianu, Urechia's post-1870s support for Macedonski, together with similar efforts by Ionescu-Gion, Tocilescu, Anghel Demetriescu
, Bonifaciu Florescu, Th. M. Stoenescu, was largely responsible for passing down "a better and truer image of the abused poet."
After World War I
, Alceu Urechia issued protests against the intellectual establishment, who, he argued, had obscured his father's contribution to the historical process whereby Greater Romania
had been created. Historian Nicolae Iorga
, who took over chairmanship of the Cultural League in 1932, paid tribute to his predecessor, referring to his "unbound wish to be of service in every area and his great talent to win over by means of an appealing form of vanity".
Although their author was the recipient of much criticism over his inconsistencies, V. A. Urechia's books enjoyed a steady popularity. This was in particular the case with Legende române, parts of which were translated into Italian
. Unlike his other texts, Legende was prevented by Hungarian censors from circulating within Transylvania, and had to make its way in only through the Cisleithania
n part of the monarchy. It was republished in a 1904 definitive edition by Editura Socec. His Albumul macedo-român and Voci latine were placed by art historian Gheorghe Oprescu among "the most beautiful and elegant turn-of-the-century Romanian books." In 1878, to mark his presence at the International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, the Société d'Ethnographie presented Urechia with a bust
in his likeness, sculpted by Wladimir Hegel. Thirty-three years later, his Transylvanian collaborators dedicated him an album, which included a poem written especially for him by George Coşbuc
. Urechia's book collection, which he had turned into a public library, is managed by the city of Galaţi
.
In addition to the writings of his adversaries Maiorescu and Eminescu, Urechia was the subject of satirical pieces written by various other authors. They include his employee Ronetti Roman and the Junimist figure Iacob Negruzzi. Grigorescu's portraits of Luiza Urechia, including the nude (which is said to be worth 100,000 euro
s), found their way into the art collection of General Dona's son, physician Iosif Dona, and were later inherited by the National Museum of Art
. The museum lost ownership of the entire Dona collection in 2007, after its property rights were successfully disputed in court by rival claimants.
Moldavia
Moldavia is a geographic and historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester river...
n-born Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n historian, Romantic
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
author of historical fiction
Historical fiction
Historical fiction tells a story that is set in the past. That setting is usually real and drawn from history, and often contains actual historical persons, but the principal characters tend to be fictional...
and plays, academic and politician. The author of Romanian history syntheses, a noted bibliographer
Bibliography
Bibliography , as a practice, is the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology...
, heraldist
Heraldry
Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, "army commander"...
, ethnographer
Ethnography
Ethnography is a qualitative method aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group...
and folklorist
Folkloristics
Folkloristics is the formal academic study of folklore. The term derives from a nineteenth century German designation of folkloristik to distinguish between folklore as the content and folkloristics as its study, much as language is distinguished from linguistics...
, he founded and managed a private school, later holding teaching positions at the University of Iaşi and University of Bucharest
University of Bucharest
The University of Bucharest , in Romania, is a university founded in 1864 by decree of Prince Alexander John Cuza to convert the former Saint Sava Academy into the current University of Bucharest.-Presentation:...
. Urechia was also one of the founding members of the Romanian Academy
Romanian Academy
The Romanian Academy is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 acting members who are elected for life....
and, as frequent traveler to Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and fluent speaker of Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, a corresponding member of the Royal Spanish Academy
Real Academia Española
The Royal Spanish Academy is the official royal institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, but is affiliated with national language academies in twenty-one other hispanophone nations through the Association of Spanish Language Academies...
. He was the father of satirist Alceu Urechia.
As an ideologue, Urechia developed "Romanianism", which offered a template for cultural and political cooperation among Romanians
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
from several historical regions
Historical regions of Romania
At various times during the late 19th and 20th centuries, Romania extended over the following historical regions:Wallachia:*Muntenia or Greater Wallachia: as part of Wallachia, joined Moldavia in 1859 to create modern Romania;...
, and formed part of a Pan-Latinist campaign. An activist in favor of the Moldavia's union
United Principalities
The United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, also known as the Romanian Principalities, was the official name of Romania following the 1859 election of Alexandru Ioan Cuza as prince or domnitor of both territories...
to Wallachia
Wallachia
Wallachia or Walachia is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians...
and a representative of the liberal wing
Liberalism and radicalism in Romania
This article gives an overview of Liberalism and Radicalism in Romania. It is limited to liberal parties with substantial support, mainly proved by having had a representation in parliament. The sign ⇒ denotes another party in this scheme...
, he was briefly Moldavian Minister of Religious Affairs, and later a prominent member of the National Liberal Party
National Liberal Party (Romania)
The National Liberal Party , abbreviated to PNL, is a centre-right liberal party in Romania. It is the third-largest party in the Romanian Parliament, with 53 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 22 in the Senate: behind the centre-right Democratic Liberal Party and the centre-left Social...
. For more than three decades, Urechia represented Covurlui County in the Romanian Kingdom
Kingdom of Romania
The Kingdom of Romania was the Romanian state based on a form of parliamentary monarchy between 13 March 1881 and 30 December 1947, specified by the first three Constitutions of Romania...
's Chamber of Deputies
Chamber of Deputies of Romania
The Chamber of Deputies is the lower house in Romania's bicameral parliament. It has 315 seats, to which deputies are elected by direct popular vote on a proportional representation basis to serve four-year terms...
and Senate
Senate of Romania
The Senate of Romania is the upper house in the bicameral Parliament of Romania. It has 137 seats , to which members are elected by direct popular vote, using Mixed member proportional representation in 42 electoral districts , to serve four-year terms.-Former location:After the Romanian...
. He was Education Minister under two successive National Liberal administrations, and, during the 1890s, he founded the Cultural League for the Unity of All Romanians, which focused on encouraging the aspirations of Romanians living in Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
.
Often portrayed as an amateurish and inconsequential presence in Romanian literature
Literature of Romania
Romanian literature is literature written by Romanian authors, although the term may also be used to refer to all literature written in the Romanian language.Eugène Ionesco is one of the foremost playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd....
and science, Urechia was involved in a decade-long controversy with Junimea
Junimea
Junimea was a Romanian literary society founded in Iaşi in 1863, through the initiative of several foreign-educated personalities led by Titu Maiorescu, Petre P. Carp, Vasile Pogor, Theodor Rosetti and Iacob Negruzzi...
, a conservative
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
literary society which advocated professionalization
Professionalization
Professionalization is the social process by which any trade or occupation transforms itself into a true "profession of the highest integrity and competence." This process tends to involve establishing acceptable qualifications, a professional body or association to oversee the conduct of members...
. Among those involved on the Junimist side were literary critic Titu Maiorescu
Titu Maiorescu
Titu Liviu Maiorescu was a Romanian literary critic and politician, founder of the Junimea Society. As a literary critic, he was instrumental in the development of Romanian culture in the second half of the 19th century....
and poet Mihai Eminescu
Mihai Eminescu
Mihai Eminescu was a Romantic poet, novelist and journalist, often regarded as the most famous and influential Romanian poet. Eminescu was an active member of the Junimea literary society and he worked as an editor for the newspaper Timpul , the official newspaper of the Conservative Party...
. Like other contributors to the liberal magazine Revista Contimporană, Urechia was a notorious target of Maiorescu's campaign against "inebriation with words", and ultimately sided with the anti-Junimist author Alexandru Macedonski
Alexandru Macedonski
Alexandru Macedonski was a Wallachian-born Romanian poet, novelist, dramatist and literary critic, known especially for having promoted French Symbolism in his native country, and for leading the Romanian Symbolist movement during its early decades...
, becoming a contributor to Literatorul magazine. The polemics touched on his private life, after claims surfaced that he was secretly leading a polygynous
Polygyny
Polygyny is a form of marriage in which a man has two or more wives at the same time. In countries where the practice is illegal, the man is referred to as a bigamist or a polygamist...
lifestyle.
Name
V. A. Urechia was known to his contemporaries by several name variants: his rival Eminescu once described him as having "seven names". Urechia, which the writer added in adult life, is a variant of urechea (RomanianRomanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
for "the ear"), often transcribed as ureche ("ear"). An occasional rendition of the name, reflecting antiquated versions of the Romanian alphabet
Romanian alphabet
The Romanian alphabet is a modification of the Latin alphabet and consists of 31 letters:The letters Q , W , and Y were officially introduced in the Romanian alphabet in 1982, although they had been used earlier...
, is Urechiă.
The writer was initially known as Vasile Alexandrescu, the latter being his patronymic
Patronymic
A patronym, or patronymic, is a component of a personal name based on the name of one's father, grandfather or an even earlier male ancestor. A component of a name based on the name of one's mother or a female ancestor is a matronymic. Each is a means of conveying lineage.In many areas patronyms...
, of which his family name, Popovici, was an alternative. Spanish sources occasionally rendered Urechia's first name as Basilio, and his full name was at times Francized
Francization
Francization or Gallicization is a process of cultural assimilation that gives a French character to a word, an ethnicity or a person.-French Colonial Empire:-Francization in the World:...
as Basil Alexandresco.
Early life
Born in Piatra NeamţPiatra Neamt
Piatra Neamț , , ; is the capital city of Neamţ County, in the historical region of Moldavia, eastern Romania. Because of its privileged location in the Eastern Carpathian mountains, it is considered one of the most picturesque cities in Romania...
, Urechia was the son of Alexandru Popovici, a member of the boyar
Boyar
A boyar, or bolyar , was a member of the highest rank of the feudal Moscovian, Kievan Rus'ian, Bulgarian, Wallachian, and Moldavian aristocracies, second only to the ruling princes , from the 10th century through the 17th century....
class in Moldavia
Moldavia
Moldavia is a geographic and historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester river...
and a titular culcer; his mother, Eufrosina (or Euphrosina) née Manoliu. Both had been widowed or divorced from previous marriages, and Vasile had stepsiblings from each parent. After the culcer 's death, he and three other of Eufrosina's youngest children, all of them below legal age, moved in with their mother, who remarried serdar
Serdar
Serdar is the Turkic spelling of the Persian name Sardar which means Field Marshal.-Given name:* Serdar Avcı, Turkish boxer* Serdar Aziz, Turkish footballer* Serdar Bayrak, Turkish footballer* Serdar Güneş, Turkish footballer...
