Born on April 19, 1999, I graduated valedictorian from the University of Bucharest, Faculty of History (2017-2020), and then pursued a master's degree in Medieval Studies (2020-2022). Currently, I am a PhD student at the “Nicolae Iorga” Institute of History in Bucharest. My main fields of interest are medieval Moldavia (with an emphasis on social history, military history, and taxation), the history of the medieval Black Sea, and more generally the Romanian Middle Ages. You can contact me via andreimirea99@yahoo.com and andrei.mirea@history.bucharest.university
Texte intégral : https://journals.openedition.org/res/6958
Andrei Mirea, « Un logothète de Podol... more Texte intégral : https://journals.openedition.org/res/6958 Andrei Mirea, « Un logothète de Podolie à la cour voïévodale moldave dans la première moitié du XVe siècle », Revue des Études Slaves, vol. XCV, nº 3, 2024, p. 289–300.
L’auteur tente de retracer la biographie du logothète Dienis, qui remplit cette dignité à la cour moldave du voïévode Iliaș entre 1435 et 1443. La récente parution d’un dictionnaire de toponymes médiévaux de la Podolie, à Kiïv en 2021, a permis à l’auteur d’identifier le village de Chropotowa, mentionné dans un acte d’hommage de 1436 que les historiens roumains n’avaient pu localiser auparavant. Ce village ruthène auquel le logothète Dienis s’identifie est situé en Podolie, à environ quarante kilomètres de la foire de Kamianets-Podilskyï. En plus de l’identification du village, l’auteur apporte d’autres arguments venant étayer l’hypothèse que le logothète Dienis était originaire de Podolie. Parmi ces arguments figurent son nom, certaines particularités de sa carrière à la chancellerie moldave, l’absence de descendance documentée en Moldavie, ainsi que sa proximité avec le milieu ruthène. Cette étude de cas semble corroborer une théorie de l’historiographie roumaine, fondée jusqu’à présent sur des arguments linguistiques et diplomatiques qui met en lumière l’empreinte de la culture ruthène sur les débuts de la chancellerie slave de Moldavie. En dernier lieu, la biographie de Dienis offre à l’auteur l’occasion de mettre en lumière le caractère bilingue de la vie de cour moldave des XIVe-XVe siècles, où les interactions sociales se déroulaient tout aussi bien en roumain qu’en slave.
“The Slavonic Epistles of Basarab the Elder to the Transylvanian Saxons (1474–1476),” Revue des É... more “The Slavonic Epistles of Basarab the Elder to the Transylvanian Saxons (1474–1476),” Revue des Études Sud-Est Européennes, vol. LXII, 2024, p. 167–204.
The Slavonic letters dispatched by the voivodes of Wallachia to Brașov, where they remain preserved to this day, constitute a major and invaluable source for the fifteenth-century history of Wallachia. In this article, our primary objective is to readdress the undated Slavonic epistolary corpus attributed to Basarab the Elder, who ruled Wallachia with several interruptions between 1473 and 1477. These epistles were addressed by the Wallachian voivode to the Saxon town of Brașov, while the answers of the Saxon authorities to the Wallachian lord did not generally survive. A diligent analysis of the clerks’ handwriting habits alongside a comparative investigation with other types of documentary evidence, such as charters, might not only suggest new reasoned dates for these Slavonic letters, but also could enlarge other research horizons, such as the Romanian-Ottoman relations, the history of audiences and of medieval political discourse, the political thought of the Wallachian lords, the careers of the scribes working in the chancellery, or the functional dynamics of the princely chancellery. Our essay aims to revisit this epistolary corpus through several analytical methods highlighting the usefulness and the potential of such approaches for future research.
Keywords: Basarab the Elder, Wallachia, Slavonic letters, chancellery, Brașov, the Romanian-Ottoman relations, medieval handwriting.
Unlike the pre-industrial practice of winter navigation in the Mediterranean Sea, which has been ... more Unlike the pre-industrial practice of winter navigation in the Mediterranean Sea, which has been the subject of numerous studies, winter seafaring on the medieval Black Sea has not previously been the subject of thorough scholarly investigation, not least because the available sources are relatively few and fairly circumstantial. Being aware of the limitations of the present survey, the author attempts to gather together and reinterpret several instances dating from the period of the Byzantine and Italian domination over the Black Sea, which can shed some light on the seamen's often complicated relation with the winter season. The majority of the extant sources date from the last two centuries of the Middle Ages, an era that witnessed substantial technological developments which contributed to the amelioration of winter navigation. This study chiefly aims to highlight the unresolved issues and address the challenges that such a topic of inquiry presents. Keywords: Black Sea, winter navigation, Byzantine Empire, Venice, Genoa.
