NICOLAE MILESCU – TREI SUTE DE ANI DE LA MOARTE
NICOLAE MILESCU – THREE HUNDRED YEARS FROM HIS
DEATH
Mircea PĂCURARIU
Facultatea de Teologie „Andrei Saguna” din Sibiu
Bd. Mitropoliei, nr. 20 Sibiu
E- mail: teologie@ulbsibiu.ro
Abstract:
The paper presents the personality of Nicolae Milescu the Spatharius (1636-1708), who was
born in Moldavia and studied at an important school near the Patriarchy of Constantinople, was an
appreciated diplomat, philosopher, philologist and theologian, and shared a great interest in
geography, ethnography and memoir literature. He started his career as cleric to important rulers
in Moldavia and Vallachia and he spent a large part of his life in Constantinople (Istanbul), where
he began the translation of the Old Testament into Romanian (his version was included in the 1688
Bucharest version of the Bible). He then traveled to Berlin, to Stettin (nowadays Szczecin) in
Poland, to Paris, Stockholm, and then back to Istanbul. In 1667, while he was in Stocckholm, on the
request of the French Ambassador, Marquis Arnauld de Pomponne, he wrote an apologetic book on
Dogmatics (written in Greek and translated by himself into Latin). The book tackled the Orthodox
teaching regarding the embodiment of bread and wine into Jesus Christ, as part of the Holy
Liturgy: Enhiridion sive Stella Orientalis Occidentali Splendens, id est sensus Ecclesiae Orientalis
de transsubstantione Corporis Domini … The work was published, in Latin, in Paris in 1669, in a
volume containing theological studies. It was the second paper written by a Romanian that was
published in Western Europe.
In 1671, on the request of the Tzar of Russia, he was recommended by Patriarch Dositei of
Jerusalem as translator for the Envoy Department –Posolski Pricaz, the equivalent of the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs. From 1675 to 1677, as a translator, he went on an important diplomatic mission
in China, where he was received, after long formal procedures, by the Emperor himself. On his
return, he wrote, in Russian, two memoir works of great political, geographical, economic,
ethnographic and historical interest: The Travel-book to Siberia nad China and The Description of
China. They both circulated initially as manuscripts in Slavonic and Greek, and then they were
translated into Russian, French, English and Romanian. In the last part of his tumultuous life he
also edited, in Moscow, several works on Theology, Philology, History and even Natural Sciences.
Ever since he was alive, Nicolae Milescu enjoyed the appreciation of French, Swedish,
Greek and Romanian scholars, who admired his European amplitude, but also his encyclopedic
spirit, which honored his people.
Keywords:
complex personality, polyglot, diplomat, philosopher, theologian, encyclopedic scholar.
Cuvinte cheie:
personalitate complexă, poliglot, diplomat, filosof, teolog, enciclopedist