Fotino. In spring 1848, he was in Iaşi
Iasi
Iași is the second most populous city and a municipality in Romania. Located in the historical Moldavia region, Iași has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Romanian social, cultural, academic and artistic life...
, where he witnessed the failed rebellion
Moldavian Revolution of 1848
The Moldavian Revolution of 1848 was an unsuccessful Romanian liberal and Romantic nationalist revolt in the principality of Moldavia. Part of the Revolutions of 1848, and closely connected with the successful uprising in Wallachia, it sought to overturn the administration imposed by Imperial...
provoked by the Romantic nationalist
Romantic nationalism
Romantic nationalism is the form of nationalism in which the state derives its political legitimacy as an organic consequence of the unity of those it governs...
and liberal current
Liberalism and radicalism in Romania
This article gives an overview of Liberalism and Radicalism in Romania. It is limited to liberal parties with substantial support, mainly proved by having had a representation in parliament. The sign ⇒ denotes another party in this scheme...
with which he would later affiliate. He debuted in journalism upon the end of the 1840s, when he wrote pieces condemning Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
n-born educators for promoting a version of Romanian which overemphasized the language's connection with Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
.
During most of the 1850s, the young Vasile Alexandrescu was in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, spending most of his time in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, where he received his Baccalauréat
Baccalauréat
The baccalauréat , often known in France colloquially as le bac, is an academic qualification which French and international students take at the end of the lycée . It was introduced by Napoleon I in 1808. It is the main diploma required to pursue university studies...
(1856), and trained for a Licence ès Lettres degree. Urechia frequented exiles from both Danubian Principalities
Danubian Principalities
Danubian Principalities was a conventional name given to the Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, which emerged in the early 14th century. The term was coined in the Habsburg Monarchy after the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca in order to designate an area on the lower Danube with a common...
(Moldavia and Wallachia
Wallachia
Wallachia or Walachia is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians...
), growing close to the Wallachian politico C. A. Rosetti
C. A. Rosetti
Constantin Alexandru Rosetti was a Romanian literary and political leader, born in Bucharest into a Phanariot Greek family.In 1845, Rosetti went to Paris, where he met Alphonse de Lamartine, the patron of the Society of Romanian Students in Paris. In 1847, he married Mary Grant, the sister of the...
. Having written his debut literary works, some grouped in 1854 under the title Mozaic de novele, cugetări, piese şi poezii ("A Mosaic of Novella
Novella
A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...
s, Musings, Plays and Poetry"), he also completed a debut novel, Coliba Măriucăi ("Măriuca's Cabin", in 1855). The plot was loosely based on Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War", according to Will Kaufman....
, by the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
abolitionist
Abolitionism
Abolitionism is a movement to end slavery.In western Europe and the Americas abolitionism was a movement to end the slave trade and set slaves free. At the behest of Dominican priest Bartolomé de las Casas who was shocked at the treatment of natives in the New World, Spain enacted the first...
writer Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe was an American abolitionist and author. Her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin was a depiction of life for African-Americans under slavery; it reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential in the United States and United Kingdom...
, and was adapted to the realities of Romani
Roma minority in Romania
The Roma constitute one of the major minorities in Romania. According to the 2002 census, they number 535,140 people or 2.5% of the total population, being the second-largest ethnic minority in Romania after Hungarians...
slavery
Slavery in Romania
Slavery existed on the territory of present-day Romania from before the founding of the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia in 13th–14th century, until it was abolished in stages during the 1840s and 1850s. Most of the slaves were of Roma ethnicity...
in Moldavia. He was at the time collaborating on Steaua Dunării
Steaua Dunării
Steaua Dunării was a political newspaper and a unionist mouthpiece founded in Octomber 1855 by Mihail Kogălniceanu. Editors like Vasile-Urechea Avexandrescu, Vasile Mălinescu, Iancu M. Codrescu and colaborators like Vasile Alecsandri, Costache Negruzzi, Alecu Donici, Grigore Alexandrescu, Alecu...
, a unionist magazine co-edited by the Moldavian intellectuals Mihail Kogălniceanu
Mihail Kogalniceanu
Mihail Kogălniceanu was a Moldavian-born Romanian liberal statesman, lawyer, historian and publicist; he became Prime Minister of Romania October 11, 1863, after the 1859 union of the Danubian Principalities under Domnitor Alexander John Cuza, and later served as Foreign Minister under Carol I. He...
and Vasile Alecsandri
Vasile Alecsandri
Vasile Alecsandri was a Romanian poet, playwright, politician, and diplomat. He collected Romanian folk songs and was one of the principal animators of the 19th century movement for Romanian cultural identity and union of Moldavia and Wallachia....
, where he published a Romanian-language translation of Canción a las ruinas de Itálica ("Song to the Ruins of Italica"), a Spanish Renaissance
Spanish Renaissance
The Spanish Renaissance refers to a movement in Spain, emerging from the Italian Renaissance in Italy during the 14th century, that spread to Spain during the 15th and 16th centuries...
poem written by Rodrigo Caro
Rodrigo Caro
Rodrigo Caro was a Spanish historian, archeologist, lawyer, poet and writer....
, but attributed by scholars of the day to Fernando de Rioja.
A believer in Pan-Latinism, he popularized the cause of Romanians
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
through articles published in the Romance
Romance languages
The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, more precisely of the Italic languages subfamily, comprising all the languages that descend from Vulgar Latin, the language of ancient Rome...
-speaking press of France and Spain, and founded Opiniunea, a magazine for Moldo-Wallachian exiles in Paris. During 1856, as the Crimean War
Crimean War
The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...
brought an end to Imperial Russian
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
administration in the two countries and its Regulamentul Organic
Regulamentul Organic
Regulamentul Organic was a quasi-constitutional organic law enforced in 1834–1835 by the Imperial Russian authorities in Moldavia and Wallachia...
regime, the exiles saw an opportunity for action in favor of the union. During the Peace Treaty Conference
Treaty of Paris (1856)
The Treaty of Paris of 1856 settled the Crimean War between Russia and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the British Empire, Second French Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The treaty, signed on March 30, 1856 at the Congress of Paris, made the Black Sea neutral territory, closing it to all...
of that year, Urechia was secretary of a Romanian Bureau which popularized the unionist cause among the participants, and proposed a Romanian state under a foreign ruler, whom Urechia wanted to be of "Latin
Latins
"Latins" refers to different groups of people and the meaning of the word changes for where and when it is used.The original Latins were an Italian tribe inhabiting central and south-central Italy. Through conquest by their most populous city-state, Rome, the original Latins culturally "Romanized"...
" origin.
Late 1850s and first ministerial appointment
In August 1857, he married the upper-class Spanish woman Francisca Dominica de Plano, whose father had been the personal physician of Queen regent Isabella IIIsabella II of Spain
Isabella II was the only female monarch of Spain in modern times. She came to the throne as an infant, but her succession was disputed by the Carlists, who refused to recognise a female sovereign, leading to the Carlist Wars. After a troubled reign, she was deposed in the Glorious Revolution of...
. The wedding at the Romanian Orthodox
Romanian Orthodox Church
The Romanian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church. It is in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox churches, and is ranked seventh in order of precedence. The Primate of the church has the title of Patriarch...
Chapel in Paris. He was in Spain from 1857 to 1858 and again in 1862, researching local archives and Spanish education
Education in Spain
The current system of education in Spain is known as LOE after the Ley Orgánica de Educación, or Fundamental Law of Education. Education in Spain is compulsory, and free from 6 to 16 years of age, supported by the Government in each Region....
. Francisca introduced her husband to several figures in Spain's cultural and political life: poets Ramón de Campoamor y Campoosorio
Ramon de Campoamor y Campoosorio
Ramón María de las Mercedes de Campoamor y Campoosorio , known as Ramón de Campoamor, asturien realist poet and philosopher, was born at Navia on September 24, 1817....
and Gaspar Núñez de Arce
Gaspar Núñez de Arce
Gaspar Núñez de Arce was a Spanish poet, dramatist and statesman.He was born at Valladolid, where he was educated for the priesthood. He had no vocation for the ecclesiastical state, plunged into literature, and produced a play entitled Amor y Orgullo which was acted at Toledo in 1849...
, the future leaders of the First Republic
First Spanish Republic
The First Spanish Republic was the political regime that existed in Spain between the parliamentary proclamation on 11 February 1873 and 29 December 1874 when General Arsenio Martínez-Campos's pronunciamento marked the beginning of the Bourbon Restoration in Spain...
Emilio Castelar y Ripoll
Emilio Castelar y Ripoll
Emilio Castelar y Ripoll was a Spanish republican politician, and a president of the First Spanish Republic.Castelar was born in Cádiz. He was an eloquent and literary man...
and Francisco Pi y Margall
Francisco Pi y Margall
Francisco Pi y Margall was a liberal Spanish statesman and romanticist writer. He was briefly president of the short-lived First Spanish Republic in 1873.-Early life:...
, as well as dramatist Manuel Tamayo y Baus
Manuel Tamayo y Baus
Manuel Tamayo y Baus was a Spanish dramatist.He was born at Madrid, into a family connected with the theatre, his mother being the eminent actress Joaquina Baus. It is interesting to note that she appeared as Geneviève de Brabant in an arrangement from the French made by Tamayo when he was in his...
. During the following decade, Urechia also traveled to Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and the German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
.
