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| Alexandru Petriceicu Hasdeu | |
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Born in 1811, Alexandru Petriceicu-Hasdeu, gifted with an amazing memory and guided by Tadeu, his father, was able to speak Greek and Latin when he was only ten years old. When very young, he attended the University of Harcov, where he was a student in Law; at the same time, he also studied Botany, being awarded, as the result of a contest, a golden medal for a dissertation « about the life of the plants ». Afterwards, he attended the University of Lemberg in Galicia, and the University of Munich in Bavaria, where there were the most important professors in Germany: Gorres, Schelling etc.; in the end he returned to Russia and worked as a lawyer, with the intention to have a more independent career. He was such a famous lawyer that he had clients from the farthest corners of the country. He published the following works in various Russian newspapers, between 1830 and 1840: 1) An idea about Philosophy as the Science of Life; 2) Romanian National Songs with historical notes; 3) Duca-Voda, a historic short story; 4) Dabija-Voda, idem; 5) Hârcu, idem; 6) An Inquest in Lardaria of Orhei, a legend; 7) The Death of the Cossack Kunicki in Buceag, idem; 8) About Gregori Varsava Scovorada, the Only Russian National Philosopher, a philosophical dissertation; 9) About the Basarabian Literates etc. Besides these works, he wrote several others that remained in manuscript, such as: 1) The Basarabian Flora, « Romanian and Latin », arbitrarily kept by the Agronomic Society from Odessa; 2) « Speech for Moldavia’s Ancient Glory », a letter for which the author was prosecuted by the Russian government, but which made him immortal for the Romanians, being translated and published by Costache Stamati, and later in « Page for Mind and Soul », in Iasi by D. Balica, in French by Colson etc.; 3) « The Greatest Deeds of the Romanians », presented in a series of very elegantly written sonnets (the Russian autographed manuscript can be found at the library of the Iasi University). The Romanian Academic Society from Bucharest selected him as a member, but the Russian government didn’t allow him to leave Basarabia. He was a veritable polyglot; he knew the classical languages, German, French, Slavonic, Polish, Russian, Bohemian, Italian and Spanish. He was married twice; from the first marriage he had two boys (Nicolae, the youngest, who died at the age of 18, after being a brilliant student at the Painting Academy from Petersburg, and Bogdan); from the second marriage he had a daughter, Alecsandrina. Alexandru Hasdeu died in 1872, at his estate from Cristinesti. |
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