Andrei Mirea, « Sous les armes au Moyen Âge tardif en Europe centrale et orientale. Le cas de la ... more Andrei Mirea, « Sous les armes au Moyen Âge tardif en Europe centrale et orientale. Le cas de la campagne ottomane de 1476 », Revista Istorică, tome XXXIV, nº 4–6, 2023, p. 323–351. Under Arms in the Late Middle Ages in Central and Eastern Europe. The Case of the Ottoman Campaign of 1476 Abstract The article examines the context of the Moldavian-Ottoman war of 1476 from the perspective of the fighters’ desertion from the Christian armies involved in this military conflict (there are considered the armies of Moldavia, Hungary, and Poland). There is also highlighted the military, social and climatic context of Southeast Europe which contributed to the phenomenon of desertion in the summer of 1476. In the case of the army of Stephen the Great, it is argued that neither the militarily necessary to defeat the Crimean Tatar army nor the boyars’ treason can explain the desertion of a portion of the Moldavian army before the battle of Războieni. Keywords: Stephen the Great, Moldavia, Ottoman Empire, desertion, treason.
Grands et petits boyards. Notes sur la noblesse moldave du XVe siècle / Great and petty boyars. R... more Grands et petits boyards. Notes sur la noblesse moldave du XVe siècle / Great and petty boyars. Remarks on the fifteenth-century Moldavian nobility. The modern historiography generally investigates the medieval nobility of Moldavia from a legal, genealogical or economic perspective, but there may be constantly observed a deficiency in the current body of work with respect to the basic methodological issues raised by the preserved fifteenth-century sources, issues that eventually turn out to be critical for an adequate understanding of the topic. Since our knowledge is mostly dependent on the reading of chancellery’s diplomas that deal with several Moldavian boyars, we need to look more closely at the ways in which the princely chancellery functioned in connection to the necessities and customs of the noble society. The present survey aims to emphasize the main methodological issues that need further consideration (calculating the overtime losses in the documentary corpus, the scope of securing confirmatory diplomas by the laity, the significant rôle of the oral culture, and the absence of a written legal culture), and then it puts forward a case study concerning the chancellery formula “great and petty boyars.” The main point of the paper is the necessity to construct a methodology suitable for the preserved sources before elaborating further upon various social theories applied to the Moldavian nobility. Keywords: medieval Moldavia, nobility, boyars, diplomas, methodology, laity.
Addressing the thorny question of disseminating Descriptio Moldaviae and the circumstances of its... more Addressing the thorny question of disseminating Descriptio Moldaviae and the circumstances of its Latin manuscripts’ circulation in eighteenth-century Europe, this analysis benefits from some lesser known sources, such as the correspondence between Anton Friedrich Büsching and Gerhard Friedrich Müller (especially letters from 1760, 1765, 1769 and 1770), a paragraph from a journal concerning the Russian Academy library (1772), a report on the library of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (dating from 1777), and a rare catalogue listing the manuscripts kept at the Asian Museum of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg (published in 1846). I demonstrate that Descriptio had only five Latin manuscripts (not fourteen, as previous interpretations hazardously suggested). Ms. A (with a newly dated redaction between 1716–1718) and Ms. B were never carried through Western Europe, but remained during the eighteenth century in Russia, in St. Petersburg. Ms. C, mainly based on Ms. A and Ms. B with improvements made by the copyist, was written sometime between 1750–1760, and represent the Latin manuscript used to draft the German editions of Descriptio, travelling therefore with Büsching to Central Europe, from St. Petersburg to Berlin (1765), and afterwards sent back to Moscow via St. Petersburg (1770–1771). I discuss also the fate of two other Latin manuscripts of the book, now lost, which I have named Mss. B1 and B2, because they are directly or indirectly related to the activity of Bayer, who writes Ms. B in 1726–1727, by organizing some materials associated with Descriptio offered him to systematize and to homogeneously pen down by the Cantemir family after the author’s death.
Keywords: Dimitrie Cantemir, Descriptio Moldaviae, Latin manuscripts, G. S. Bayer, A. F. Büsching, G. F. Müller.
Since the first detailed administrative sources on the provisioning operations of the Ottoman arm... more Since the first detailed administrative sources on the provisioning operations of the Ottoman army date back to the sixteenth century, the reconstruction of the circumstances, the mechanisms, and the strategies of the Ottoman supply machinery in the age of Mehmed the Conqueror is particularly difficult to undertake, because it requires reading, comparing, and contextualizing sources from diverse cultural backgrounds. The present survey puts forward a comparative case study of the Ottoman supply experiences during two important campaigns of the sultan Mehmed II, the one against Uzun Hasan in 1473 and the one against Stephen the Great in 1476.
