Un binevenit act de cultură; reeditarea cărții „Istorie bisericească pe scurt” tradusă din grecește în românește în 1845 de autorul însuși, Alecsandru Geanoglu-Lesviodax
A welcome act of culture; re-editing the book A Brief Church History translated from Greek in Romanian in 1845 by the author himself, Alecsandru Geanoglu-Lesviodax

Summary/Abstract: Istorie bisericească pre scurt (A Brief Church History) was translated from Greek into Romanian in 1845 by the author himself, Alecsandru Geanoglu – Lesviodax. The book is unexpectedly modern and useful to contemporary readers, bombarded with numerous books on Christian religion. It is accompanied by an equally useful „Introductory study” signed by Mihail M. Andreescu (who tackles the issue of the little known history of the Geanoglu family, including the author), an “Index of names and places” (drawn up by Valentin Marin) and „Lists of Bishops and Monasteries” (drawn up by Laurenţiu Andreescu). Alecsandru Geanoglu-Lesviodax (1793 – 1864) was born in Bucharest in a family of Greek descent. He was the brother of Archbishop Neofit (1787 – 1850) and an in-law of N. Bălcescu. He studied at the St. Sava College in Bucharest and then attended law school in Russia. Upon returning to his home country, he worked for nearly 8 years for the Bucharest Courthouse (1834 – 1841), being a cup-bearer and a judge. As a writer and translator (1834 – 1857), he worked on 12 books, out of which 9 were translations of other books, while 3 were original writings. Judging by the genre, content and source of inspiration (courthouse events), the latter anticipate the writings of Theodor D. Speranția (1856 – 1929). The volume Istorie bisericească pre scurt (A Brief Church History) represents an abridged version of the three volumes of Istorie bisericească (Church History) written by Meletius, the Archbishop of Athens, which covers the beginnings of the church up to 1695. The book had a remarkable circulation of over 3000 copies sold. Alecsandru Geanoglu – Lesviodax’s contribution is outstanding as he makes analyses based on information which were not recorded by his contemporaries, he issues value judgements and expresses personal opinions on the past religious events which he presents in chronological order. A noticeable feature of the book is the clear style, the language accessible to all Romanian speakers of the time.

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