Iancu Văcărescu
{{short description|Romanian Wallachian boyar and poet}}
{{Infobox writer
| honorific_prefix = Boyar
| name = Iancu Văcărescu
| image = MondonvilleIancuVacarescu1828.PNG
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| caption = Iancu Văcărescu (portrait by Henri de Mondonville)
| native_name =
| native_name_lang = ro
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| birth_date = 1792
| birth_place =
| death_date = 1863
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| occupation = Poet, Translator
| language = Romanian
| nationality = Romanian
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| genres = Poetry
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| notable_works = Poezii alese, Colecţie din poeziile domnului marelui logofăt Iancu Văcărescu
| spouse = Ecaterina Cantacuzino-Pascanu
| partner =
| children = Misu "Claymoore" Văcărescu
Ioan Văcărescu
| relatives = Elena Dudescu (mother)
Alecu Văcărescu (father)
Ienăchiță Văcărescu (grandfather)
Elena Văcărescu (granddaughter){{cite web |last1=van de Pas |first1=Leo |last2=Fettes |first2=Ian |last3=Mahler |first3=Leslie |title=Iancu Văcărescu |url=https://www.genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00765952&tree=LEO |website=Genealogics |access-date=15 February 2025}}
}}
Iancu Văcărescu (1786–1863) was a Romanian Wallachian boyar and poet, member of the Văcărescu family.{{cite web |title=Văcărescu Family |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Vacarescu-family |website=www.britannica.com |access-date=15 February 2025 |language=en}}
Biography
The son of Alecu Văcărescu, descending from a long line of Wallachian men of letters — his paternal uncle, Ienăchiță Văcărescu, was author of the first Romanian grammar; Iancu was the grandfather of writer Elena Văcărescu. He received a quality education not only in Greek (the preferred language of teaching in Wallachia at the time), but also in German and French, and was well versed in Western literature.{{sfn|Gaster|1911}}
A patriot during the Phanariote epoch, he sided with the national movement in 1821 (around Tudor Vladimirescu's Wallachian Uprising), and assisted in establishing the Romanian theatre, translating many books and plays from German and French into Romanian, notably the Britannicus of Racine, a literary event of no small importance at the time. He inaugurated modern Romanian poetry.{{sfn|Gaster|1911}}
During the debates in the National Assembly over the drafting of an organic law for the Danubian Principalities (see Regulamentul Organic), Văcărescu spoke out against Imperial Russian overseeing, and was placed under arrest before being exiled for the following years.Djuvara, p.323
Văcărescu was also one of the founders of the modern Romanian school system. He wrote philosophical poems, and ballads that found their inspiration in folklore. The first volume of verse he published was in 1830.
Before the 1848 Wallachian revolution, he presided a literary society (Societatea Literară) which served as a front for the radical secret association Frăţia.
Văcărescu died in 1863.
Published books
- Poezii alese (1830)
- Colecţie din poeziile domnului marelui logofăt Iancu Văcărescu (1848)
References
{{Reflist}}
- Neagu Djuvara, Între Orient şi Occident. Ţările române la începutul epocii moderne, Humanitas, Bucharest, 1995
{{Wikisourcelang|ro|Iancu Văcărescu|Iancu Văcărescu (original works in Romanian)}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Vacarescu, Iancu}}
Category:19th-century male writers
Category:19th-century Romanian poets
Category:Romanian schoolteachers
Category:Logothetes of Wallachia
Category:Organizers of the Wallachian Revolution of 1848