Keywords: Mehmed the Conqueror, Uzun Hasan, Stephen the Great, supply trains, supply lines, local provisioning.
The article addresses three aspects in reference to the role of Moldavia in the Black Sea region ... more The article addresses three aspects in reference to the role of Moldavia in the Black Sea region and its relations with Caffa, Genoa’s most important Black Sea colony, during the fifteenth century. Firstly, there are analysed three little known sources concerning the grain export debate. On this occasion, there are put forward new interpretations as regards the toponym Velachia found in the Genoese sources, the term berbeniță (berbenicia) and the overall importance of the aforesaid grain export from the Romanian littoral to the Genoese colonies of the Black Sea. Subsequently, it is studied the question of the existence of a Moldavian fleet in the age of Stephen the Great. The study ends with a brief note on the fifteenth-century Caffa’s role in the distribution of a specific type of silk cloth, called camocatum in the Latin documents and camhă in the Slavo-Romanian ones. Keywords: Moldavia, Caffa, Black Sea, trade, Genoa, grain export, fleet
The Locust Invasion during the War between Stephen the Great and Mehmed II. This study analyses t... more The Locust Invasion during the War between Stephen the Great and Mehmed II. This study analyses the locust invasion that affected significant parts of Central and Southeastern Europe, including Stephen the Great’s Moldavia, between 1473–1479/1480. On the one hand, the medieval sources attesting to this invasion are discussed. On the other hand, through an interdisciplinary approach, an attempt is made to explain this phenomenon. The main point argued is that, although Moldavian internal sources do not mention the existence of a locust invasion, a number of Latin sources referring chiefly to the neighbouring regions of Moldavia (such as Transylvania, Dobruja, or Poland) allow us to conclude that this locust invasion affected Moldavia as well, at least for the period 1473–1476, a time interval that also corresponds to the war between the Ottoman Empire and Moldavia. Finally, the article also discusses the role played by the written and oral memory in transmitting information about locust invasions through the centuries in medieval Moldavia. Keywords: locust invasion, historical memory, Moldavia, Central-Eastern Europe, the Moldavian-Ottoman war.
Desfășurarea relațiilor politico–militare dintre structurile politice, în Evul Mediu și la începu... more Desfășurarea relațiilor politico–militare dintre structurile politice, în Evul Mediu și la începuturile epocii moderne, ținea seama adesea de o serie de practici stabilite prin tradiție și cutumă. Statutul prizonierilor de război nu face excepție de la această regulă generală. Fie vânduți ca sclavi, fie răscumpărați, prizonierii de război reprezentau o sursă de venit însemnată pentru armata învingătoare. În Europa Occidentală, cea mai frecvent întâlnită este practica răscumpărării prizonierilor, mai ales în cazul unor căpetenii nobile luate în captivitate. Se pare însă că otomanii sau moldovenii preferau înrobirea prizonierilor de război. În cazul primilor, unii robi ajungeau pe piețele de sclavi din orașele otomane, alții erau dăruiți marilor dregători otomani sau intrau direct în slujba sultanului. Arareori, și numai în condiții speciale, sultanii otomani porunceau decapitarea unor prizonieri de război. Asemenea cazuri sunt bine cunoscute în istoriografie, precum episodul decapitării unor nobili occidentali din ordinul sultanului Bayezid I după bătălia de la Nicopole (1396) sau atunci când, după victoria otomană de la Negroponte (1470), la porunca lui Mehmed al II-lea, 800 de prizonieri bărbați au fost decapitați. În aceste rânduri, vom analiza succint sursele istorice care susțin o concluzie similară pentru o altă campanie otomană, anume cea condusă de Mehmed al II-lea în Moldova lui Ștefan cel Mare, la 1476.
