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Samuil Micu Klein (September 1745 – 13 May 1806) was a Romanian Greek-Catholic theologian, historian, philologist and philosopher, a member of the Enlightenment-era movement of
Transylvanian School The Transylvanian School ( ro, Școala Ardeleană) was a cultural movement which was founded after part of the Romanian Orthodox Church in Habsburg-ruled Transylvania accepted the leadership of the pope and became the Greek-Catholic Church (). The ...
(Şcoala Ardeleană). He is the author of Elementa linguae daco-romanae sive valachicae, a book which is the reference point for the start of Modern Romanian language period.


Biography

Born as ''Maniu Micu'' in the
Transylvania Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the A ...
n village of
Sadu Sadu (german: Zood; hu, Cód) is a commune in Sibiu County, Transylvania, Romania, at the foothills of the Cindrel Mountains, 27 km south of the county capital Sibiu, in the Mărginimea Sibiului ethnographic area. It is composed of a single ...
, in the
Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central- Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence, ...
(now in
Sibiu County Sibiu County () is a county ( ro, județ) of Romania, in the historical region of Transylvania. Its county seat ( ro, reședință de județ) is the namesake town of Sibiu (german: Hermannstadt). Name In Hungarian, it is known as ''Szeben m ...
,
Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
), he was the son of a
Greek-Catholic The term Greek Catholic Church can refer to a number of Eastern Catholic Churches following the Byzantine (Greek) liturgy, considered collectively or individually. The terms Greek Catholic, Greek Catholic church or Byzantine Catholic, Byzantine Ca ...
protopope A protopope, or protopresbyter, is a priest of higher rank in the Eastern Orthodox and the Byzantine Catholic Churches, generally corresponding to Western Christianity's archpriest or the Latin Church's dean. History The rights and duties of the ...
and the nephew of bishop Inocenţiu Micu-Klein.Hitchins, p. 667. He began to study at the Seminary of
Blaj Blaj (; archaically spelled as ''Blaș''; hu, Balázsfalva; german: Blasendorf; Transylvanian Saxon: ''Blußendref'') is a city in Alba County, Transylvania, Romania. It has a population of 20,630 inhabitants. The landmark of the city is the f ...
and he joined the Order of Saint Basil in 1762. Micu received a scholarship in 1762 and began studying at the Catholic
Pázmáneum : ''For other universities with similar names, see Pázmáneum (disambiguation)'' The Pázmáneum (in Latin Collegium Pazmanianum) is a university in Vienna, founded in 1619 by Péter Pázmány as a seminary for Hungarian theological candidates ...
University of
Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...
. There is little known about his life in Vienna, but it is known he was attracted to science, studying experimental physics, mechanics and mathematics, in addition to theology and philosophy. In 1772, returning to Blaj to teach ethics and mathematics at the Seminary, Klein met and befriended bishop Grigorie Maior, whom he accompanied in visits throughout his diocese, trying to win converts to Greek-Catholicism. These trips proved to be useful in his study of the
Romanian language Romanian (obsolete spellings: Rumanian or Roumanian; autonym: ''limba română'' , or ''românește'', ) is the official and main language of Romania and the Republic of Moldova. As a minority language it is spoken by stable communities in ...
, especially of the language spoken by the peasants, gathering materials for a future grammar. Klein was also interested in Romanian folklore, his writings being one of the earliest works on it. In 1774, he finished writing a work of history named ''De ortu progressu conversione valachorum episcopis item archiepiscopis et metropolitis eorum'', which talked about the Roman origins of the Romanians and the origins of their faith in the Roman Christian Church in ancient
Dacia Dacia (, ; ) was the land inhabited by the Dacians, its core in Transylvania, stretching to the Danube in the south, the Black Sea in the east, and the Tisza in the west. The Carpathian Mountains were located in the middle of Dacia. It ...
. Apparently, his goal was to make the bishopric become a metropolis, so it would no longer belong to the
Archdiocese of Esztergom In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...
.Hitchins, p. 668. He went to Vienna in 1779 to become a
prefect of studies Prefect (from the Latin ''praefectus'', substantive adjectival form of ''praeficere'': "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area. A prefect's ...
at the
Saint Barbara College In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Catholic, Eastern Orth ...
, he published in 1780, together with
Gheorghe Sincai Gheorghe is a Romanian given name and surname. It is a variant of George, also a name in Romanian but with soft Gs. It may refer to: Given name * Gheorghe Adamescu * Gheorghe Albu * Gheorghe Alexandrescu * Gheorghe Andriev * Gheorghe Apostol * ...
the first Romanian grammar, '' Elementa linguae daco-romanae sive valachicae''. Klein returned to Blaj, and between 1782 and 1804, he was very productive both in his translations and in writing original works: * translation of textbooks for Blaj schools * translation of over seventy-seven titles and 7,500 pages from the
Church Fathers The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were ancient and influential Christian theologians and writers who established the intellectual and doctrinal foundations of Christianity. The historical per ...
* a history of Romania entitled ''Scurtă cunoştinţă a istoriei Românilor'' (1792) * a translation of ''The Granite Matrix'' (1794) * a translation of the bible ('' Biblia de la Blaj'', 1795) * a four-volume Latin draft of ''Istoria, lucrurile şi întâmplările Românilor'' (1800, though only an 1805 translation to Romanian survived) Klein moved to
Buda Buda (; german: Ofen, sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Budim, Будим, Czech and sk, Budín, tr, Budin) was the historic capital of the Kingdom of Hungary and since 1873 has been the western part of the Hungarian capital Budapest, on the ...
in 1804 to become the editor at the University of Buda press for the Romanian-language books, hoping that this would allow him to publish his historical works, a project which did not materialise because of his death just two years later.Hitchins, p. 669.


Notes


References

*
Keith Hitchins Keith Arnold Hitchins (April 2, 1931 – November 1, 2020) was an American historian and a professor of Eastern European history at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, specializing in Romania and its history. He was born in Schenect ...
, "Samuel Clain and the Rumanian Enlightenment in Transylvania", ''Slavic Review'', Vol. 23, No. 4. (Dec., 1964), pp. 660–675.


Further reading

* Pompiliu Teodor, ''Sub semnul luminilor. Samuil Micu'' Editura Presa Universitară Clujeană, Cluj, 2000, 507 p.


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Micu-Klein, Samuil 1745 births 1806 deaths 18th-century Romanian historians Romanians in Hungary Romanian folklorists 19th-century Romanian historians Romanian philologists Romanian schoolteachers Romanian theologians Romanian Greek-Catholic clergy Translators of the Bible into Romanian Romanian translators Age of Enlightenment Transylvanian School People from Sibiu County Order of Saint Basil the Great 18th-century translators