Upon his 1858 return to Moldavia, Urechia was appointed court inspector in Iaşi County
Iasi County
Iași is a county of Romania, in Moldavia, with the administrative seat at Iași.-Demographics:As of 1 July 2007, Iași County had a population of 825,100, making it the second most populous county in Romania after Bucharest, with a population density of 150/km².*Romanians - 98.1%*Roma -...
and Romanian language teacher at a gymnasium
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
level. After 1860, he held a Romanian-language and Classical Literature
Classics
Classics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean world ; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity Classics (sometimes encompassing Classical Studies or...
chair at the newly-founded University of Iaşi. His wife Francisca died a young woman, most likely before 1860, and Urechia remarried, to the German
Germans of Romania
The Germans of Romania or Rumäniendeutsche were 760,000 strong in 1930. They are not a single group; thus, to understand their language, culture, and history, one must view them as independent groups:...
amateur musician Luiza "Zettina" Wirth. In 1859-1860, as the political union
United Principalities
The United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, also known as the Romanian Principalities, was the official name of Romania following the 1859 election of Alexandru Ioan Cuza as prince or domnitor of both territories...
was being effected under the rule of Alexander John Cuza
Alexander John Cuza
Alexander John Cuza was a Moldavian-born Romanian politician who ruled as the first Domnitor of the United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia between 1859 and 1866.-Early life:...
as Domnitor
Domnitor
Domnitor was the official title of the ruler of the United Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia between 1859 and 1866....
, V. A. Urechia briefly served as Moldavia's Minister of Religious Affairs in the Kogălniceanu administration. During his term in office, he awarded scholarship
Scholarship
A scholarship is an award of financial aid for a student to further education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.-Types:...
s to local undergraduates
Undergraduate education
Undergraduate education is an education level taken prior to gaining a first degree . Hence, in many subjects in many educational systems, undergraduate education is post-secondary education up to the level of a bachelor's degree, such as in the United States, where a university entry level is...
, sending them to complete their education in the universities of France, Spain, Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
and the Kingdom of Sardinia
Kingdom of Sardinia
The Kingdom of Sardinia consisted of the island of Sardinia first as a part of the Crown of Aragon and subsequently the Spanish Empire , and second as a part of the composite state of the House of Savoy . Its capital was originally Cagliari, in the south of the island, and later Turin, on the...
. Also then, he published the literary criticism volumes Schiţări de literatură română ("Sketches of Romanian Literature", 1859) and O vorbă despre literatura desfrînată ce se încearcă a se introduce în societatea română ("A Word on the Profligate Literature that Threatens to Introduce Itself into Romanian Society", 1863).
He was still involved in building connections with France while pursuing his interest in ethnography
Ethnography
Ethnography is a qualitative method aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group...
, and joined the Paris-based Société d'Ethnographie, collaborating closely with its chairman Léon De Rosny. He also became an active member of the Institut d'Ethnographie and the Heraldry Society of France. Beginning in 1861, he was publishing the Iaşi
Iasi
Iași is the second most populous city and a municipality in Romania. Located in the historical Moldavia region, Iași has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Romanian social, cultural, academic and artistic life...
-based magazine Atheneul Român. A pro-liberal venue, it was noted for reacting against Urechia's former associate Alecsandri over the latter's conservative
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
views. The Atheneul Român society was the nucleus of a country-wide cultural movement, which Urechia claimed was instrumental in establishing both the Romanian Academy
Romanian Academy
The Romanian Academy is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 acting members who are elected for life....
(founded 1866) and the Romanian Athenaeum
Romanian Athenaeum
The Romanian Athenaeum is a concert hall in the center of Bucharest, Romania and a landmark of the Romanian capital city. Opened in 1888, the ornate, domed, circular building is the city's main concert hall and home of the "George Enescu" Philharmonic and of the George Enescu annual international...
(founded 1888). Urechia's initiative was inspired by his admiration for the Spanish institution Ateneo de Madrid
Ateneo de Madrid
The Ateneo de Madrid is a private cultural institution located in the capital of Spain, originally founded in 1835. Its full name is Ateneo Científico, Literario y Artístico de Madrid .-History:The roots of the Athenæum trace to the ideals of Francophiles and liberals of the early 19th...
.
Relocation to Bucharest
In November 1864, Urechia moved to unified Romania's capital, BucharestBucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
, having been granted a seat at the local university
University of Bucharest
The University of Bucharest , in Romania, is a university founded in 1864 by decree of Prince Alexander John Cuza to convert the former Saint Sava Academy into the current University of Bucharest.-Presentation:...
's Faculty of Letters, but continued to manage a "V. A. Urechia Institute", his private school. He was also employed as Head of Department in the Education Ministry, in which position he helped his future rival, Titu Maiorescu
Titu Maiorescu
Titu Liviu Maiorescu was a Romanian literary critic and politician, founder of the Junimea Society. As a literary critic, he was instrumental in the development of Romanian culture in the second half of the 19th century....
, who was at the time facing allegations of misconduct and pressured to resign from his teaching position. Also then, as a bibliographer
Bibliography
Bibliography , as a practice, is the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology...
and avid book collector
Book collecting
Book collecting is the collecting of books, including seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining whatever books are of interest to a given individual collector. The love of books is bibliophilia, and someone who loves to read, admire, and collect...
, he was among those tasked by Cuza with drafting the common statute of public libraries
Public library
A public library is a library that is accessible by the public and is generally funded from public sources and operated by civil servants. There are five fundamental characteristics shared by public libraries...
throughout the country. He was one of the Romanian Academy's original members upon its 1866 foundation as the Academic Society, and subsequently participated in setting up its Library. Urechia served as vice-chairman and general secretary of the Academy for several terms, was president of its Historical Section, and supervised a number of its cultural programs. Dissolved in Iaşi due to lack of members, the Atheneul Român club was reestablished in the capital during 1865. That year, he published two books: Femeia română, dupre istorie şi poesie ("The Romanian Woman in History and Poetry") and Balul mortului ("The Dead Man's Ball").
After Cuza's replacement with Carol I
Carol I of Romania
Carol I , born Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was reigning prince and then King of Romania from 1866 to 1914. He was elected prince of Romania on 20 April 1866 following the overthrow of Alexandru Ioan Cuza by a palace coup...
, Urechia successfully ran in the November 1866 election for a Chamber
Chamber of Deputies
Chamber of deputies is the name given to a legislative body such as the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or can refer to a unicameral legislature.-Description:...
seat in Covurlui County. He was a member of Parliament
Parliament of Romania
The Parliament of Romania is made up of two chambers:*The Chamber of Deputies*The SenatePrior to the modifications of the Constitution in 2003, the two houses had identical attributes. A text of a law had to be approved by both houses...
for the next 34 years, moving from Chamber to the Senate
Senate of Romania
The Senate of Romania is the upper house in the bicameral Parliament of Romania. It has 137 seats , to which members are elected by direct popular vote, using Mixed member proportional representation in 42 electoral districts , to serve four-year terms.-Former location:After the Romanian...
, and pushing legislation to modernize
Modernization
In the social sciences, modernization or modernisation refers to a model of an evolutionary transition from a 'pre-modern' or 'traditional' to a 'modern' society. The teleology of modernization is described in social evolutionism theories, existing as a template that has been generally followed by...
the education system
Education in Romania
According to the Law on Education adopted in 1995, the Romanian Educational System is regulated by the Ministry of Education and Research . Each level has its own form of organization and is subject to different legislation. Kindergarten is optional between 3 and 6 years old...
.
Also in 1866, Urechia published an essay of fable
Fable
A fable is a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, mythical creatures, plants, inanimate objects or forces of nature which are anthropomorphized , and that illustrates a moral lesson , which may at the end be expressed explicitly in a pithy maxim.A fable differs from...
s, which centered on the work of Dimitrie Ţichindeal (or Chichindeal), an early 19th century poet from Banat
Banat
The Banat is a geographical and historical region in Central Europe currently divided between three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania , the western part in northeastern Serbia , and a small...
. In 1867, he completed work on his best-known literary contribution to local theater, a three-act drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
or melodrama
Melodrama
The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them...
inspired by events in Romanian history, and titled Vornicul Bucioc ("Vornic
Vornic
Vornic was a historical rank for an official in charge of justice and internal affairs. He was overseeing the Royal Court. It originated in the Slovak nádvorník. In the 16th century in Moldavia were two high vornics: one for "Ţara de Sus" , and other for "Ţara de Jos" ....
Bucioc" or "Minister Bucioc"). The same year and the next, he published Despre elocinţa română ("On Romanian Eloquence"), Poezia în faţa politicei ("Poetry vs. Politics") and Patria română ("The Romanian Motherland"). He was in Spain from spring 1867 to autumn 1868, perfecting his knowledge of Castilian
Castilian Spanish
Castilian Spanish is a term related to the Spanish language, but its exact meaning can vary even in that language. In English Castilian Spanish usually refers to the variety of European Spanish spoken in north and central Spain or as the language standard for radio and TV speakers...
and carrying out an extended research into local archives, being received as corresponding member of the Royal Spanish Academy
Real Academia Española
The Royal Spanish Academy is the official royal institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, but is affiliated with national language academies in twenty-one other hispanophone nations through the Association of Spanish Language Academies...
(April 2, 1868). Together with fellow intellectual and amateur archaeologist
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
Alexandru Odobescu
Alexandru Odobescu
Alexandru Ioan Odobescu was a Romanian author, archaeologist and politician.-Biography:He was born in Bucharest, the second child of General Ioan Odobescu and his wife Ecaterina. After attending Saint Sava College and, from 1850, a Paris lycée, he took the baccalauréat in 1853 and studied...
, Urechia represented Romania at the 1869 World Archaeological Congress
World Archaeological Congress
The World Archaeological Congress is a non-governmental, not-for-profit organization which promotes world archaeology. It is the only global archaeological organisation with elected representation....
in Paris. He and Luiza Wirth divorced at some point after 1868.