Anastasis. Research in Medieval Culture and Art, 2021
Observed here through the lenses of the history of mentalities and the environmental history, the... more Observed here through the lenses of the history of mentalities and the environmental history, the meteorological phenomenon of red rain appears to have been discerned from several points of view by the medieval man. Due to its reddish colour, this peculiar rain was most often perceived as real blood. Although generally associated with a range of rather negative emotions or events, the shower of blood meant an experience felt differently by various communities: predicting death and war, blood rain could also signify the injures of the combatants, the bodily suffering of Christ, the end of the world, the God’s anger and his divine punishment, or simply a natural phenomenon caused by material and physical factors. If, for the Early Middle Ages, only brief passages from chronicles inform us about these phenomena, beginning with the 12th-13th centuries a scientific discourse concerning the blood rain is formulated in Europe. In some illuminated religious manuscripts, biblical episodes depicting showers of blood and fire were represented at least since the 11th century. From the 15th century on, the iconography of the blood rain diversifies and, at the same epoch, the motif of the rain of blood appears in some private devotional books. The 16th century amplifies the means of expression on the rains of blood, through brochures and flyers, a rich compendia of prodigy, or through scientific and popular works devoted to this phenomenon. In the Renaissance, the blood rain turns into an artistic and literary motif. By looking at some biblical accounts that echoed in the medieval culture, at the discourses articulated by several chroniclers, or by trying to grasp the evolution of the learned discourse addressing the blood rain, this article aims to assess the medieval perspectives touching the phenomenon of red rain. Keywords: blood rain, red rain, medieval culture, Bible, history of mentalities, prodigy
The author signals the existence of an anonymous Ottoman chronicle from the time of Bayezid II, r... more The author signals the existence of an anonymous Ottoman chronicle from the time of Bayezid II, recently edited and translated into English, which details the history of the Ottoman dynasty from approx. 1300 till 1484. The last fact recorded in this chronicle was the Ottoman conquest of Kilia and Moncastro. The interest for this chronicle, whose manuscript is preserved at the Bodleian Library, MS. Marsh 313, lies in the information it provides for the medieval history of the Romanians. Also, for more than a century, the Bodleian manuscript was erroneously attributed to Ruhi of Edirne, who died after 1511, despite the observations made by British turcologist Victor Louis Ménage in the 1960s.
Keywords: Ottoman chronicle, Bodleian Library, Bayezid II, medieval history of the Romanians, Stephen the Great
Recenzie redactată în limba română de către Andrei Mirea la cartea Liviu Cîmpeanu, Cruciadă împot... more Recenzie redactată în limba română de către Andrei Mirea la cartea Liviu Cîmpeanu, Cruciadă împotriva lui Ștefan cel Mare. Codrii Cosminului 1497, București, Humanitas, 2022, 336 p., în „Studii Clasice”, vol. LI–LII, 2022–2023, p. 273–281.
Anuarul Institutului de Istorie „A. D. Xenopol”, 2023
Recenzie în română redactată de către Andrei Mirea la cartea Lucian-Valeriu Lefter, Boieri ai Mol... more Recenzie în română redactată de către Andrei Mirea la cartea Lucian-Valeriu Lefter, Boieri ai Moldovei înainte și în vremea lui Ștefan cel Mare, Cluj-Napoca, Editura Mega, 2022, 399 p. + planșă, în „Anuarul Institutului de Istorie «A. D. Xenopol»”, vol. LX, 2023, p. 469–473.
Andrei Mirea, Compte rendu en français de l'ouvrage Lidia Cotovanu, Émigrer en terre valaque. Est... more Andrei Mirea, Compte rendu en français de l'ouvrage Lidia Cotovanu, Émigrer en terre valaque. Estimation quantitative et qualitative d’une mobilité géographique de longue durée (seconde moitié du XIVe-début du XVIIIe siècle), Brăila, Editura Istros a Muzeului Brăilei « Carol I », 2022, 466 p., dans « Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai. Historia », vol. 68, nº 1, 2023, p. 164–180.
Studii și Cercetări de Istorie Veche și Arheologie, 2023
Andrei Mirea, Recenzie în română la cartea Adrian Andrei Rusu, Ștefan cel Mare şi moldovenii din ... more Andrei Mirea, Recenzie în română la cartea Adrian Andrei Rusu, Ștefan cel Mare şi moldovenii din vremea sa, Cluj-Napoca, Editura Mega, 2022, 584 p., în „Studii și Cercetări de Istorie Veche și Arheologie”, tomurile 73–74, 2022–2023, p. 377–384.
Andrei Mirea, Recenzie în limba română la cartea Valentin Arapu, Relațiile comerciale dintre Mold... more Andrei Mirea, Recenzie în limba română la cartea Valentin Arapu, Relațiile comerciale dintre Moldova și Polonia în a doua jumătate a secolului al XVIII-lea, București, Editura Eikon, 2021, 398 p., în „Revista Istorică”, vol. XXXIII, nr. 1–3, 2022, p. 213–216.
Andrei Mirea, Review Essay on Adrian Gheorghe, The Metamorphoses of Power. Violence, Warlords, Aḳ... more Andrei Mirea, Review Essay on Adrian Gheorghe, The Metamorphoses of Power. Violence, Warlords, Aḳıncıs and the Early Ottomans (1300–1450), Leiden-Boston, Brill, 2023, XVI + 331 p., in “Historical Yearbook”, vol. XX, 2023, p. 199–203.
