Miron Costin

Miron Costin

Miron Costin (March 30, 1633 - December (?) 1691 ) was a boyar , diplomat , politician and important historian of the Principality of Moldova .

Origin and family

Miron Costin was born as the son of the petty boyar Ioan Kostin in an unknown place in the principality. His father, who was ignorant of writing and reading, had to go into exile in Poland at the beginning of the rule of voivod Vasile Lupus , where he acquired Polish nobility titles. Miron attended a Jesuit college in Bar . There he acquired thorough philological and historical knowledge. Expelled by the Cossacks , he went to Kamianets-Podilskyi , where he finished his studies in 1650. In the same year his parents were murdered by Cossacks. The penniless Kostin became head of the family at the age of 17. He later married Ileana Movilă, a relative of Prince Simion Movilă and a wealthy boyar heiress.

career

In 1651 Costin took part in the war against the Cossacks on the Polish side and returned to Moldova in 1652 after Vasile Lupu had given up his anti-Polish attitude. In 1653 he switched to the side of the former chancellor and new prince Gheorghe Ștefan and made a remarkable political career over the next 30 years, which made him one of the richest grand boyars in Moldova. At the head of the Boyar Party, he strove to break free from Ottoman rule in an alliance with Poland . In 1683 he had to take part in the siege of Vienna on the Ottoman side . After his return, he refused to recognize the new Prince of Moldova, who had meanwhile been installed by the Poles, and was then imprisoned in Poland for two years.

From Constantin Cantemir , the father of the later historian Dimitrie Cantemir , he was then employed in rather insignificant positions, as he appeared dangerous because of his hostile attitude towards the Ottomans. Since Costin welcomed the Polish incursion under Jan Sobieski , he finally fell out of favor with Constantin Cantemir in 1690. The next time Poland invaded the realpolitician Cantemir Miron Costin and his brother, the Hetman Velicico, who should have become the new sovereign by Polish grace, were murdered.

The work

Costin's political activities did not allow the creation of a gigantic work. In addition to smaller religious and historical occasional poems, translations from Latin and chronicles in Polish, he left a chronicle of his own country. He had a historical work in mind from the time of the Dacians to his days. He was able to realize a representation of the Roman origin of the Moldovan Romanians ( Cronica țărilor Moldovei și Munteniei , 1677) as well as a contemporary history of the Moldavia from the Polish campaign against the Turks in 1595, when his predecessor Grigore Ureche (1590-1647) had interrupted his chronicle until Year 1661 ( Letopiseţul Ţărâi Moldovei de la Aron Vodă încoace , 1675). This was largely based on Polish sources and oral reports, but for the period since 1651 on personal experiences. The psychological justification of the actors' actions is remarkable. For the time, the work is well thought out, despite a general pro-Poland attitude that leads to the suppression of some facts; Instructive games on war tactics and religious and moral instructions complete the exciting story.

The chronicle, written in Romanian, of which the original version no longer exists, was distributed throughout Europe in its time and was translated into Latin, Greek and French. 55 copies have been preserved to date. It was first printed in Romanian in 1852. A complete Romanian edition appeared in 1886/88. The German edition dates from 1980 and is partly based on a Latin translation.

Others

Two places were named after Miron Costin: Miron Costin in the municipality of Vlăsineşti, Botoșani district , and Miron Costin in the municipality of Trifeşti, Neamț district .

Fonts in German translation

• Cruel times in the Vltava. The Moldavian Chronicle of Miron Costin 1591–1661 (= Romanian historians, vol. 1). Translated, introduced and commented by Adolf Armbruster. Styria, Graz / Vienna / Cologne 1980. ISBN 3-222-11170-7 .

literature

• Adolf Armbruster: La romanité des Roumains. Histoire d'une idée. Bucharest 1977, pp. 190-206.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Adolf Armbruster: Introduction to: Grausame Zeiten in the Moldau , p. 20 f.
2. ↑ Adolf Armbruster: Introduction to: Grausame Zeiten in the Moldau , p. 22 ff.
3. ^ Vasile Alexandrescu Urechia (ed.): Miron Costin: Opere complete. 2 volumes, Bucharest 1886–1888.