In parallel, Urechia published several new works of historical fiction
Historical fiction
Historical fiction tells a story that is set in the past. That setting is usually real and drawn from history, and often contains actual historical persons, but the principal characters tend to be fictional...
, including, in 1872, the drama Episod de sub Alecsandru cel Bun ("An Episode from the Rule of Alexander the Good"). In 1872, he also premiered the one-act comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
Odă la Elisa ("An Ode to Elisa"), which he had written during 1869.
Conflict with Junimea
A major event in V. A. Urechia's career occurred in 1869, when Maiorescu and his like-minded friends established JunimeaJunimea
Junimea was a Romanian literary society founded in Iaşi in 1863, through the initiative of several foreign-educated personalities led by Titu Maiorescu, Petre P. Carp, Vasile Pogor, Theodor Rosetti and Iacob Negruzzi...
society in Iaşi. At the time, Urechia was editing the journal Adunarea Naţională, which initially regarded the Junimists with sympathy, despite the fact that Maiorescu was already making his anti-liberal agenda public. By the early 1870s however, Urechia had become engaged in a major cultural polemic with the Junimists, which reflected the liberal-conservative and Romantic
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
-Neoclassical
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome...
splits within Romanian society. Although usually adverse to other liberal factions, including the group formed around historian Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu
Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu
Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu was a Romanian writer and philologist, who pioneered many branches of Romanian philology and history. Hasdeu is considered to have been able to understand 26 languages .-Life:...
and Nicolae Ionescu
Nicolae Ionescu
Nicolae Ionescu was a Romanian politician and publisher. He was one of the founding members of the Romanian Academy.-References:...
's Fracţiunea liberă şi independentă, he united with them in condemning Junimea 's views and cultural guidelines. Also during that decade, he openly sided with the radicals
Radicalism (historical)
The term Radical was used during the late 18th century for proponents of the Radical Movement. It later became a general pejorative term for those favoring or seeking political reforms which include dramatic changes to the social order...
around C. A. Rosetti, who would, in 1875, contribute to the creation of the National Liberal Party
National Liberal Party (Romania)
The National Liberal Party , abbreviated to PNL, is a centre-right liberal party in Romania. It is the third-largest party in the Romanian Parliament, with 53 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 22 in the Senate: behind the centre-right Democratic Liberal Party and the centre-left Social...
.
Urechia collaborated with D. A. Laurian and Ştefan Michăilescu on the anti-Junimist, Romantic and pro-liberal tribune Revista Contimporană after 1873. Critic and historian Tudor Vianu
Tudor Vianu
Tudor Vianu was a Romanian literary critic, art critic, poet, philosopher, academic, and translator. Known for his left-wing and anti-fascist convictions, he had a major role on the reception and development of Modernism in Romanian literature and art...
saw Urechia as the group's spiritus rector, while literary historian George Călinescu
George Calinescu
George Călinescu was a Romanian literary critic, historian, novelist, academician and journalist, and a writer of classicist and humanist tendencies...
wrote: "[the journal] had prestige and, intimately, the Junimists grew worried." In its first issue, it hosted Urechia's study on 17th century Moldavian chronicler Miron Costin
Miron Costin
Miron Costin was a Moldavian political figure and chronicler. His main work, Letopiseţul Ţărâi Moldovei [de la Aron Vodă încoace] was meant to extend Grigore Ureche's narrative, covering events from 1594 to 1660...
and his writings, as well as historical pieces by Gheorghe Sion and Pantazi Ghica
Pantazi Ghica
Pantazi Ghica was a Wallachian-born Romanian politician and lawyer, also known as a dramatist, poet, short story writer, and literary critic. A prominent representative of the liberal current, he was the younger brother and lifelong collaborator of Ion Ghica, who served as Prime Minister of the...
, all of which were soon after criticized by Maiorescu in his essay Beţia de cuvinte ("Inebriation with Words"). In parallel, Urechia had a conflict with the Jewish
History of the Jews in Romania
The history of Jews in Romania concerns the Jews of Romania and of Romanian origins, from their first mention on what is nowadays Romanian territory....
writer and pedagogue Ronetti Roman, whom he had employed teacher at his Institute. In his pamphlet Domnul Kanitferstan (Mr. Kanitferstan"), Ronetti Roman reported having been shocked to discover that Urechia was an antisemite.
After the Russo-Turkish War which granted Romania its independence, Urechia represented the country to the International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, and presided over one of its sessions. Later in the year, he was invited to participate in the Congress on literature in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. In 1879, he was elected member of an Aromanian
Aromanians
Aromanians are a Latin people native throughout the southern Balkans, especially in northern Greece, Albania, the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, and as an emigrant community in Serbia and Romania . An older term is Macedo-Romanians...
cultural league, the Macedo-Romanian Cultural Society, becoming its president the following year and editing its historiographic
Historiography
Historiography refers either to the study of the history and methodology of history as a discipline, or to a body of historical work on a specialized topic...
textbook, Albumul macedo-român ("The Macedo-Romanian Album"). He was presented with a bronze medal by the Société d'Ethnographie in 1880, and, the following year, received its medal of honor. The same body created the Urechia Prize for Ethnographic Research, first awarded in 1882, and awarded him lifetime membership of the Institut d'Ethnographie. Between 1878 and 1889, he grouped his earlier writings under the title Opere complete ("Complete Works").
Political preeminence and Literatorul years
In 1881-1882, Urechia was Romania's Education Minister under National Liberal PremiersPrime Minister of Romania
The Prime Minister of Romania is the head of the Government of Romania. Initially, the office was styled President of the Council of Ministers , when the term "Government" included more than the Cabinet, and the Cabinet was called The Council of Ministers...
Dimitrie Brătianu
Dimitrie Bratianu
Dimitrie Brătianu was the Prime Minister of Romania from 22 April to 21 June 1881 and Minister of Foreign Affairs from April 10, 1881 until June 8, 1881....
and Ion Brătianu
Ion Bratianu
Ion C. Brătianu was one of the major political figures of 19th century Romania. He was the younger brother of Dimitrie, as well as the father of Ionel, Dinu, and Vintilă Brătianu...
, in the newly-proclaimed Kingdom of Romania
Kingdom of Romania
The Kingdom of Romania was the Romanian state based on a form of parliamentary monarchy between 13 March 1881 and 30 December 1947, specified by the first three Constitutions of Romania...
. According to George Călinescu, his appointment had been prepared since 1880. Călinescu cites Urechia's intense correspondence with Alexandru Odobescu, who was then living in Paris. Odobescu had initially asked Urechia to manage his chair at the University, and, Călinescu argues, his tone became "fawning" as Urechia received confirmation for his political ambitions. As Minister, Urechia tasked Odobescu with approaching Hermiona, the widow of French historian Edgar Quinet
Edgar Quinet
Edgar Quinet was a French historian and intellectual.-Early years:Born at Bourg-en-Bresse, in the département of Ain. His father, Jérôme Quinet, had been a commissary in the army, but being a strong republican and disgusted with Napoleon's 18 Brumaire coup, he gave up his post and devoted himself...
and daughter of Romanian intellectual Gheorghe Asachi
Gheorghe Asachi
Gheorghe Asachi was a Moldavian-born Romanian prose writer, poet, painter, historian, dramatist and translator. An Enlightenment-educated polymath and polyglot, he was one of the most influential people of his generation...
, and recovering some of Quinet's notes for publishing in Albumul macedo-român. While reviewing and reshuffling the Ministry, Urechia dismissed the socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
and atheist
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
activist Ioan Nădejde from his position as teacher, and played a part in the decision to curb the spread of socialism among the faculty of Iaşi University. However, he cast aside political preferences to assign Junimist author Ion Luca Caragiale
Ion Luca Caragiale
Ion Luca Caragiale was a Wallachian-born Romanian playwright, short story writer, poet, theater manager, political commentator and journalist...
the position of inspector in the counties of Suceava
Suceava County
Suceava is a county of Romania, in the historical region of Moldavia and few villages in Transylvania, with the capital city at Suceava.- Demographics :...
and Neamţ
Neamt County
Neamț is a county of Romania, in the historic region of Moldavia, with the county seat at Piatra Neamț. It has three communes, Bicaz-Chei, Bicazu Ardelean and Dămuc in Transylvania.-Demographics:...
. Urechia had prepared a program for administrative reform at several levels, but the brevity of his term prevented him from putting it into practice.
By then, Urechia had also begun collaborating with the younger anti-Junimist and later Symbolist
Symbolism (arts)
Symbolism was a late nineteenth-century art movement of French, Russian and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts. In literature, the style had its beginnings with the publication Les Fleurs du mal by Charles Baudelaire...
poet Alexandru Macedonski
Alexandru Macedonski
Alexandru Macedonski was a Wallachian-born Romanian poet, novelist, dramatist and literary critic, known especially for having promoted French Symbolism in his native country, and for leading the Romanian Symbolist movement during its early decades...
. In 1881, Minister Urechia granted Macedonski the Bene-Merenti medal 1st class, even though, Călinescu argues, the poet had been a civil servant for no more than 18 months. A year later, he appointed Macedonski to the post of Historical Monuments Inspector. Also in 1882, he accepted Macedonski's offer to become president of a society formed around the magazine Literatorul. In 1883, following Macedonski's attacks on Junimist author Mihai Eminescu
Mihai Eminescu
Mihai Eminescu was a Romantic poet, novelist and journalist, often regarded as the most famous and influential Romanian poet. Eminescu was an active member of the Junimea literary society and he worked as an editor for the newspaper Timpul , the official newspaper of the Conservative Party...