Compte rendu en français par Monsieur Andrei Mirea, 7 p., de l’ouvrage Mariana Goina, The Use of ... more Compte rendu en français par Monsieur Andrei Mirea, 7 p., de l’ouvrage Mariana Goina, The Use of Pragmatic Documents in Medieval Wallachia and Moldavia (Fourteenth to Sixteenth Centuries) (Volume 47 of Utrecht Studies in Medieval Literacy), Turnhout, Brepols Publishers, 2020, XVII + 329 p., în „Revista Istorică”, vol. XXXIII, nos. 4–6, 2022, p. 415–420.
Review Essay on Rebecca Haynes, Moldova. A History, London, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020, 256 p., ... more Review Essay on Rebecca Haynes, Moldova. A History, London, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020, 256 p., published in “Revista Istorică”, vol. XXXII, nos. 1–3, 2021, p. 215–225.
Texte intégral : https://journals.openedition.org/res/6958
Andrei Mirea, « Un logothète de Podol... more Texte intégral : https://journals.openedition.org/res/6958 Andrei Mirea, « Un logothète de Podolie à la cour voïévodale moldave dans la première moitié du XVe siècle », Revue des Études Slaves, vol. XCV, nº 3, 2024, p. 289–300.
L’auteur tente de retracer la biographie du logothète Dienis, qui remplit cette dignité à la cour moldave du voïévode Iliaș entre 1435 et 1443. La récente parution d’un dictionnaire de toponymes médiévaux de la Podolie, à Kiïv en 2021, a permis à l’auteur d’identifier le village de Chropotowa, mentionné dans un acte d’hommage de 1436 que les historiens roumains n’avaient pu localiser auparavant. Ce village ruthène auquel le logothète Dienis s’identifie est situé en Podolie, à environ quarante kilomètres de la foire de Kamianets-Podilskyï. En plus de l’identification du village, l’auteur apporte d’autres arguments venant étayer l’hypothèse que le logothète Dienis était originaire de Podolie. Parmi ces arguments figurent son nom, certaines particularités de sa carrière à la chancellerie moldave, l’absence de descendance documentée en Moldavie, ainsi que sa proximité avec le milieu ruthène. Cette étude de cas semble corroborer une théorie de l’historiographie roumaine, fondée jusqu’à présent sur des arguments linguistiques et diplomatiques qui met en lumière l’empreinte de la culture ruthène sur les débuts de la chancellerie slave de Moldavie. En dernier lieu, la biographie de Dienis offre à l’auteur l’occasion de mettre en lumière le caractère bilingue de la vie de cour moldave des XIVe-XVe siècles, où les interactions sociales se déroulaient tout aussi bien en roumain qu’en slave.
“The Slavonic Epistles of Basarab the Elder to the Transylvanian Saxons (1474–1476),” Revue des É... more “The Slavonic Epistles of Basarab the Elder to the Transylvanian Saxons (1474–1476),” Revue des Études Sud-Est Européennes, vol. LXII, 2024, p. 167–204.
The Slavonic letters dispatched by the voivodes of Wallachia to Brașov, where they remain preserved to this day, constitute a major and invaluable source for the fifteenth-century history of Wallachia. In this article, our primary objective is to readdress the undated Slavonic epistolary corpus attributed to Basarab the Elder, who ruled Wallachia with several interruptions between 1473 and 1477. These epistles were addressed by the Wallachian voivode to the Saxon town of Brașov, while the answers of the Saxon authorities to the Wallachian lord did not generally survive. A diligent analysis of the clerks’ handwriting habits alongside a comparative investigation with other types of documentary evidence, such as charters, might not only suggest new reasoned dates for these Slavonic letters, but also could enlarge other research horizons, such as the Romanian-Ottoman relations, the history of audiences and of medieval political discourse, the political thought of the Wallachian lords, the careers of the scribes working in the chancellery, or the functional dynamics of the princely chancellery. Our essay aims to revisit this epistolary corpus through several analytical methods highlighting the usefulness and the potential of such approaches for future research.
Keywords: Basarab the Elder, Wallachia, Slavonic letters, chancellery, Brașov, the Romanian-Ottoman relations, medieval handwriting.
Unlike the pre-industrial practice of winter navigation in the Mediterranean Sea, which has been ... more Unlike the pre-industrial practice of winter navigation in the Mediterranean Sea, which has been the subject of numerous studies, winter seafaring on the medieval Black Sea has not previously been the subject of thorough scholarly investigation, not least because the available sources are relatively few and fairly circumstantial. Being aware of the limitations of the present survey, the author attempts to gather together and reinterpret several instances dating from the period of the Byzantine and Italian domination over the Black Sea, which can shed some light on the seamen's often complicated relation with the winter season. The majority of the extant sources date from the last two centuries of the Middle Ages, an era that witnessed substantial technological developments which contributed to the amelioration of winter navigation. This study chiefly aims to highlight the unresolved issues and address the challenges that such a topic of inquiry presents. Keywords: Black Sea, winter navigation, Byzantine Empire, Venice, Genoa.
