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Hasdeu

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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or HAJDEU, BOGDAN PETRICEICU (1836-1907), Rumanian philologist, was born at Khotin in Bessarabia in 1836, and studied at the university of Kharkov. In 1858 he first settled in Jassy as professor of the high school and librarian. He may be considered as the pioneer in many branches of Rumanian philology and history. At Jassy he started his Archiva historica a Romaniei (1865-1867), in which a large number of old documents in Slavonic and Rumanian were published for the first time. In 1870 he inaugurated Columna lui Traian, the best philological review of the time in Rumania. In his Cuvente den Bitriini (2 vols., 1878-1881) he was the first to contribute to the history of apocryphal literature in Rumania. His Historia critica a Romanilor (1875), though incomplete, marks the beginning of critical investigation into the history of Rumania. Hasdeu edited the ancient Psalter of Coresi of 1577 (Psaltirea lui Coresi, 1880. His Etymologicum magnum Romaniae (1886, &c.) is the beginning of an encyclopaedic dictionary of the Rumanian language, though never finished beyond the letter B. In 1876 he was appointed director of the state archives in Bucharest and in 1878 professor of philology at the university of Bucharest. His works, which include one drama, Rasvan ci Vidra, bear the impress of great originality of thought, and the author is often carried away by his profound erudition and vast imagination. Hasdeu was a keen politician. After the death of his only child Julia in 1888 he became a mystic and a strong believer in spiritism. He died at Campina on the 7th of September 1907. (M. G.)