, later recognized as national poet, the irreverent exposure of Eminescu's mental illness
Mental illness
A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern generally associated with subjective distress or disability that occurs in an individual, and which is not a part of normal development or culture. Such a disorder may consist of a combination of affective, behavioural,...
and the widespread condemnation which ensued, Literatorul went out of print. It resurfaced sporadically after that date, notably in 1885, as Revista Literară, and continued to receive contributions from Urechia, Anghel Demetriescu
Anghel Demetriescu
Anghel Demetriescu was a Romanian historian, writer and literary critic, member of the Romanian Academy in 1902.-Childhood and studies:...
, Th. M. Stoenescu and Bonifaciu Florescu, but was eventually turned by Macedonski into a voice for the local Symbolist movement
Symbolist movement in Romania
The Symbolist movement in Romania, active during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, marked the development of Romanian culture in both literature and visual arts...
.
Urechia grew disillusioned with National Liberal politics, and voted against his party when he felt that their politics no longer coincided with his own views. By 1885, he also made his peace with Junimea, which was generally offering its support to the newly-founded Conservative Party, and became a collaborator of its mouthpiece Convorbiri Literare, contributing essays and stories until 1892. Also in 1885, he published his novella Logof. Baptiste Veleli ("The Logofăt Baptiste Veleli"), set in the 17th century. His varied scientific interests led him to correspond with Iuliu Popper, the Romanian-born explorer of Patagonia
Patagonia
Patagonia is a region located in Argentina and Chile, integrating the southernmost section of the Andes mountains to the southwest towards the Pacific ocean and from the east of the cordillera to the valleys it follows south through Colorado River towards Carmen de Patagones in the Atlantic Ocean...
, who notably described to Urechia the lawlessness of Punta Arenas, Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
.
Late in his life, V. A. Urechia concentrated on historical research. This led him to write and publish Istoria românilor ("The History of Romanians", 14 vols., 1891–1903) and Istoria şcoalelor ("The History of Schools", 4 vols., 1892–1901). After 1889, he also resumed activities in the area of bibliography, turning his own collection into a public library to benefit Galaţi
Galati
Galați is a city and municipality in Romania, the capital of Galați County. Located in the historical region of Moldavia, in the close vicinity of Brăila, Galați is the largest port and sea port on the Danube River and the second largest Romanian port....
city. He also edited and collected the work of Miron Costin, producing and editing an eponymous 1890 monograph
Monograph
A monograph is a work of writing upon a single subject, usually by a single author.It is often a scholarly essay or learned treatise, and may be released in the manner of a book or journal article. It is by definition a single document that forms a complete text in itself...
, together with a similar work dedicated to 19th century Moldavian intellectual Gheorghe Asachi
Gheorghe Asachi
Gheorghe Asachi was a Moldavian-born Romanian prose writer, poet, painter, historian, dramatist and translator. An Enlightenment-educated polymath and polyglot, he was one of the most influential people of his generation...
. In 1891, his scattered essays, novellas, memoir
Memoir
A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...
s and stories based on Romanian folklore
Folklore of Romania
A feature of Romanian culture is the special relationship between folklore and the learned culture, determined by two factors. First, the rural character of the Romanian communities resulted in an exceptionally vital and creative traditional culture. Folk creations were the main literary genre...
themes were collectively published by as Legende române ("Romanian Legends"). That year, he left for London, where he attended the International Congress of Orientalists and received the honorary diploma for supporting the Congress' activities at an international level.
During the final part of the 1880s, V. A. Urechia partook in a scandal involving Lazăr Şăineanu
Lazăr Şăineanu
Lazăr Şăineanu was a Romanian-born philologist, linguist, folklorist and cultural historian. A specialist in Oriental and Romance studies, as well as a Hebraist and a Germanist, he was primarily known for his contribution to Yiddish and Romanian philology, his work in evolutionary linguistics, and...
, a foreign-educated Jewish-Romanian linguist, during which time he made a series of antisemitic statements. Şăineanu, who, like most other members of the Jewish community, was not legally emancipated
Jewish Emancipation
Jewish emancipation was the external and internal process of freeing the Jewish people of Europe, including recognition of their rights as equal citizens, and the formal granting of citizenship as individuals; it occurred gradually between the late 18th century and the early 20th century...
, had been assigned to a Faculty of Letters position by Titu Maiorescu, at the time Education Minister in a Conservative Party cabinet. Urechia and his partisans reacted strongly against this measure, arguing that Şăineanu was made unqualified by his ethnicity, until Şăineanu presented his resignation to Maiorescu.
In 1889, when Şăineanu requested naturalization
Naturalization
Naturalization is the acquisition of citizenship and nationality by somebody who was not a citizen of that country at the time of birth....
, Urechia intervened with the National Liberal politician Dimitrie Sturdza
Dimitrie Sturdza
Dimitrie Sturdza was a Romanian statesman of the late 19th century, and president of the Romanian Academy between 1882 and 1884.-Biography:Born in Iaşi, Moldavia, and educated there at the Academia Mihăileană, he continued his studies in Germany, took part in the political movements of the time,...
, head of a committee charged with enforcing nationality law
Romanian nationality law
Romanian nationality law is based on the 1991 Romanian Citizenship law. It is based on the social policy of jus sanguinis , by which nationality or citizenship is not determined by place of birth, but by having an ancestor who is a national or citizen of the state. It contrasts with jus soli...
, asking him to deny the request. A deadlock ensued and, in both 1889 and 1895, the matter came to be deliberated by the Senate. Although it won support from both Conservative Premier Petre P. Carp
Petre P. Carp
Petre P. Carp , commonly rendered as P. P. Carp, was a Romanian conservative politician and literary critic who served as a Prime Minister of Romania for two terms...
and the Chamber, Urechia again spoke out against enfranchise in the Senate, and, largely as a result of this appeal, a majority of his colleagues voted with him on both occasions.
Cultural League establishment and final years
The early 1890s saw Urechia's involvement in the cause of RomaniansRomanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
living outside the confines of the Old Kingdom
Romanian Old Kingdom
The Romanian Old Kingdom is a colloquial term referring to the territory covered by the first independent Romanian nation state, which was composed of the Danubian Principalities—Wallachia and Moldavia...
. Like other liberal activists, he hoped to see Romania united with Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
and the Banat
Banat
The Banat is a geographical and historical region in Central Europe currently divided between three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania , the western part in northeastern Serbia , and a small...
, regions then included in Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
and administered by the Kingdom of Hungary
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...
. Urechia viewed with sympathy the formation of a National Party
Romanian National Party
The Romanian National Party , initially known as the Romanian National Party in Transylvania and Banat , was a political party which was initially designed to offer ethnic representation to Romanians in the Kingdom of Hungary, the Transleithanian half of Austria-Hungary, and especially to those in...
in that region, and supported it throughout the Transylvanian Memorandum
Transylvanian Memorandum
The Transylvanian Memorandum was a petition sent in 1892 by the leaders of the Romanians of Transylvania to the Austro-Hungarian Emperor-King Franz Joseph, asking for equal ethnic rights with the Hungarians, and demanding an end to persecutions and Magyarization attempts.-Status:After the Ausgleich...
movement of 1892, when many of its leaders were jailed by Hungarian authorities. He appealed for support throughout Europe, and, in 1893, collected the interventions of his foreign peers in a single volume, known in Romanian as Voci latine. De la fraţi la fraţi ("Latin Voices. From Brothers to Brothers"). As leader of the newly-founded Cultural League for the Unity of All Romanians, he campaigned in the international press, resulting in some 500 newspaper articles on the Memorandum trial. These actions made partisans of Austria-Hungary regard him as an agent of dissent. In 1894, he was engaged in a heated polemic over these issues with the Hungarian officer István Türr, who had published articles condemning the Memorandum participants and their Bucharest-based partisans. It involved other politicians in 1895, when Urechia attended the Interparliamentary Union's Conference in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, and debated the matter with members of the Hungarian legislature
Diet of Hungary
The Diet of Hungary was a legislative institution in the medieval kingdom of Hungary from the 15th century, and in its successor states, Royal Hungary and the Habsburg kingdom of Hungary throughout the Early Modern period...
.
Urechia was vice-president of the Senate in 1896-1897. During those years, he became Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur
Légion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
, honorary member and later honorary president of the Conseil Héraldique de France, foreign member of the French Archaeological Society, and associate member of the Spanish Red Cross, and Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
's consul general to Romania. Attending the October 1899 International Congress of Orientalists in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, he organized a Pan-Latinist festivity centered on Trajan's Column
Trajan's Column
Trajan's Column is a Roman triumphal column in Rome, Italy, which commemorates Roman emperor Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars. It was probably constructed under the supervision of the architect Apollodorus of Damascus at the order of the Roman Senate. It is located in Trajan's Forum, built near...
, with the participation of Luigi Pelloux
Luigi Pelloux
Luigi Gerolamo Pelloux was an Italian general and politician, born of parents who retained their Italian nationality when Savoy was annexed to France....
cabinet ministers and the Transylvanian peasant activist Badea Cârţan
Badea Cârtan
Badea Cârţan was a self-taught ethnic Romanian shepherd who fought for the independence of the Romanians of Transylvania , distributing Romanian-language books that he secretly brought from Romania to their villages...
. Although the ceremony enjoyed popularity and coverage in the press, Urechia and his Cultural League were frustrated by lack of funds in their attempt to organize a living exhibit of Romanian customs. He attended the 1900 congress of the Union of Latin Students, meeting in the French town of Alès
Alès
Alès is a commune in the Gard department in the Languedoc-Roussillon region in southern France. It is one of the sub-prefectures of the department. It was formerly known as Alais.-Geography:...
, and delivered an opening speech in which the main theme was Pan-Latinism. The same year, he published a series of memoirs and travel writing
Travel writing
Travel writing is a genre that has, as its focus, accounts of real or imaginary places. The genre encompasses a number of styles that may range from the documentary to the evocative, from literary to journalistic, and from the humorous to the serious....
pieces, under the title Din tainele vieţii ("Some of Life's Secrets").