Andrei Mirea, « Sous les armes au Moyen Âge tardif en Europe centrale et orientale. Le cas de la ... more Andrei Mirea, « Sous les armes au Moyen Âge tardif en Europe centrale et orientale. Le cas de la campagne ottomane de 1476 », Revista Istorică, tome XXXIV, nº 4–6, 2023, p. 323–351. Under Arms in the Late Middle Ages in Central and Eastern Europe. The Case of the Ottoman Campaign of 1476 Abstract The article examines the context of the Moldavian-Ottoman war of 1476 from the perspective of the fighters’ desertion from the Christian armies involved in this military conflict (there are considered the armies of Moldavia, Hungary, and Poland). There is also highlighted the military, social and climatic context of Southeast Europe which contributed to the phenomenon of desertion in the summer of 1476. In the case of the army of Stephen the Great, it is argued that neither the militarily necessary to defeat the Crimean Tatar army nor the boyars’ treason can explain the desertion of a portion of the Moldavian army before the battle of Războieni. Keywords: Stephen the Great, Moldavia, Ottoman Empire, desertion, treason.
Grands et petits boyards. Notes sur la noblesse moldave du XVe siècle / Great and petty boyars. R... more Grands et petits boyards. Notes sur la noblesse moldave du XVe siècle / Great and petty boyars. Remarks on the fifteenth-century Moldavian nobility. The modern historiography generally investigates the medieval nobility of Moldavia from a legal, genealogical or economic perspective, but there may be constantly observed a deficiency in the current body of work with respect to the basic methodological issues raised by the preserved fifteenth-century sources, issues that eventually turn out to be critical for an adequate understanding of the topic. Since our knowledge is mostly dependent on the reading of chancellery’s diplomas that deal with several Moldavian boyars, we need to look more closely at the ways in which the princely chancellery functioned in connection to the necessities and customs of the noble society. The present survey aims to emphasize the main methodological issues that need further consideration (calculating the overtime losses in the documentary corpus, the scope of securing confirmatory diplomas by the laity, the significant rôle of the oral culture, and the absence of a written legal culture), and then it puts forward a case study concerning the chancellery formula “great and petty boyars.” The main point of the paper is the necessity to construct a methodology suitable for the preserved sources before elaborating further upon various social theories applied to the Moldavian nobility. Keywords: medieval Moldavia, nobility, boyars, diplomas, methodology, laity.
Addressing the thorny question of disseminating Descriptio Moldaviae and the circumstances of its... more Addressing the thorny question of disseminating Descriptio Moldaviae and the circumstances of its Latin manuscripts’ circulation in eighteenth-century Europe, this analysis benefits from some lesser known sources, such as the correspondence between Anton Friedrich Büsching and Gerhard Friedrich Müller (especially letters from 1760, 1765, 1769 and 1770), a paragraph from a journal concerning the Russian Academy library (1772), a report on the library of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (dating from 1777), and a rare catalogue listing the manuscripts kept at the Asian Museum of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg (published in 1846). I demonstrate that Descriptio had only five Latin manuscripts (not fourteen, as previous interpretations hazardously suggested). Ms. A (with a newly dated redaction between 1716–1718) and Ms. B were never carried through Western Europe, but remained during the eighteenth century in Russia, in St. Petersburg. Ms. C, mainly based on Ms. A and Ms. B with improvements made by the copyist, was written sometime between 1750–1760, and represent the Latin manuscript used to draft the German editions of Descriptio, travelling therefore with Büsching to Central Europe, from St. Petersburg to Berlin (1765), and afterwards sent back to Moscow via St. Petersburg (1770–1771). I discuss also the fate of two other Latin manuscripts of the book, now lost, which I have named Mss. B1 and B2, because they are directly or indirectly related to the activity of Bayer, who writes Ms. B in 1726–1727, by organizing some materials associated with Descriptio offered him to systematize and to homogeneously pen down by the Cantemir family after the author’s death.
Keywords: Dimitrie Cantemir, Descriptio Moldaviae, Latin manuscripts, G. S. Bayer, A. F. Büsching, G. F. Müller.
Since the first detailed administrative sources on the provisioning operations of the Ottoman arm... more Since the first detailed administrative sources on the provisioning operations of the Ottoman army date back to the sixteenth century, the reconstruction of the circumstances, the mechanisms, and the strategies of the Ottoman supply machinery in the age of Mehmed the Conqueror is particularly difficult to undertake, because it requires reading, comparing, and contextualizing sources from diverse cultural backgrounds. The present survey puts forward a comparative case study of the Ottoman supply experiences during two important campaigns of the sultan Mehmed II, the one against Uzun Hasan in 1473 and the one against Stephen the Great in 1476.
