Prince Dimitrie C. Sturdza-Scheianu (May 19, 1839–February 6, 1920) was a

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

n historian and member of the House of Sturdza. Born in

Iași Iași ( , , ; also known by other #Etymology and names, alternative names), also referred to mostly historically as Jassy ( , ), is the Cities in Romania, third largest city in Romania and the seat of Iași County. Located in the historical ...

into the aristocratic

Sturdza family The House of Sturdza, Sturza or Stourdza () is the name of an old Moldavian noble family whose origins can be traced back to the 1540s. Members of the family played important political role in the history of Moldavia, Russia and later Romania. ...

, his parents hired private foreign tutors for his education. Sturdza thus learned French, German, Latin, Ancient Greek and Old Church Slavonic, then the liturgical language of

Romanian Orthodox The Romanian Orthodox Church (ROC; , ), or Romanian Patriarchate, is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox Christian churches, and one of the nine patriarchates in the Eastern Orthodox Church. S ...

y. It is presumed that he later studied agriculture and law, but it is not known where. A member of the Conservative Party, he sat in the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...

. There, he frequently spoke about the plight of the peasants obliged to perform the

corvée Corvée () is a form of unpaid forced labour that is intermittent in nature, lasting for limited periods of time, typically only a certain number of days' work each year. Statute labour is a corvée imposed by a state (polity), state for the ...

, arguing for their emancipation. A book collector, Sturdza spent many years buying up old texts in

Romanian Cyrillic The Romanian Cyrillic alphabet is the Cyrillic alphabet that was used to write the Romanian language and Church Slavonic until the 1830s, when it began to be gradually replaced by a Latin-based Romanian alphabet.Cyrillic remained in occasional ...

. His large, valuable collection saved numerous works for posterity. He donated his entire library to the

Romanian Academy The Romanian Academy ( ) is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 active members who are elected for life. According to its bylaws, the academy's ma ...

, which elected him an honorary member in 1907. Sturdza also studied archival documents. Together with

Dimitrie Sturdza Prince Dimitrie Sturdza (, in full Prince Dimitrie Alexandru Sturdza-Miclăușanu; 10 March 183321 October 1914) was a Romanian statesman and author of the late 19th century, and president of the Romanian Academy between 1882 and 1884. He is an a ...

and

Ghenadie Petrescu Ghenadie Petrescu (; March 1836 – August 31, 1918) was a Wallachian, later Romanian priest of the national Orthodox church, who served as Metropolitan-Primate of Romania from 1893 to 1896. Ghenadie was a monk and hieromonk steadily progressing ...

, he edited an eleven-volume set of old Romanian texts, published between 1888 and 1909. Moreover, in 1891 he helped publish documents collected abroad by the late Eudoxiu Hurmuzachi. Sturdza's erudition allowed him to classify the collection, some six thousand in all, written in multiple languages. In late 1891, Sturdza became Justice Minister in the government of

Lascăr Catargiu Lascăr Catargiu ( or Lascăr Catargi; 1 November 1823 – ) was a Romanian conservative statesman born in Moldavia. He belonged to an ancient Wallachian family, one of whose members had been banished in the 17th century by Prince Matei Basarab, ...

, intending to correct societal injustices, particularly in rural areas. Refusing to bow to pressure to alter his program, he resigned weeks later. He then became head of the Agricultural Bank, serving until 1895 and attempting to alleviate the economic situation of the peasantry. Not finding support for his reformist tendency within the Conservative Party, he left it in 1897. He died in

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 ...

in 1920.Mărghitan and Mancaș, p. 46

Notes

References

*Liviu Mărghitan, Ioan Mancaș, ''Academicienii Iașilor''. Arad: Editura Ramira, 2008, {{DEFAULTSORT:Sturdza-Scheianu, Dimitrie 1839 births 1920 deaths People from the Principality of Moldavia Nobility from Iași Sturdza family Conservative Party (Romania, 1880–1918) politicians Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Romania) Ministers of justice of Romania Honorary members of the Romanian Academy 19th-century Romanian historians Romanian book and manuscript collectors Romanian bankers