Dora d'Istria

Dora d'Istria

Graphic of Dora d'Istria by an unknown author in the Freya newspaper from 1866

Dora d'Istria (stage name; born Elena Ghica , also Gjika ; later Elena Kolćova-Massalśkaja ; born January 22, 1828 in Bucharest ; † November 17, 1888 in Florence ) was a Romanian-Albanian writer.

life and work

Elena Ghica, daughter of Prince Mihai Ghica and niece of the ruling Hospodar Grigore IV. Ghica , received a very careful upbringing in her parents' house, during which she also took care of the physical exercises, and went to her further training with her Father's abroad in 1840, first to Dresden, then to Vienna, Venice and Berlin, where she once passed a brilliant test of her knowledge of ancient Greek at court.

Returning to her homeland in 1849, she married the Russian prince Alexander Koltsov-Massalski and now lived for several years in Russia, mostly in Saint Petersburg, but could not be caught up in the views of Greater Russia and the bigotry of the Greek Church To feel happy at the court of the despotic Tsar Nicholas.

Since her health was also suffering from the Russian climate, she returned to Western Europe in 1855 after an agreement with her husband, initially stayed in Switzerland for several years, then made a trip to Greece and Turkey and finally turned to Italy, where she lived lived in a villa near Florence, but interrupted her stay from time to time by traveling larger and smaller (as in 1880 to France, Ireland and North America).

As a writer (under the name Dora d'Istria and mostly in French) she first emerged in 1855 and since then has published a number of writings that not only have an uncommon language skills (she thoroughly understands Romanian, Italian, German, English, French, Latin, Ancient and Modern Greek, Russian, Albanian), but also a general education based on a scientific basis and a liberal view of religious and political conditions as well as a talent for presentation that can be described as unusual.

In general, its activity has a cosmopolitan character, but it regards it as its main task to open up the sources of civilization to the Eastern countries of Europe and at the same time to give their sex a more worthy position. Her first work was: La vie monastique dans l'Église orientale (Brussels 1855), in which she calls for the abolition of the monastic orders. This was followed by: La Suisse allemande et l'ascension du Moench (Geneva 1856, 4 vols.), An excellent description of the country and people of Switzerland with the attractive report of an ascent of the monk she carried out in 1855 .

In the text Les femmes en Orient (Zurich 1859, 2 vol.) She explains herself for the emancipation of the female sex in the Orient; in another: Des femmes, par une femme (2nd ed., Brussels 1869, 2 vol.), she compares the situation of the same among the Romansh peoples and among the Germans and demands, with energetic words, equality between men and women.

Before the last-mentioned work, her Excursions en Roumélie et en Morée (Zurich 1863, 2 vol.) Had appeared, which sought to provide evidence that Greece had the same task of civilization in antiquity as Germany did in the modern world.

She also wrote the description Au bord des lacs helvétiques (Geneva 1861), the novellas Fylétia e Arbenoré prèj Kanekate laoshima (Livorno 1867), Gli Albanesi in Rumenia , a story of the Ghika princes in the 17th – 19th centuries . Century (2nd edition, Florence 1873), and La poésie des Ottomans (2nd edition, Paris 1877) as well as numerous treatises on literary history, poetry, political, social and religious questions, on history, art etc. in the most respected Journals from France (especially the Revue des Deux Mondes ), Belgium ( Libre Recherche ), Italy ( Diritto , Antologia nuova , Rivista europea etc.), Switzerland, Greece, Romania and North America.

By the way, Dora D'Istria also cultivated the art of painting and won a prize in St. Petersburg with two landscapes. She has been made a member of numerous learned societies, namely the Italian academies, and a citizen of Greece by the Greek Parliament , and an honorary citizen of various Italian cities.

Fonts (selection)

• La vie monastique dans l'église orientale. Paris: Cherbuliez, 1855.
• Les femmes en Orient. 1: La Peninsule orientale. Zurich: Meyer et Zeller, 1859.
• Les femmes en Orient. 2: La Russie. Zurich: Meyer et Zeller, 1860.
• German Switzerland. Country, people and history. Zurich: 1860 (1 edition 1856, 3 vols.).
• Une rencontre de voyage. Souvenirs de la Suisse Italian Paris: 1861.
• Excursions in Roumélie et en Morée. Zurich; Paris, 1863 (2 vols.).
• Des femme par une femme. Paris; Leipzig [etc.]: Lacroix & Verboeckhoven, 1865.
• Fylétia e Arberaré prèj Kanekate laoshima. En kethyeme ne Shkjipe Perèi D (imitri) C (amarda). Livorno: P. Vannini, 1867.
• Gli Albanesi in Rumenia. Storia dei principi Ghika nei secoli XVII, XVIII et XIX. Traduzione dal francese di B (artolomeo) Cecchetti. Firenze: Tip. editr. dell'Associazione, 1873.
• La poésie des Ottomans. Paris: 1877 (2nd edition).

literature

• Albert Ramaj: Dora D'Istria (Elena Gjika) and Switzerland. The first woman (Albanian) who reached Mönch near Jungfraujoch in 1857 , in: Albsuisse, No. 10, p. 15, Zurich December 2009.
• Armand Pommier: Profils contemporains. La Comtesse Dora d'Istria [pseud., Ie Elena Ghika, afterwards Princess Koltsov-Massalsky], sa vie et ses œuvres sur la Russie et sur l'Orient, etc. Brussels 1863.
• Charles Yriarte: Les portraits cosmopolites . Paris: E. Lachaud, 1870.
• Bartolomeo Cecchetti : Bibliografia della Principessa Elena Ghika Dora d'Istria . Venice: Naratovich, 1868 (6th edition, Florence. 1873).
• Merita Sauku Bruci (Ed.): Lettere di una principessa (studio introduttivo, trascrizione e note). Elena Ghika and Girolamo de Rada . Tirana: Ed. Bargjini, 2004. ISBN 99927-969-5-2 (Letra të një princeshe.)

Web links

Commons : Dora d'Istria  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Images and texts from La Suisse allemande et l'ascension du Moench on Viatimages.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Albsuisse.ch: The first woman (Albanian) who reached Mönch near Jungfraujoch in 1857 ( memento of the original from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Albsuisse No. 10, p. 15, December 2009 (PDF 5.4MB) 

This article is based on a text in the public domain from Meyers Konversations-Lexikon , 4th edition from 1888 to 1890.

Please only remove this note if you have revised the article to such an extent that the text reflects the current state of knowledge on this topic, this has been proven and it meets today's linguistic requirements.
To refer to the Meyers article afterwards, you can{{ Meyers Online | Volume | Page}} to use.