Keywords: Mehmed the Conqueror, Uzun Hasan, Stephen the Great, supply trains, supply lines, local provisioning.
The article addresses three aspects in reference to the role of Moldavia in the Black Sea region ... more The article addresses three aspects in reference to the role of Moldavia in the Black Sea region and its relations with Caffa, Genoa’s most important Black Sea colony, during the fifteenth century. Firstly, there are analysed three little known sources concerning the grain export debate. On this occasion, there are put forward new interpretations as regards the toponym Velachia found in the Genoese sources, the term berbeniță (berbenicia) and the overall importance of the aforesaid grain export from the Romanian littoral to the Genoese colonies of the Black Sea. Subsequently, it is studied the question of the existence of a Moldavian fleet in the age of Stephen the Great. The study ends with a brief note on the fifteenth-century Caffa’s role in the distribution of a specific type of silk cloth, called camocatum in the Latin documents and camhă in the Slavo-Romanian ones. Keywords: Moldavia, Caffa, Black Sea, trade, Genoa, grain export, fleet
The Locust Invasion during the War between Stephen the Great and Mehmed II. This study analyses t... more The Locust Invasion during the War between Stephen the Great and Mehmed II. This study analyses the locust invasion that affected significant parts of Central and Southeastern Europe, including Stephen the Great’s Moldavia, between 1473–1479/1480. On the one hand, the medieval sources attesting to this invasion are discussed. On the other hand, through an interdisciplinary approach, an attempt is made to explain this phenomenon. The main point argued is that, although Moldavian internal sources do not mention the existence of a locust invasion, a number of Latin sources referring chiefly to the neighbouring regions of Moldavia (such as Transylvania, Dobruja, or Poland) allow us to conclude that this locust invasion affected Moldavia as well, at least for the period 1473–1476, a time interval that also corresponds to the war between the Ottoman Empire and Moldavia. Finally, the article also discusses the role played by the written and oral memory in transmitting information about locust invasions through the centuries in medieval Moldavia. Keywords: locust invasion, historical memory, Moldavia, Central-Eastern Europe, the Moldavian-Ottoman war.
Desfășurarea relațiilor politico–militare dintre structurile politice, în Evul Mediu și la începu... more Desfășurarea relațiilor politico–militare dintre structurile politice, în Evul Mediu și la începuturile epocii moderne, ținea seama adesea de o serie de practici stabilite prin tradiție și cutumă. Statutul prizonierilor de război nu face excepție de la această regulă generală. Fie vânduți ca sclavi, fie răscumpărați, prizonierii de război reprezentau o sursă de venit însemnată pentru armata învingătoare. În Europa Occidentală, cea mai frecvent întâlnită este practica răscumpărării prizonierilor, mai ales în cazul unor căpetenii nobile luate în captivitate. Se pare însă că otomanii sau moldovenii preferau înrobirea prizonierilor de război. În cazul primilor, unii robi ajungeau pe piețele de sclavi din orașele otomane, alții erau dăruiți marilor dregători otomani sau intrau direct în slujba sultanului. Arareori, și numai în condiții speciale, sultanii otomani porunceau decapitarea unor prizonieri de război. Asemenea cazuri sunt bine cunoscute în istoriografie, precum episodul decapitării unor nobili occidentali din ordinul sultanului Bayezid I după bătălia de la Nicopole (1396) sau atunci când, după victoria otomană de la Negroponte (1470), la porunca lui Mehmed al II-lea, 800 de prizonieri bărbați au fost decapitați. În aceste rânduri, vom analiza succint sursele istorice care susțin o concluzie similară pentru o altă campanie otomană, anume cea condusă de Mehmed al II-lea în Moldova lui Ștefan cel Mare, la 1476.
