Ion Budai-Deleanu (1760-1820)[1] was a Romanian scholar and poet, born in Cigmău, a village in the town of Geoagiu, located in the western part of Transylvania.[2]

Budai-Deleanu studied in the College of Saint Barbara in Vienna.[1] After completing his doctorate at the University of Erlau, he settled in Lemberg (now Lviv in Ukraine).[3] He finished an epic poem, entitled Țiganiada ("Gypsy Epic"), about a band of gypsies that fought alongside the army of Vlad the Impaler, the medieval ruler of Wallachia.[1]

He was one of the first proponents of the idea of the unification of the lands that now form Romania.[4] He proposed that the union should be achieved under the rule of the Habsburgs, through the annexation of Wallachia and Moldavia into the Grand Principality of Transylvania.[5]

According to Budai-Deleanu, the Dacians did not have a role in the ethnogenesis of the Romanian people.[6] He thought that the Dacians were the ancestors of the Poles.[6]

He promoted the purification of the Romanian language from loanwords, proposing that only borrowings from Italian and French should be permitted.[7] He also strove for the replacement of the Cyrillic script with the Latin alphabet.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c Florescu & McNally 1989, p. 216.
  2. ^ Georgescu 1991, p. 116.
  3. ^ Florescu & McNally 1989, p. 217.
  4. ^ Georgescu 1991, pp. 165-166.
  5. ^ Georgescu 1991, pp. 117, 166.
  6. ^ a b Boia 1997, p. 86.
  7. ^ a b Georgescu 1991, p. 120.

Sources

  • Boia, Lucian (1997). History and Myth in Romanian Consciousness. Central European University Press. ISBN 963-9116-97-1.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Florescu, Radu R.; McNally, Raymond T. (1989). Dracula, Prince of Many Faces: His Life and his Times. Back Bay Books. ISBN 978-0-316-28656-5.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Georgescu, Vlad (1991). The Romanians: A History. Ohio State University Press. ISBN 0-8142-0511-9.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)


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