Constantin Negruzzi

Childhood and early years

Negruzzi was born in 1808 in Trifeștii Vechi (now Hermeziu), Iași County, Moldavia, near the Prut River, as the son of Dinu Negruț, who had become a boyar with the rank of cupbearer, and Sofia Hermeziu, daughter of the Justice Logothete Iorgu Hermeziu. In 1809, while still an infant, his mother Sofia passed away. Negruzzi's family was of Răzeș origin.

Negruzzi was homeschooled by a Greek tutor. He began his studies in Greek language with one of the most renowned Greek teachers at the time in Iași, learning to read in Romanian language on his own from various works. Most notable of them being "Floarea Darurilor" (The Flower Of The Gifts), Istoria lui Arghir și a prea-furmoasei Elene" (Arghir and The Beautiful Helen's History) (translated by Ioan Barac), and Petru Maior's book "Istoria pentru încrețitul românilor în Dachia" (Dacian Romanians Hisyory), as he himself confesses in an article entitled "Cum am învățat românește" (How I learned Romanian), very interesting for the details it provides on the pedagogical methods used by teachers at that time.

Youth, first jobs and translation works

With the outbreak of the Wallachian uprising of 1821, Negruzzi took refuge in Bessarabia with his father. In Chișinău, Bessarabia, he met the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, who aroused his interest in literature, and a French emigrant from whom he took lessons in French language and literature. One of his first literary attempts date from this period was "Zăbavele mele din Basarabia în anii 1821, 1822" (My Lags in Bessarabia in 1821, 1822).

His family returns to Iași in 1823. Negruzzi's father Dinu passed away in 1826, and after the latter's death, he held various administrative positions, from that of deacon at the treasury to that of secretary of the General Assembly, thus beginning his political life, as many sons of boyars did at the time.

During the early 1830s, Negruzzi begins publishing translations of various works, mainly from the French literature. He translated poems (Mnemon by Voltaire, The Tripod Of Helen by Jean-François Marmontel), and several short stories such as "Triizăci ani sau viața unui jucător de cărți" (Thirty Years or the Life of a Card Player) of Victor Henri Joseph Brahain Ducange & Arthur Dinaux, which had a great effect. In the National Museum of Romanian Literature (no. 36 and 37) appears the work "Corespondența dintre doi români, unul din Țara Românească și altul din Moldova" (Correspondence between two Romanians, one from Wallachia and the other from Moldavia), on the one hand Ion Heliade Rădulescu, on the other Negruzzi himself, on highly topical linguistic themes: simplification of the alphabet, introduction of neologisms and unitary Romanian language.

At the urging of Heliade, who had designed that famous universal Library, Negruzzi translates Angelo, tiranul Padovei și Maria Tudor, dramas of Victor Hugo. He publishes the poem Aprodul Purice, the source of inspiration being a legend from "O samă de cuvinte" (A Collection Of Words) by Ion Neculce, conceived as a fragment of the epic "Ștefaniada".

In 1853, Negruzzi founded the Săptămîna literary magazine.

Political and writing career

Elected in 1837 as a deputy for Iași in the Ordinary Assembly, established by the Organic Regulation, then as a senior official and as director of the theater (alongside Mihail Kogălniceanu and Vasile Alecsandri), he showed himself to be imbued with liberal ideas and eager for progress.

In 1840 he was elected "mayor" of Iași. However, during the era of the Organic Regulations (from the 1830s until the Communal Law of 1864), the administration of the city of Iași was known as the "Municipal Council" and, subsequently, the "City Board" (Eforia orășenească). This was the precursor to the modern City Hall, therefore, Negruzzi's office was similar to a President of County Council.

Negruzzi did not take part in the 1848 movement and remained withdrawn from state affairs for a long time, re-entering later as a judge, member of the Princely Divan (1857) and then, was part of the government of Anastasie Panu from under the reign of Alexandru Ioan Cuza, as director of the finance department, deputy and Churchwarden of St. Spiridon. In 1850, he becomes a member of the Masonic Lodge of Iași.

He died from heart failure on August 24, 1868, and was buried in the church cemetery in Trifeștii Vechi.