Urechia died in Bucharest at age 67. His funeral oration was delivered by archaeologist Grigore Tocilescu
Grigore Tocilescu
Grigore George Tocilescu was a Romanian historian, archaeologist, epigrapher and folkorist, member of Romanian Academy....
, while the Academy's commemorative session was presided over by his former rival Hasdeu.
Tenets
V. A. Urechia was a prolific author, whose bibliography reportedly exceeds 600 individual titles, covering both fiction and scientific works. Reflecting on the period, modern-day historian Lucian BoiaLucian Boia
Lucian Boia is a Romanian historian, known especially for his works debunking Romanian nationalism and Communism.-Bibliography:* Eugen Brote: Litera, 1974...
argues that, while Urechia stood above all his pro-liberal academic colleagues in respect to his "industriousness", they all lacked scientific competence. Boia, who notes that Urechia's works are generally compilations, concludes that their author was motivated by "fervent but naïve patriotism
Patriotism
Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...
".
Urechia's main contribution was as an ideologue of the liberal current
Liberalism and radicalism in Romania
This article gives an overview of Liberalism and Radicalism in Romania. It is limited to liberal parties with substantial support, mainly proved by having had a representation in parliament. The sign ⇒ denotes another party in this scheme...
, and relates to his version of patriotism, called românism ("Romanianism"). Seen by him as distinct from nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
, it involved the ongoing promotion of a common spiritual identity among Romanians
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
, a focus on popularizing local folklore
Folklore of Romania
A feature of Romanian culture is the special relationship between folklore and the learned culture, determined by two factors. First, the rural character of the Romanian communities resulted in an exceptionally vital and creative traditional culture. Folk creations were the main literary genre...
, and a cultural version of Pan-Latinism. From early on, Urechia argued in favor of a federal Latin
Latins
"Latins" refers to different groups of people and the meaning of the word changes for where and when it is used.The original Latins were an Italian tribe inhabiting central and south-central Italy. Through conquest by their most populous city-state, Rome, the original Latins culturally "Romanized"...
bloc to counter the threats of Pan-Slavism
Pan-Slavism
Pan-Slavism was a movement in the mid-19th century aimed at unity of all the Slavic peoples. The main focus was in the Balkans where the South Slavs had been ruled for centuries by other empires, Byzantine Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Venice...
and Pan-Germanism
Pan-Germanism
Pan-Germanism is a pan-nationalist political idea. Pan-Germanists originally sought to unify the German-speaking populations of Europe in a single nation-state known as Großdeutschland , where "German-speaking" was taken to include the Low German, Frisian and Dutch-speaking populations of the Low...
. In 1859, a letter he sent to Sardinian
Kingdom of Sardinia
The Kingdom of Sardinia consisted of the island of Sardinia first as a part of the Crown of Aragon and subsequently the Spanish Empire , and second as a part of the composite state of the House of Savoy . Its capital was originally Cagliari, in the south of the island, and later Turin, on the...
Premier Camillo Benso di Cavour, in which he introduced the Moldavian scholarship recipients to the University of Turin
University of Turin
The University of Turin is a university in the city of Turin in the Piedmont region of north-western Italy...
, made reference to Pan-Latin sentiments and the Romanian origins: "Turn our young Romanians into something better than savants; make them Latins, proud descendants of Rome
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
, the mother of their nation." Part of his subsequent studies dealt with the comparative linguistics
Comparative linguistics
Comparative linguistics is a branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages to establish their historical relatedness....
of Romance
Romance languages
The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, more precisely of the Italic languages subfamily, comprising all the languages that descend from Vulgar Latin, the language of ancient Rome...
: like many of his fellow intellectuals, Urechia was determined to find the exact position of Romanian in relation to the Latin language, Standard Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
or Italian dialects
Italian dialects
Dialects of Italian are regional varieties of the Italian language, more commonly and more accurately referred to as Regional Italian. The dialects have features, most notably phonological and lexical, percolating from the underlying substrate languages...
(see History of the Romanian language
History of the Romanian language
-Dacia and Romanization:The Romanian territory was inhabited in ancient times by the Dacians, an Indo-European people. They were defeated by the Roman Empire in 106 and part of Dacia became a Roman province...
). Thus, in an 1868 essay, Urechia theorized a "parallelism" between Romanian and Friulian
Friulian language
Friulan , is a Romance language belonging to the Rhaeto-Romance family, spoken in the Friuli region of northeastern Italy. Friulan has around 800,000 speakers, the vast majority of whom also speak Italian...
, his conclusion being similar to one earlier voiced (and eventually discarded) by Graziadio Isaia Ascoli
Graziadio Isaia Ascoli
Graziadio Isaia Ascoli was an Italian linguist.- Life and work :Ascoli was born in an Italian-speaking Jewish family in the multiethnic town of Gorizia, then part of the Austrian Empire...
.
Urechia saw in the application of Romanianism a cultural battle for improvement, writing: "A nation incapable of developing is incapable of defending its existence. This is why all nations, recognizing in culture the primordial condition of their existence and grandeur, have struggled to make use of all their forces in order to advance culturally. [...] For today culture is the strongest and non-invincible weapon." His writings frequently made the controversial claim that Romanians had perfected various elements of human civilization before all other peoples (see Protochronism
Protochronism
Protochronism is a Romanian term describing the tendency to ascribe, largely relying on questionable data and subjective interpretations, an idealised past to the country as a whole...
). Based on his theories about social cohesion, Urechia also expressed his distaste for political factionalism. An article of his in Adunarea Naţională reacted against the split between the National Liberal group (the "Reds") and the Conservative Party (the "Whites"): "Victory will only be possible when Romanianism is neither red nor white".
Late in his life, the writer coined another term, daco-românism ("Daco-Romanianism"), which referenced the ancient territory of Dacia
Dacia
In ancient geography, especially in Roman sources, Dacia was the land inhabited by the Dacians or Getae as they were known by the Greeks—the branch of the Thracians north of the Haemus range...
and, through it, to the ideal of grouping together all territories inhabited by Romanians outside the Old Kingdom
Romanian Old Kingdom
The Romanian Old Kingdom is a colloquial term referring to the territory covered by the first independent Romanian nation state, which was composed of the Danubian Principalities—Wallachia and Moldavia...
's borders. This allusion to Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
contributed to his polemic with Austro-Hungarian
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
authorities, who came to regard the term with suspicion. At the same time, Urechia sought to build contacts with representatives of other Romance-speaking communities in the Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
, Aromanians
Aromanians
Aromanians are a Latin people native throughout the southern Balkans, especially in northern Greece, Albania, the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, and as an emigrant community in Serbia and Romania . An older term is Macedo-Romanians...
as well as Megleno-Romanians
Megleno-Romanians
The Megleno-Romanians or Meglen Vlachs or Moglenite Vlachs, are a small Eastern Romance people, currently inhabiting seven villages in the Moglena region spanning the Pella and Kilkis prefectures of Central Macedonia, Greece, and one village, Huma, across the border in the Republic of...
and Istro-Romanians
Istro-Romanians
Istro-Romanians / Istrorumeni are an ethnic group living in northeastern Istria, currently spanning over a small area of Croatia and a...
, as well as with Romanian leaders from Bukovina
Bukovina
Bukovina is a historical region on the northern slopes of the northeastern Carpathian Mountains and the adjoining plains.-Name:The name Bukovina came into official use in 1775 with the region's annexation from the Principality of Moldavia to the possessions of the Habsburg Monarchy, which became...
and Bessarabia
Bessarabia
Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....
. After the Russo-Turkish War, when Romanian rule was extended to formerly Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
Northern Dobruja
Northern Dobruja
Northern Dobruja is the part of Dobruja within the borders of Romania. It lies between the lower Danube river and the Black Sea, bordered in south by Bulgarian Southern Dobruja.-Geography:...
, he called for the region's Romanianization
Romanianization
Romanianization or Rumanization is the term used to describe a number of ethnic assimilation policies implemented by the Romanian authorities during the 20th century...
through colonization and changes in toponymy
Toponymy
Toponymy is the scientific study of place names , their origins, meanings, use and typology. The word "toponymy" is derived from the Greek words tópos and ónoma . Toponymy is itself a branch of onomastics, the study of names of all kinds...
.
Urechia's had conflicting attitudes on the cohabitation of Romanians and ethnic minorities
Minorities of Romania
Officially, 10.5% of Romania's population is represented by minorities . The principal minorities in Romania are Hungarians and Roma people, with a declining German population and smaller numbers of Poles in Bucovina...
. His Coliba Măriucăi, one of the first novels in Romanian literature
Literature of Romania
Romanian literature is literature written by Romanian authors, although the term may also be used to refer to all literature written in the Romanian language.Eugène Ionesco is one of the foremost playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd....
to explore social problems from a critical perspective, and written just as slavery
Slavery in Romania
Slavery existed on the territory of present-day Romania from before the founding of the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia in 13th–14th century, until it was abolished in stages during the 1840s and 1850s. Most of the slaves were of Roma ethnicity...
was being outlawed in Moldavia, he expresses sympathy for the persecuted Romani community
Roma minority in Romania
The Roma constitute one of the major minorities in Romania. According to the 2002 census, they number 535,140 people or 2.5% of the total population, being the second-largest ethnic minority in Romania after Hungarians...
. In contrast with this approach, the statements made by Urechia in his conflict with Lazăr Şăineanu
Lazăr Şăineanu
Lazăr Şăineanu was a Romanian-born philologist, linguist, folklorist and cultural historian. A specialist in Oriental and Romance studies, as well as a Hebraist and a Germanist, he was primarily known for his contribution to Yiddish and Romanian philology, his work in evolutionary linguistics, and...
show an antisemitic side to his Romanianism, which academic Michael Shafir rates as "cultural" and "economic" rather than "racial". While debating Şăineanu's status in academia, Urechia claimed: "A person foreign to our nation's fiber could never awaken in the mind and heart of the young generation the image of our past [...]. How will that person recognize those pulsations in the historical life of Romanians, when he has nothing in common with [the people's] aspirations?" Urechia was especially adverse to Şăineanu's study on the traditional references to Jews as "Tatars
Tatars
Tatars are a Turkic speaking ethnic group , numbering roughly 7 million.The majority of Tatars live in the Russian Federation, with a population of around 5.5 million, about 2 million of which in the republic of Tatarstan.Significant minority populations are found in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan,...
