Barbu Paris Mumuleanu (1794 – May 21, 1836) was a

Wallachia Wallachia or Walachia (; ; : , : ) is a historical and geographical region of modern-day Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians. Wallachia was traditionally divided into two sections, Munteni ...

n poet. Born in Slatina, his father was originally from a village and sold trinkets. Initially employed as a

logothete Logothete (, ''logothétēs'', pl. λογοθέται, ''logothétai''; Med. , pl. ''logothetae''; ; ; ; , ''logotet'') was an administrative title originating in the eastern Roman Empire. In the middle and late Byzantine Empire, it rose to become ...

to the '' vistier'' (treasurer),

Alexandru Piru Alexandru Piru (August 22, 1917 – November 6, 1993) was a Romanian literary critic and historian. Born in Mărgineni, Bacău County,Alex. Ștefănescu"Al. Piru", in ''România Literară'', nr. 10/2002 his parents were Vasile, a notary, and ...

, ''Istoria literaturii române: Epoca premodernă'', pp. 390-91. Bucharest: Editura didactică și pedagogică, 1970 he later moved to

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

. Spending several years there, he worked in the home of ''

kaymakam Kaymakam, also known by #Names, many other romanizations, was a title used by various officials of the Ottoman Empire, including acting grand viziers, governors of provincial sanjaks, and administrators of district kazas. The title has been reta ...

'' Constantin Filipescu, who was a connoisseur of European poetry. This is the origin of Mumuleanu's familiarity with the verses of

Alphonse de Lamartine Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine (; 21 October 179028 February 1869) was a French author, poet, and statesman. Initially a moderate royalist, he became one of the leading critics of the July Monarchy of Louis-Philippe, aligning more w ...

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo, vicomte Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romanticism, Romantic author, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist, human rights activist and politician. His most famous works are the novels ''The Hunchbac ...

and

Lord Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824) was an English poet. He is one of the major figures of the Romantic movement, and is regarded as being among the greatest poets of the United Kingdom. Among his best-kno ...

. His reading material included

Anacreon Anacreon ( BC) was an Ancient Greek lyric poet, notable for his drinking songs and erotic poems. Later Greeks included him in the canonical list of Nine Lyric Poets. Anacreon wrote all of his poetry in the ancient Ionic dialect. Like all early ...

, Athanasios Christopoulos, the Bible,

Ioan Barac Ioan Barac (1776–July 18, 1848) was an Imperial Austrian Romanians, ethnic Romanian translator and poet. Born in Loamneș, Alămor, Sibiu County, his father Ioan was a priest. Barac attended the Reformed Church in Hungary, Reformed in Aiud ...

, the

Văcărescu family The House of Văcărescu was a boyar family of Phanariote Greek descent in Wallachia (now part of Romania). * Read online: The family produced the first poets in Romanian literature. Notable members * Ianache Văcărescu (1654–1714) grand ...

poets,

Costache Conachi Costache Conachi (; b. September 14/25, 1778, Munteni, Țigănești, Tecuci County, Moldavia – d. February 4/16, 1849, Munteni, Țigănești, Tecuci County, Moldavia, actually Galați County, Romania) was a Romanian boyar, politician, poet and w ...

Hesiod Hesiod ( or ; ''Hēsíodos''; ) was an ancient Greece, Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer.M. L. West, ''Hesiod: Theogony'', Oxford University Press (1966), p. 40.Jasper Gr ...

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...

and

Ovid Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he i ...

. He knew Greek and probably some French. Mumuleanu made his published debut with ''Rost de poezii adecă stihuri'', an 1820 book of poetry. Two others followed in 1825: ''Caracteruri'' and ''Plângerea și tânguirea Valahiei asupra nemulțemirii streinilor ce au derăpănat-o''. These were accompanied by prefaces that advocated a national culture. Aesthetically, his works combine classical forms with Romantic inspiration.Aurel Sasu (ed.), ''Dicționarul biografic al literaturii române'', vol. II, p. 153. Pitești: Editura Paralela 45, 2004. Most of his poems are erotic and bacchic in the style of Anacreon; two exceptions are an ode for the opening of

Gheorghe Lazăr Gheorghe Lazăr (5 June 1779 – 17 September 1823), was a Transylvanian Romanian scholar and the founder of the first Romanian language school in Bucharest, in 1817. Biography Lazăr was born to a peasant family in Felek, Szeben County, Habsb ...

's school and a vaguely

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778), known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' Voltaire (, ; ), was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, philosopher (''philosophe''), satirist, and historian. Famous for his wit ...

an ode to mankind. He was married and had at least three children; at the time of his death, Mumuleanu lived in Bucharest's Batiște district.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mumuleanu, Barbu Paris 1794 births 1836 deaths Poets from the Principality of Wallachia People from Slatina, Romania 19th-century Wallachian writers