Nikolai Spathari

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Nicolae Milescu
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Nicolae Milescu
A bust of Nicolae Milescu
Born1636
Died1708 (aged 71–72)
CitizenshipMoldavia
Travels through Siberia to the Chinese Borders, published in St. Petersburg in 1882.

Nikolai Spathari (

Spătar (Chancellor) Yuri Stefanovich, who came to Russia in 1711 with Dimitrie Cantemir.[1]

Early life

Spathari was born into a Greek family.[2] His prosonym Moldavo-Lacone[3] (Moldavan-Laconian) emphasizes his origins.[4] The name Milescu was adopted by his parents when they settled in Milești.[5] Prof. L. Turdeanu-Cartojan discovered at Oxford his autobiography, written in Greek (Λαζάρου, Lazarou).

A

Louis XIV
's France in an attempt to get the king to assist him in creating an anti-Ottoman alliance.

Exile

Milescu had ambitions of his own, and conspired against Prince

moniker). According to the unlikely account of chronicler Ion Neculce: "After [being mutilated], Nicolae the Snub-nosed fled to the German Land and found himself a doctor there, who repeatedly drew blood out of his cheeks and sculptured his nose, and thus day by day the blood coagulated, leading to his healing".[6]

Milescu again left for

.

One of Milescu's tasks was to reinforce the legitimacy of the

Michael Romanov and Aleksey, but also including Ivan the Terrible, Dmitry Donskoy, Alexander Nevsky, Byzantine emperors Constantine and Theodosius, and Augustus and Julius Caesar from Rome. Significantly, he included the feeble-minded Feodor Ivanovich, whose reign was considerably less illustrious, but who had to be mentioned in order to demonstrate dynastic continuity.[9]

In Khrismologion ("Book of Prophecy", 1672) he analyzed commentary on the four kingdoms of Daniel prophecy, concluding that, due to its connection with Constantinople, Russia was the only true successor to the fourth kingdom, Rome. Going further, he asserted that the right of Roman succession belonged only to Russia, and not to the Holy Roman Empire. In setting forth his claim, he made reference to Anna Porphyrogenita, the sister of Byzantine emperor Basil II, who married Vladimir the Great. In his view, this union not only reinforced the strong connection between Byzantium and Russia, but also drew a dynastic line between Vladimir and Aleksey.[9]

A bust of Nicolae Milescu in the Alley of Classics of Chișinău

In China

In 1675, he was named ambassador of the Russian Empire to Beijing, the capital of

Amur River. The previous Muscovite embassy to China, led by Fyodor Baykov in 1656-56,[clarification needed
] had failed to achieve these objectives.

Unlike previous Russians who had gone through Mongolia, Milescu chose to travel through Siberia as far as Nerchinsk, directly north of Peking. Upon reaching Yeniseysk, Milescu sent one of his men, Ignatiy Milovanov, to the Chinese court in order to inform the Kangxi Emperor about the purpose of their embassy. Milovanov was the first European known to have crossed the Amur (Heilong) River, reaching Beijing by the shortest route possible. Milescu followed the same route to the Chinese border, and established his camp on the Nen River in Heilongjiang, waiting for news from Milovanov. The latter returned to the camp on 18 February and, taking Milescu's report to the Tsar with him, proceeded to Moscow. Milescu, on the other hand, crossed into Beijing via Hebei in the middle of May, after being held up for two months at Kalgan (modern Zhangjiakou). Here he was able to communicate in Latin with the Jesuit Ferdinand Verbiest. His diplomacy proved unsuccessful, and he returned to Siberia by the same route in Spring 1677.

Achievements

Nicolae Milescu Spătaru on a 1998 stamp of Moldova

Milescu is the author of one of the first Russian works on arithmetic, "Arithmologion", which was written in 1672, based on his own Greek original. The manuscript was preserved in the Chudov Monastery, till it was discovered by church historian Nikolay Kedrov.[10]

In his

Angara rivers. He assumed the Ob to have its source in Lake Teletskoye in the Altai Mountains. He was also the first person to describe Lake Baikal
and all the rivers feeding the lake, and the first to point out Baikal's unfathomable depth.

