«Svaturile unui parinte bunu catra fiulu se »: La fin d’une énigme littéraire
Svaturile unui parinte bunu catra fiulu seu»: The End of a Literary Riddle

Summary/Abstract: The text “Svaturile unui parinte bunu catra fiulu seu”, “translated from French,” was published by Ion Codru Drăguşanu in the magazine Familia (Pest), 15, 1865. No mention was made on the author’s name and the source text. For one and a half century no assumption has been advanced concerning the identity of the original text of this translation. The research I am reporting led to identifying the source text of Ion Codru Drăguşanu’s translation as the moral epistle “À mon fils” by Jacques-Corentin Royou, published in the journal L’Année littéraire, 1, 1785. However, a few differences between text and translation indicate that Ion Codru Drăguşanu did not dispose of the original, but of a later, slightly modified variant published by Anne-François-Joachim Fréville under the title “Avis d’un bon père à son fils” in a compilation of pedagogical texts entitled Beaux traits du jeune âge: Suivis de l’histoire de Jeanne d’Arc et du Panthéon des enfants célèbres (Paris: Genets, 1813 and several successive new editions).

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