LE SYMPOSIUM INTERNATIONAL LE LIVRE. LA ROUMANIE. L ...

The History of the country through commoners’ Eyes... 63
Dimitrie Cantemir, the author of the Divan or the Quarrel of the Wise
Man with the World (iaşi, 1698), offered the book to relatives and friends.
he gave a copy to the Treasurer Ştefan luca (sent to luţk, in Volhinia, to
sign a treaty of alliance with the tsar peter I in 1711) and to transylvania
to Gheorghe cantacuzino, son of Prince Şerban cantacuzino, his brotherin-law,
retired in Braşov. it is possible that other copies were sent with
the help of Gheorghe Cantacuzino to the scholars from Brasov and to the
superior clergy from transylvania 25 .
the workers from the printing houses received a certain number of
the printed books as part of payment for their work. Besides, provided
that they bought the necessary paper, they could print even more books,
that they could sell or donate. A copy of the Divan by Dimitrie Cantemir
was offered by the printer Athanasie to Antim Ivireanul, Metropolitan of
Wallachia. later on, the book belonged to Cosma, Athonite monk from
Vatoped, who gave it to Mitrofan of nissa, when he was the abbot of
Cotroceni monastery, and from this one, it probably arrived at Dionisiu
monastery at Mount Athos, where it is kept nowadays 26 .
the mention of the team of printers who worked together with the
apprentices appears in the book the Divan or the Quarrel of the Wise Man
with the World by dimitrie cantemir (iaşi, 1698): Atanasie and dionisie
“who call themselves «the Moldavians» somewhere else». A big engraving
on wood used in the book was reproduced after a drawing belonging to
the author himself 27 . this is an important detail, proving once again the
involvement of the great personalities of an epoch in the printing activity.
A great scholar who knew the three most important languages of the
time: Slavonic, Greek and latin, was the creator of the Moldavian printing
school, namely hieromonk Mitrofan. As it was the trend at the time, he was
also an occasional author of verses dedicated to the coat of arms and to the
prince (Evhologhion, Buzău, 1699 and 1701; Psalm Book Buzău, 1701)
and of praises to the Metropolitan (Teaching for the Priests, Buzău, 1702).
lui Dimitrie Cantemir, divanul sau gîlceava înţeleptului cu lumea⁄New Data about the
circulation and the readers of Dimitrie Cantemir’s work, in “studii. revistă de istorie”,
volume 26 (1973), no. 5, p. 1001; (next: iliEŞ, AdAM, Divanul).
25 Ibidem, p. 1001-1002.
26 CânDeA, Virgil, Un cărturar român la întîlnirea a trei lumi: Dimitrie Cantemir.
Evoluţia interpretărilor⁄A Romanian intellectual at the meeting of three worlds: Dimitrie
Cantemir. The evolution of interpretations, in “Academica”, year III, no. 1 (35), September
1993, p. 7.
27 BRV, I, p. 237, 239, 245, 251, 262, 280, 296, 340, 365; pAnAIteSCu, petre p.,
Petru Movilă. Studii/Studies, edition by Ştefan s. Gorovei and Maria Magdalena szekely,
Bucureşti, Editura Enciclopedică, 1996, p. 44.