Gheorghe Șincai’s Historical and Philological Work and the Birth of the Romanian Modern Nation
Gheorghe Șincai’s Historical and Philological Work and the Birth of the Romanian Modern Nation

Summary/Abstract: Erudite par excellence, Șincai was the author of the collection of historical sources Rerum Spectantium ad universam gentem Daco-Romanum, through which the great scholar offered an image of the Romanian nation from the oldest times until the eighteenth century. On the basis of this work he wrote his famous study Hronica românilor și a mai multor neamuri [The Chronicle of the Romanians and of Several Peoples], which is the first synthesis of the history of the Romanians. Together with Samuil Micu, Gheorghe Șincai also wrote the first grammar of the Romanian language, “Elementa linguae daco-romanae sive valachicae”, published in Vienna in 1780. Headmaster of the uniate “national” schools throughout Transylvania, Gheorghe Șincai managed over 300 schools, for which he published a great number of schoolbooks. He was among the main authors of the memorandum submitted in 1791 to the Vienna emperor in the name of the Romanian nation, entitled Supplex Libellus Valachorum. Through historical and demographic arguments, the Supplex requested the restoration of the Romanian nation’s citizenship rights, equality in rights with the political nations and the Romanians’ proportional representation in the public life.

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