Ioan Barac (1776–July 18, 1848) was an Imperial Austrian

ethnic Romanian Romanians (, ; dated exonym ''Vlachs'') are a Romance-speaking ethnic group and nation native to Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. Sharing a common culture and ancestry, they speak the Romanian language and live primarily in Roma ...

translator and poet. Born in Alămor,

Sibiu County Sibiu County () is a county () of Romania, in the historical region of Transylvania. Its county seat () is the namesake town of Sibiu (). Name In Hungarian, it is known as ''Szeben megye'', and in German as ''Kreis Hermannstadt''. Under the ...

, his father Ioan was a priest. Barac attended the

Reformed Reform is beneficial change. Reform, reformed or reforming may also refer to: Media * ''Reform'' (album), a 2011 album by Jane Zhang * Reform (band), a Swedish jazz fusion group * ''Reform'' (magazine), a Christian magazine Places * Reform, Al ...

Aiud Aiud (; , , Hungarian pronunciation: ; ) is a city located in Alba County, Transylvania, Romania. The city's population is 21,307 (2021). It has the status of municipiu. The city derives its name ultimately from Saint Giles (Aegidius), to whom t ...

, followed by law studies in

Cluj Cluj-Napoca ( ; ), or simply Cluj ( , ), is a city in northwestern Romania. It is the second-most populous city in the country and the seat of Cluj County. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest (), Budapest () and Belgrade ( ...

. In 1801, he taught at the

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 ...

school in

Avrig Avrig (; , Transylvanian Saxon: ''Freck/Fraek'', ) is a town in Sibiu County, Transylvania, central Romania. The first documents attesting its existence date to 1346. It officially became a town in 1989, as a result of the Romanian rural systema ...

. The following year, he became a teacher at the

First Romanian School The First Romanian School () is located on the grounds of the 15th-century St. Nicholas Church, itself located in the historic district of Șcheii Brașovului, in what is now Brașov, Romania. This is the first school on the territory of presen ...

Șcheii Brașovului Șcheii Brașovului (, or more recently ''Obere Vorstadt''; traditional Romanian name: ''Bulgărimea'', colloquially ''Șchei'') is the old ethnically Bulgarian and Romanian neighborhood of Brașov, a city in southeastern Transylvania, Romani ...

, itself attached to St. Nicholas Church. He was a magistrate at the same time, and in 1805 took on the role of Romanian-language interpreter for the

Brașov Brașov (, , ; , also ''Brasau''; ; ; Transylvanian Saxon dialect, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Kruhnen'') is a city in Transylvania, Romania and the county seat (i.e. administrative centre) of Brașov County. According to the 2021 Romanian census, ...

city hall, which he held for the rest of his life.

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. 134. Bucharest: Editura didactică și pedagogică, 1970 In 1837, he edited ''Foaia Duminecii'', the first illustrated magazine in Transylvania. His first published work, ''Istorie despre Arghir cel Frumos și despre Elena cea Frumoasă și pustiită crăiasă'' (1801), was among the most widely read and appreciated Romanian books of the first half of the 19th century, appearing in many editions. He was one of the first to translate ''

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

'' into Romanian, working from the German version by

Friedrich Ludwig Schröder Friedrich Ludwig Schröder (3 November 1744 – 3 September 1816) was a German actor, Actor-manager, manager, dramatist and prominent freemasonry, masonic leader. He was born in Schwerin. Shortly after his birth, his mother, Sophie Charl ...

. Between 1836 and 1840, he published eight volumes of stories from ''

One Thousand and One Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' (, ), is a collection of Middle Eastern folktales compiled in the Arabic language during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as ''The Arabian Nights'', from the first English-language edition ( ...

'', and also rendered stories featuring

Till Eulenspiegel Till Eulenspiegel (; ) is the protagonist of a European narrative tradition. A German chapbook published around 1510 is the oldest known extant publication about the folk hero (a first edition of is preserved fragmentarily), but a background i ...

and Mattie the Goose-boy. His original work included ''Adevărul'' and ''Cercul timpului''. His prefaces featured interesting literary ideas in the spirit of a pre-modern aesthetic. Barac was a folk poet not just in the style of his verses, but also in conception. Unusually laborious and renowned in his day, he was a representative figure of the

Transylvanian School The Transylvanian School () was a cultural and political movement which started after part of the Romanian Orthodox Church in Habsburg-ruled Transylvania accepted the leadership of the pope and became the Greek-Catholic Church (). The links with ...

, alongside Vasile Aaron and .Aurel Sasu (ed.), ''Dicționarul biografic al literaturii române'', vol. I, p. 105. Pitești: Editura Paralela 45, 2004. Barac's 17th-century house, located at 3 Piața Unirii in

, is listed as a

historic monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, historical ...

by Romania's Ministry of Culture and Religious Affairs.Lista Monumentelor Istorice 2010: Județul Brașov

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barac, Ioan 1776 births 1848 deaths People from Sibiu County 19th-century Romanian people in Transylvania Members of the Romanian Orthodox Church Romanian poets Translators of William Shakespeare Romanian magazine editors Romanian civil servants Romanian schoolteachers Scholars from the Austrian Empire Poets from the Austrian Empire