On his way through Siberia, Milescu used the astrolabe to establish coordinates of some settlements. His materials were later used by the Jesuits, who took considerable interest in China. Upon returning to Moscow, he submitted to the Foreign Ministry three volumes of notes: Travel notes and Description of China, alongside the Travels.

In his narratives, Milescu summed up the knowledge that Russian explorers had gathered about East Siberia. Although he believed that the Amur was the largest river in the world, he listed its main tributaries without mistake. His idea that there was a vast

Okhotsk Sea, although fundamentally wrong, was widely believed by many geographers until the mid-20th century. He also heard rumours about Sakhalin, which he supposed to be the same island as Hokkaido
, thus considerably exaggerating its dimensions.

Bogdan Petriceicu-Hasdeu believed that Milescu was the author of the first translation of the Bible into Romanian, the Bucharest edition (printed in 1688, during the rule of Prince Șerban Cantacuzino). However, Nicolae Iorga and other historians have argued that there is no actual proof of this, and have proposed Constantin Cantacuzino
as the main translator.

Legacy

Nicolae Milescu Spătaru on a 2002 stamp of Moldova

Milescu's name was assigned to several streets in localities throughout Romania and Moldova, including one in Bucharest named "Strada Spatărul Nicolae Milescu",[11] one in Chișinău named "Strada Nicolae Milescu Spătaru",[12] one in Constanța named "Strada Nicolae Milescu",[13] etc. Also there are scientific and education institutions named in Milescu's honor, among them a lyceum in Chișinău, Liceul Teoretic "Nicolae Milescu Spătarul",[14] and the Association of Scientists of Moldova "N. Spătaru Milescu".[15] Several busts of Milescu are across Romanian and Moldovan cities. The public library in Vaslui, his birthplace, bears his name.[16] Also in Moldova several stamps with Milescu on them were issued. In 2011, the National Bank of Romania issued a silver coin dedicated to the 375th anniversary of Nicolae Milescu's birth.[17]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Olga Metchnikoff, Vie d'Elie Metchnikoff, Hachette, Paris, 1920
  2. ^ Limba română (in Romanian). Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Române. 1985. p. 24. ...căci Milescu, care era grec de origine (vezi Ștefan S. Gorovei, Nicolae (Milescu) spătarul.
  3. ^ Arnauld Antoine, Sur la créance des Grecs (Latin), pp. 1091–98 in La perpétuité de la Foi de l'Église Catholique touchant l' Eucharistie, Paris, 1781. Accessed 21 September 2012.
  4. ^ Daniela Dumbravă, The k’ou-t’ou, a political and religious ceremonial at the court of the Ch’ing dynasty: Brief note about the Milescu – K’ang-hsi case (June 1676) Archived 17 June 2013 at the Wayback Machine, University of Florence. Accessed 21 September 2012.
  5. ^ Lazarou Achilleas, Η ελληνικοτητα των βλαχων (He hellenikoteta ton Vlachon, "The Greekness of the Vlachs", in Greek.)
  6. ^ Ion Neculce, O samă de cuvinte, XLI
  7. ^ Pesenson and Spock, p.294
  8. ^ Pesenson and Spock, p.294-95
  9. ^ a b Pesenson and Spock, p.295
  10. ^ Andonie George Ștefan, Istoria Matematicii în România, 1965, vol. 1, pp. 45–47
  11. ^ Strada Spatarul Nicolae Milescu, bucurestiul.info
  12. ^ Strada Nicolae Milescu Spătaru (fosta Милеску). Blogul „Chișinău, orașul meu” al Bibliotecii Municipale „B.P. Hasdeu”
  13. ^ Strada Nicolae Milescu, Constanța, bulevarde.ro
  14. ^ Liceul Teoretic "Nicolae Milescu Spătarul", rson.justice.md
  15. ^ Asociația Oamenilor de Știință din Moldova "N. Spătaru Milescu", rson.justice.md
  16. ^ "Nicolae Milescu Spătarul" Library - Short history
  17. ^ "Banca Națională a României". www.bnro.ro.

References

  • Michael A. Pesenson and Jennifer B. Spock, "Historical Writing in Russia and Ukraine", in The Oxford History of Historical Writing: Volume 3: 1400-1800, ed. José Rabasa, Andrew Feldherr, Daniel Woolf, Masayuki Sato, Grant Hardy.