The ''Chronicle of Huru'' () was a forged narrative, first published in 1856–1857; it claimed to be an official

chronicle A chronicle (, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events ...

of the medieval

Moldavia Moldavia (, or ; in Romanian Cyrillic alphabet, Romanian Cyrillic: or ) is a historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester River. An initially in ...

n court and to shed light on Romanian presence in Moldavia from

Roman Dacia Roman Dacia ( ; also known as ; or Dacia Felix, ) was a province of the Roman Empire from 106 to 271–275 AD. Its territory consisted of what are now the regions of Oltenia, Transylvania and Banat (today all in Romania, except the last regi ...

and up to the 13th century, thus offering an explanation of problematic issues relating to the

origin of the Romanians Several theories, in great extent mutually exclusive, address the issue of the origin of the Romanians. The Romanian language descends from the Vulgar Latin dialects spoken in the Roman provinces north of the "Jireček Line" (a proposed notion ...

and Romanian history in the Dark Ages. Publicized and endorsed by the Romantic nationalist

intellectual An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and Human self-reflection, reflection about the nature of reality, especially the nature of society and proposed solutions for its normative problems. Coming from the wor ...

s Gheorghe Asachi (who edited the published version) Gheorghe Adamescu
''Istoria literaturii române. Literatura istorică'' ("The History of Romanian Literature. Historical Literature")
Lucian Boia, ''History and Myth in Romanian Consciousness'', Central European University Press,

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

, 2001, p.47-49 and Ion Heliade Rădulescu, it was argued to have been the work of '' Paharnic'' Constantin Sion (or another member of his family) or that of Gheorghe Săulescu, Asachi's friend and lifelong collaborator.

Content

The document claimed to be the version of a text from the 13th century, relying on information first written down by a certain ''Arbore the Campodux'' (''Campoduxul Arbore'') and edited in

Medieval Latin Medieval Latin was the form of Literary Latin used in Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Western Europe during the Middle Ages. It was also the administrative language in the former Western Roman Empire, Roman Provinces of Mauretania, Numidi ...

by Huru, depicted as

chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

for Moldavia's founder,

Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...

Dragoş (who, the text claimed, had ruled ca. 1270-1280); the final version was claimed to be a transcription of Huru's chronicle through the intervention of '' Spătar'' Clănău, a member of

Stephen the Great Stephen III, better known as Stephen the Great (; ; died 2 July 1504), was List of rulers of Moldavia, Voivode (or Prince) of Moldavia from 1457 to 1504. He was the son of and co-ruler with Bogdan II of Moldavia, Bogdan II, who was murdered in ...

's court (late 15th century). Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu, who believed it was "the oldest Moldavian chronicle", Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu
''Ioan Vodă cel Cumplit. După el... (27)''
/ref> argued that Stephen the Great had discovered Huru's version in

Lviv Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

, at the time part of Jagiellon Poland, "while robbing the palace of a Galician magnate". The chronicle began by stressing the continuity between Roman colonists in the region and the inhabitants of Moldavia: according to the text, in 274, when

Emperor The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...

Aurelian Aurelian (; ; 9 September ) was a Roman emperor who reigned from 270 to 275 AD during the Crisis of the Third Century. As emperor, he won an unprecedented series of military victories which reunited the Roman Empire after it had nearly disinte ...

ordered his troops to retreat from areas north of the

Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

, colonists gathered in Iaşi and voted to stand their ground and resist migratory intrusions. Consequently, they decided to organize themselves as a

federal republic A federal republic is a federation of Federated state, states with a republican form of government. At its core, the literal meaning of the word republic when used to reference a form of government means a country that is governed by elected re ...

extending from the

Carpathians The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe and Southeast Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains ...

in the west to the

Dniester The Dniester ( ) is a transboundary river in Eastern Europe. It runs first through Ukraine and then through Moldova (from which it more or less separates the breakaway territory of Transnistria), finally discharging into the Black Sea on Uk ...

in the east.

Impact and character

The ''Chronicle of Huru'' was published during the last period of Moldavian statehood, three years before the country's union with

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 ...

, in the wake of the

Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...

, at a time when the two Danubian Principalities were placed under the common protection of the

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the union of the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into one sovereign state, established by the Acts of Union 1800, Acts of Union in 1801. It continued in this form until ...

, the

Second French Empire The Second French Empire, officially the French Empire, was the government of France from 1852 to 1870. It was established on 2 December 1852 by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, president of France under the French Second Republic, who proclaimed hi ...

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

, the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, the

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire, officially known as the Empire of Austria, was a Multinational state, multinational European Great Powers, great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the Habsburg monarchy, realms of the Habsburgs. Duri ...

, and the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. Following the interest stirred by the apparent breakthrough of the document, Prince Grigore Alexandru Ghica ordered the document to be evaluated by a Commission of experts (comprising

Mihail Kogălniceanu Mihail Kogălniceanu (; also known as Mihail Cogâlniceanu, Michel de Kogalnitchan; September 6, 1817 – July 1, 1891) was a Romanian Liberalism, liberal statesman, lawyer, historian and publicist; he became Prime Minister of Romania on Octo ...

, August Treboniu Laurian and Constantin Negruzzi). The latter reported that the chronicle was a forgery, while supporters of the chronicle claimed the original had been lost. According to historiographer Lucian Boia, the forgery was in clear connection to its historical context. The mention of a Dniester border since 274 was meant to emphasize historical rule over Bessarabia, a region since lost to Russia, while mention of republican customs was assigning Moldavia a democratic tradition. Furthermore, Boia argues, authors and supporters of the forgery had proof of Moldavian specificity as their political goal, and generally opposed projects of a union with Wallachia as they were being proposed by '' Partida Naţională'' and assessed by the Paris Conference—Asachi criticized the union, while Sion deemed it "a fools' project". In addition, the text supposedly written down by Clănău in 1495 made use of Romanian, aiming to transport first records of the language back by a few decades (''see Neacşu's Letter''); the analysis of the language used was the main clue in uncovering the forgery. The chronicle, still argued by many to have been authentic, was notably used as a source by Ion Heliade Rădulescu in his ("Elements of Romanian History", 1860), and ultimately proven spurious by linguist Alexandru Philippide in 1882.

References

{{Authority control 1856 books 1856 in Romania 19th century in Moldavia Romanian books Romantic publications Document forgeries Written fiction presented as fact