" and Uriaş
Urias
Uriaş is the common Romanian-language designation of giants, who are prominent figures in Romanian folklore. There are several varieties of uriaşi, who share most of their traits but have different names from one historical region of Romania to another...
i, as a reference to an Early Medieval
Romania in the Early Middle Ages
The Early Middle Ages in Romania spans the period from the withdrawal of the Roman administration from the province of Dacia in the 271–275 AD, thenceforward modern Romania's territories were to be crisscrossed by migrating populations for almost 1,000 years...
presence of Khazars
Khazars
The Khazars were semi-nomadic Turkic people who established one of the largest polities of medieval Eurasia, with the capital of Atil and territory comprising much of modern-day European Russia, western Kazakhstan, eastern Ukraine, Azerbaijan, large portions of the northern Caucasus , parts of...
in present-day Romanian territories. He therefore publicly accused Şăineanu of making it seem that the Jews had a historical precedent over Romanians. Literary critic Laszlo Alexandru writes that Urechia's reading of the text was "in bad faith", and his conclusions "slanderous". In 1895, during the final Senate vote on Şăineanu's naturalization
Naturalization
Naturalization is the acquisition of citizenship and nationality by somebody who was not a citizen of that country at the time of birth....
, Urechia gave an applauded speech in which he likened the linguist with the Trojan Horse
Trojan Horse
The Trojan Horse is a tale from the Trojan War about the stratagem that allowed the Greeks finally to enter the city of Troy and end the conflict. In the canonical version, after a fruitless 10-year siege, the Greeks constructed a huge wooden horse, and hid a select force of men inside...
, urging his fellow parliamentarians not to allow "a foreigner into the Romanian citadel".
Beţia de cuvinte
As part of their RomanticRomanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
reaction against the Junimist call for professionalization
Professionalization
Professionalization is the social process by which any trade or occupation transforms itself into a true "profession of the highest integrity and competence." This process tends to involve establishing acceptable qualifications, a professional body or association to oversee the conduct of members...
, controlled modernization
Modernization
In the social sciences, modernization or modernisation refers to a model of an evolutionary transition from a 'pre-modern' or 'traditional' to a 'modern' society. The teleology of modernization is described in social evolutionism theories, existing as a template that has been generally followed by...
and Westernization
Westernization
Westernization or Westernisation , also occidentalization or occidentalisation , is a process whereby societies come under or adopt Western culture in such matters as industry, technology, law, politics, economics, lifestyle, diet, language, alphabet,...
, the Revista Contimporană group sought to portray the liberal approach as motivated by historical precedence. George Călinescu
George Calinescu
George Călinescu was a Romanian literary critic, historian, novelist, academician and journalist, and a writer of classicist and humanist tendencies...
writes: "By studying, as superficially and bombastically as they did, a [medieval] chronicler [...], the group sought to inculcate the idea of tradition." Titu Maiorescu had by then reacted against this approach, accusing his adversaries of enforcing "forms without substance" (that is, ill-adapted to the Romanian realities which they claimed to address), and directed his accusations specifically against the University of Bucharest
University of Bucharest
The University of Bucharest , in Romania, is a university founded in 1864 by decree of Prince Alexander John Cuza to convert the former Saint Sava Academy into the current University of Bucharest.-Presentation:...
faculty, exposing the heads of department for lacking training in their fields of choice.
Maiorescu replied to his adversaries in Beţia de cuvinte, where he emphasized his group's overall rejection and occasional derision of traditional Romanian literature, and commented that both the model and its defenders had produced a characteristically prolix style. The Junimist figure also focused on discussing errors in Urechia's works, particularly when it came to his pronouncements on the philosophy of history
Philosophy of history
The term philosophy of history refers to the theoretical aspect of history, in two senses. It is customary to distinguish critical philosophy of history from speculative philosophy of history...
. According to Maiorescu, the context had conflated two separate topics into one phrase, and unwittingly made it seem that the 18th-century philosophe
Philosophe
The philosophes were the intellectuals of the 18th century Enlightenment. Few were primarily philosophers; rather they were public intellectuals who applied reason to the study of many areas of learning, including philosophy, history, science, politics, economics and social issues...
Voltaire
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...
was active in the 17th century. Călinescu used this point to illustrate Maiorescu's polemic technique, which involved presenting his adversaries with "proposition
Proposition
In logic and philosophy, the term proposition refers to either the "content" or "meaning" of a meaningful declarative sentence or the pattern of symbols, marks, or sounds that make up a meaningful declarative sentence...
s cruelly selected from the textbook on logic". The text referenced other false claims made by Urechia, questioning his competence. It cited him arguing that the 4th-century Imperial Roman
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
historian Ammianus Marcellinus
Ammianus Marcellinus
Ammianus Marcellinus was a fourth-century Roman historian. He wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from Antiquity...
was a source on the 5th-century rule of Attila the Hun
Attila the Hun
Attila , more frequently referred to as Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in 453. He was leader of the Hunnic Empire, which stretched from the Ural River to the Rhine River and from the Danube River to the Baltic Sea. During his reign he was one of the most feared...
, that philosophers Gottfried Leibniz
Gottfried Leibniz
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was a German philosopher and mathematician. He wrote in different languages, primarily in Latin , French and German ....
and René Descartes
René Descartes
René Descartes ; was a French philosopher and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed the 'Father of Modern Philosophy', and much subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day...
were historians, and that painter Cimabue
Cimabue
Cimabue , also known as Bencivieni di Pepo or in modern Italian, Benvenuto di Giuseppe, was an Italian painter and creator of mosaics from Florence....
was an architect. In what Lucian Boia deems "perhaps [his] most successful page", Maiorescu ridiculed Urechia's claim that 18th-century Wallachian poet Ienăchiţă Văcărescu
Ienachita Vacarescu
Ienăchiţă Văcărescu was a Wallachian Romanian poet, historian, philologist, and boyar belonging to the Văcărescu family...
was superior to Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
's Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
.
Urechia, Laurian, Ghica and Petru Grădişteanu decided to issue a common reply to Maiorescu's accusations, using Rosetti's newspaper Românul as their venue. One of Urechia's texts in the series accused Maiorescu of "mocking for the urge of mocking", and called Beţia de cuvinte "an unqualifiable diatribe". He defended his group as the true representatives of a cultural line leading back to the Wallachian uprising of 1821
Wallachian uprising of 1821
The Wallachian uprising of 1821 was an uprising in Wallachia against Ottoman rule which took place during 1821.-Background:...
, and rhetorically asked Maiorescu: "could it be true that in these 50 years all that was planted in the national soil are feather grass and creeping thistle?" Tudor Vianu
Tudor Vianu
Tudor Vianu was a Romanian literary critic, art critic, poet, philosopher, academic, and translator. Known for his left-wing and anti-fascist convictions, he had a major role on the reception and development of Modernism in Romanian literature and art...
, who believes Urechia had "too much knowledge of things", cautions that "[his] pen would slide too fast over paper". He defines Urechia's reply as "gauche and prolix". While he criticizes Urechia's views on history, literary historian Z. Ornea believes that he was justified in opposing Junimist "exclusivism", especially when rejecting Maiorescu's theory that the state needed to redesign its educational system
Education in Romania
According to the Law on Education adopted in 1995, the Romanian Educational System is regulated by the Ministry of Education and Research . Each level has its own form of organization and is subject to different legislation. Kindergarten is optional between 3 and 6 years old...
by closing down universities and building more primary schools.
Maiorescu himself answered to his critics in another article, detailing their rebuttals and arguing that they were proof of ignoratio elenchi
Ignoratio elenchi
Ignoratio elenchi is the informal fallacy of presenting an argument that may in itself be valid, but does not address the issue in question...
. Elsewhere, the same critic stated his amusement at reading in Adunarea Naţională that the 1859 union
United Principalities
The United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, also known as the Romanian Principalities, was the official name of Romania following the 1859 election of Alexandru Ioan Cuza as prince or domnitor of both territories...
had spurred on the Risorgimento and German unification, and that the 1784 Transylvanian rebellion
Revolt of Horea, Closca and Crisan
The Revolt of Horea, Cloșca and Crișan began in Zarand County, Transylvania, but it soon spread all throughout the Apuseni Mountains...
had made possible the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
. An unsigned article published the conservative newspaper Timpul
Timpul
Timpul is a newspaper published in Romania, originally published as the official platform of the defunct Conservative Party....
in 1877, believed by literary historian Z. Ornea to be the work of Maiorescu, accuses V. A. Urechia, Xenofon Gheorghiu, Nicolae Ionescu
Nicolae Ionescu
Nicolae Ionescu was a Romanian politician and publisher. He was one of the founding members of the Romanian Academy.-References:...
, Ştefan Şendrea, Andrei Vizanti and others of being inactive academics and corrupt
Political corruption
Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...
public figures. Such criticism was being repeated in later years: writing some twenty years later, Urechia expressed his disappointment that a Bucharest journal had more recently mocked his activist stance and had referred to him as a "road junction orator".
Personal life
Urechia's marriage to Luiza produced three children: sons Nestor and Alceu and daughter Corina. The Urechias' relationship, likened by Călinescu to a "Greek tragedyTheatre of Ancient Greece
The theatre of Ancient Greece, or ancient Greek drama, is a theatrical culture that flourished in ancient Greece between c. 550 and c. 220 BC. The city-state of Athens, which became a significant cultural, political and military power during this period, was its centre, where it was...
