Between Humanism and Pre-Enlightenment: Dimitrie Cantemir and His Work: Historiographic Controversies

Abstract

The multi-faceted personality of this Romanian prince, descended from a modest family, who achieved success by virtue of his own merits, became one of the foremost connoisseurs of the Islamic civilization and participated in the elaboration of Tsar Peter the Great’s reform policies, has inspired vivid historiographic debates, concerned especially with his inclusion among the representatives of late Romanian Humanism or among the exponents of Southeast European pre Enlightenment. His career, built at the crossroads between the Orthodox world, Islamic alterity, and the German historical-geographic school for the study of states, justifies the classification of his work as part of this latter cultural movement, illustrated to the fullest in terms of the Roma nian historical writing by the representatives of the Transylvanian School.