Name Constantin Cantacuzino | Role Stolnic | |
 | ||
Mostenirea brancoveneasca stolnicul constantin cantacuzino 07 02 2014
Constantin Cantacuzino (c. 1650 – Constantinople, 7 June 1716) was a Romanian nobleman and historian who held high offices in the Principality of Wallachia. In his History of Wallachia, he "accepted a Daco-Roman mixing" (Lucian Boia) in connection with the origin of the Romanians. Promoter of an anti-Ottoman policy, he was executed together with his son.
Contents
Life
Constantin Cantacuzino was born in a boyar family of Greek origin. He started his studies in Constantinople in 1665. He also studied in the University of Padua. He collected a notable collection of books on various subjects. He was a humanist scholar who drew the first local map of Wallachia in 1700, and started to write a History of Wallachia which remained unfinished.
Appointed stolnic ("High Steward"), he became one of the closest advisors of his nephew, Constantin Brâncoveanu, the prince of Wallachia between 1688 and 1714. He promoted an anti-Ottoman policy aiming at the liberation of the Christian peoples of Southeastern Europe.
His views on the origin of the Romanians were widely accepted after Dionisie Fotino published his own History of Old Dacia in 1818 which also refer to the "crosbreeding" of Dacians and Romans.