", was the topic of innuendo and scandal. Painter Nicolae Grigorescu
Nicolae Grigorescu
Nicolae Grigorescu was one of the founders of modern Romanian painting.-Biography:He was born in Pitaru, Dâmboviţa County, Wallachia. In 1843 the family moved to Bucharest. At a young age , he became an apprentice at the workshop of the painter Anton Chladek and created icons for the church of...
was allegedly in love with Luiza Wirth, and painted several portraits of her, including one in the nude. The latter painting was described by Călinescu as "indiscreet [and] voluptuous". Their marriage was allegedly a ménage à trois
Ménage à trois
Ménage à trois is a French term which originally described a domestic arrangement in which three people having sexual relations occupy the same household – the phrase literally translates as "household of three"...
, involving Luiza's sister Ana. Rumors also had it that a the two other Wirth sisters, Carlotta, who was Queen Elisabeth
Elisabeth of Wied
-Titles and styles:*29 December 1843 – 15 November 1869: Her Serene Highness Princess Elisabeth of Wied*15 November 1869 – 26 March 1881: Her Royal Highness The Princess of Romania...
's music tutor, and Emilia, wife of Romanian Army General Staff Chief Nicolae Dona, were also V. A. Urechia's lovers. Such claims of sororal polygyny
Polygyny
Polygyny is a form of marriage in which a man has two or more wives at the same time. In countries where the practice is illegal, the man is referred to as a bigamist or a polygamist...
were notably popularized by Eminescu, who once described Urechia as a "poor fellow who has two keep two sisters as his wives."
Story has it that Dona's son, officer Alexandru Guriţă, was Urechia's illegitimate son. Oblivious to this, Guriţă had fallen in love with Corina and was planning to marry her, before Urechia stepped in and revealed that they would be committing incest
Incest
Incest is sexual intercourse between close relatives that is usually illegal in the jurisdiction where it takes place and/or is conventionally considered a taboo. The term may apply to sexual activities between: individuals of close "blood relationship"; members of the same household; step...
. The two lovers committed suicide. After her divorce from Urechia, Luiza lived with I. G. Cantacuzino; their son was Gheorghe Cantacuzino-Grănicerul, future general and provisional leader of the fascist
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
Iron Guard
Iron Guard
The Iron Guard is the name most commonly given to a far-right movement and political party in Romania in the period from 1927 into the early part of World War II. The Iron Guard was ultra-nationalist, fascist, anti-communist, and promoted the Orthodox Christian faith...
. In early 1882, after she remarried a man named Hristu Cuţiana, but died in August of the same year.
Legacy
Junimist sentiments regarding Urechia were backed by several authoritative critics in later periods. Thus, Călinescu dismissed the author's overall contribution to literature as "mawkish", and referred to Legende române as "almost trivial in style." In contrast, Vianu believes the latter to be "entertainingly told". According to the 1995 Cambridge Guide to Theatre, Urechia was "most successful as an author of historical melodramas", but, like his contemporaries George Bengescu-Dabija, Haralamb Lecca, Ronetti Roman and Grigore Ventura, is "no longer in fashion."From early on, Urechia was defended against criticism by people who shared his views. In his speech to commemorate the writer's death, Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu
Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu
Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu was a Romanian writer and philologist, who pioneered many branches of Romanian philology and history. Hasdeu is considered to have been able to understand 26 languages .-Life:...
claimed: "As an agitator for the benefit and growth of the Romanian nation, Urechia was sublime; no one shall replace him, nothing shall be able to shadow him when it comes to our national history, in which he will endure as an archangel
Archangel
An archangel is an angel of high rank. Archangels are found in a number of religious traditions, including Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Michael and Gabriel are recognized as archangels in Judaism and by most Christians. Michael is the only archangel specifically named in the Protestant Bible...
of enthusiasm in the memory of all Romanians". According to cultural historian Ovidiu Pecican
Ovidiu Pecican
Ovidiu Coriolan Pecican is a Romanian historian, essayist, novelist, short-story writer, literary critic, poet, playwright, and journalist...
, Hasdeu, with political support from National Liberal leader Ion Brătianu
Ion Bratianu
Ion C. Brătianu was one of the major political figures of 19th century Romania. He was the younger brother of Dimitrie, as well as the father of Ionel, Dinu, and Vintilă Brătianu...
, managed to impose a nationalist cultural model to compete with Junimea, thus ensuring that both Urechia and his rival Şăineanu, alongside George Dem. Teodorescu, Grigore Tocilescu
Grigore Tocilescu
Grigore George Tocilescu was a Romanian historian, archaeologist, epigrapher and folkorist, member of Romanian Academy....
, George Ionescu-Gion, Alexandru Vlahuţă
Alexandru Vlahuta
Alexandru Vlahuţă was a Romanian writer. His best known work is România pitorească, an overview of Romania's landscape in the form of a travelogue. He was also the main editor of Sămănătorul magazine, alongside George Coşbuc....
and other Bucharest-based figures, addressed an alternative and autonomous milieu. Partly building on the observations made by literary critic Alexandru George, Z. Ornea notes that, for all his "real inadequacies", Urechia "was but moreover became incontestably superior to many members of [Junimea] who were much amused when reading Maiorescu's admirable lampoon." Ornea also concluded that, with his final historical works, particularly Istoria şcoalelor, Urechia contributed texts "relevant to this day". Although Maiorescu's early treatment of Urechia's work left an enduring impact on his public image, the author came to be viewed with more sympathy during the 20th century. Among the influential monograph
Monograph
A monograph is a work of writing upon a single subject, usually by a single author.It is often a scholarly essay or learned treatise, and may be released in the manner of a book or journal article. It is by definition a single document that forms a complete text in itself...
s which reclaimed part of his writings was one published by Alexandru George in 1976. According to Ornea, it and other such works "reclaim a fairer and more lenient posterity." Urechia's work as a teacher and cultural promoter also reflected on intellectual life: dramatist Alexandru Davila
Alexandru Davila
Alexandru Davila was a Romanian dramatist, diplomat, public administrator, and memoirist.-Biography:The son of Carol Davila, a distinguished military physician of French origin, and Ana Racoviţă , he studied in his native Goleşti and at V. A...
was one of the V. A. Urechia Institute graduates, and, according to Tudor Vianu, Urechia's post-1870s support for Macedonski, together with similar efforts by Ionescu-Gion, Tocilescu, Anghel Demetriescu
Anghel Demetriescu
Anghel Demetriescu was a Romanian historian, writer and literary critic, member of the Romanian Academy in 1902.-Childhood and studies:...
, Bonifaciu Florescu, Th. M. Stoenescu, was largely responsible for passing down "a better and truer image of the abused poet."
After World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Alceu Urechia issued protests against the intellectual establishment, who, he argued, had obscured his father's contribution to the historical process whereby Greater Romania
Greater Romania
The Greater Romania generally refers to the territory of Romania in the years between the First World War and the Second World War, the largest geographical extent of Romania up to that time and its largest peacetime extent ever ; more precisely, it refers to the territory of the Kingdom of...
had been created. Historian Nicolae Iorga
Nicolae Iorga
Nicolae Iorga was a Romanian historian, politician, literary critic, memoirist, poet and playwright. Co-founder of the Democratic Nationalist Party , he served as a member of Parliament, President of the Deputies' Assembly and Senate, cabinet minister and briefly as Prime Minister...
, who took over chairmanship of the Cultural League in 1932, paid tribute to his predecessor, referring to his "unbound wish to be of service in every area and his great talent to win over by means of an appealing form of vanity".
Although their author was the recipient of much criticism over his inconsistencies, V. A. Urechia's books enjoyed a steady popularity. This was in particular the case with Legende române, parts of which were translated into Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
. Unlike his other texts, Legende was prevented by Hungarian censors from circulating within Transylvania, and had to make its way in only through the Cisleithania
Cisleithania
Cisleithania was a name of the Austrian part of Austria-Hungary, the Dual Monarchy created in 1867 and dissolved in 1918. The name was used by politicians and bureaucrats, but it had no official status...
n part of the monarchy. It was republished in a 1904 definitive edition by Editura Socec. His Albumul macedo-român and Voci latine were placed by art historian Gheorghe Oprescu among "the most beautiful and elegant turn-of-the-century Romanian books." In 1878, to mark his presence at the International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, the Société d'Ethnographie presented Urechia with a bust
Bust (sculpture)
A bust is a sculpted or cast representation of the upper part of the human figure, depicting a person's head and neck, as well as a variable portion of the chest and shoulders. The piece is normally supported by a plinth. These forms recreate the likeness of an individual...
in his likeness, sculpted by Wladimir Hegel. Thirty-three years later, his Transylvanian collaborators dedicated him an album, which included a poem written especially for him by George Coşbuc
George Cosbuc
George Coşbuc was a Romanian poet, translator, teacher, and journalist, best remembered for his verses describing, praising and eulogizing rural life, its many travails but also its occasions for joy....
. Urechia's book collection, which he had turned into a public library, is managed by the city of Galaţi
Galati
Galați is a city and municipality in Romania, the capital of Galați County. Located in the historical region of Moldavia, in the close vicinity of Brăila, Galați is the largest port and sea port on the Danube River and the second largest Romanian port....
.
In addition to the writings of his adversaries Maiorescu and Eminescu, Urechia was the subject of satirical pieces written by various other authors. They include his employee Ronetti Roman and the Junimist figure Iacob Negruzzi. Grigorescu's portraits of Luiza Urechia, including the nude (which is said to be worth 100,000 euro
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
s), found their way into the art collection of General Dona's son, physician Iosif Dona, and were later inherited by the National Museum of Art
National Museum of Art of Romania
The National Museum of Art of Romania is located in the former royal palace in Revolution Square, central Bucharest, Romania, completed in 1937...
. The museum lost ownership of the entire Dona collection in 2007, after its property rights were successfully disputed in court by rival claimants.