Anastasis. Research in Medieval Culture and Art, 2021
Observed here through the lenses of the history of mentalities and the environmental history, the... more Observed here through the lenses of the history of mentalities and the environmental history, the meteorological phenomenon of red rain appears to have been discerned from several points of view by the medieval man. Due to its reddish colour, this peculiar rain was most often perceived as real blood. Although generally associated with a range of rather negative emotions or events, the shower of blood meant an experience felt differently by various communities: predicting death and war, blood rain could also signify the injures of the combatants, the bodily suffering of Christ, the end of the world, the God’s anger and his divine punishment, or simply a natural phenomenon caused by material and physical factors. If, for the Early Middle Ages, only brief passages from chronicles inform us about these phenomena, beginning with the 12th-13th centuries a scientific discourse concerning the blood rain is formulated in Europe. In some illuminated religious manuscripts, biblical episodes depicting showers of blood and fire were represented at least since the 11th century. From the 15th century on, the iconography of the blood rain diversifies and, at the same epoch, the motif of the rain of blood appears in some private devotional books. The 16th century amplifies the means of expression on the rains of blood, through brochures and flyers, a rich compendia of prodigy, or through scientific and popular works devoted to this phenomenon. In the Renaissance, the blood rain turns into an artistic and literary motif. By looking at some biblical accounts that echoed in the medieval culture, at the discourses articulated by several chroniclers, or by trying to grasp the evolution of the learned discourse addressing the blood rain, this article aims to assess the medieval perspectives touching the phenomenon of red rain. Keywords: blood rain, red rain, medieval culture, Bible, history of mentalities, prodigy
The author signals the existence of an anonymous Ottoman chronicle from the time of Bayezid II, r... more The author signals the existence of an anonymous Ottoman chronicle from the time of Bayezid II, recently edited and translated into English, which details the history of the Ottoman dynasty from approx. 1300 till 1484. The last fact recorded in this chronicle was the Ottoman conquest of Kilia and Moncastro. The interest for this chronicle, whose manuscript is preserved at the Bodleian Library, MS. Marsh 313, lies in the information it provides for the medieval history of the Romanians. Also, for more than a century, the Bodleian manuscript was erroneously attributed to Ruhi of Edirne, who died after 1511, despite the observations made by British turcologist Victor Louis Ménage in the 1960s.
Keywords: Ottoman chronicle, Bodleian Library, Bayezid II, medieval history of the Romanians, Stephen the Great
Recenzie redactată în limba română de către Andrei Mirea la cartea Liviu Cîmpeanu, Cruciadă împot... more Recenzie redactată în limba română de către Andrei Mirea la cartea Liviu Cîmpeanu, Cruciadă împotriva lui Ștefan cel Mare. Codrii Cosminului 1497, București, Humanitas, 2022, 336 p., în „Studii Clasice”, vol. LI–LII, 2022–2023, p. 273–281.
Anuarul Institutului de Istorie „A. D. Xenopol”, 2023
Recenzie în română redactată de către Andrei Mirea la cartea Lucian-Valeriu Lefter, Boieri ai Mol... more Recenzie în română redactată de către Andrei Mirea la cartea Lucian-Valeriu Lefter, Boieri ai Moldovei înainte și în vremea lui Ștefan cel Mare, Cluj-Napoca, Editura Mega, 2022, 399 p. + planșă, în „Anuarul Institutului de Istorie «A. D. Xenopol»”, vol. LX, 2023, p. 469–473.
Andrei Mirea, Compte rendu en français de l'ouvrage Lidia Cotovanu, Émigrer en terre valaque. Est... more Andrei Mirea, Compte rendu en français de l'ouvrage Lidia Cotovanu, Émigrer en terre valaque. Estimation quantitative et qualitative d’une mobilité géographique de longue durée (seconde moitié du XIVe-début du XVIIIe siècle), Brăila, Editura Istros a Muzeului Brăilei « Carol I », 2022, 466 p., dans « Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai. Historia », vol. 68, nº 1, 2023, p. 164–180.
Studii și Cercetări de Istorie Veche și Arheologie, 2023
Andrei Mirea, Recenzie în română la cartea Adrian Andrei Rusu, Ștefan cel Mare şi moldovenii din ... more Andrei Mirea, Recenzie în română la cartea Adrian Andrei Rusu, Ștefan cel Mare şi moldovenii din vremea sa, Cluj-Napoca, Editura Mega, 2022, 584 p., în „Studii și Cercetări de Istorie Veche și Arheologie”, tomurile 73–74, 2022–2023, p. 377–384.
Andrei Mirea, Recenzie în limba română la cartea Valentin Arapu, Relațiile comerciale dintre Mold... more Andrei Mirea, Recenzie în limba română la cartea Valentin Arapu, Relațiile comerciale dintre Moldova și Polonia în a doua jumătate a secolului al XVIII-lea, București, Editura Eikon, 2021, 398 p., în „Revista Istorică”, vol. XXXIII, nr. 1–3, 2022, p. 213–216.
Andrei Mirea, Review Essay on Adrian Gheorghe, The Metamorphoses of Power. Violence, Warlords, Aḳ... more Andrei Mirea, Review Essay on Adrian Gheorghe, The Metamorphoses of Power. Violence, Warlords, Aḳıncıs and the Early Ottomans (1300–1450), Leiden-Boston, Brill, 2023, XVI + 331 p., in “Historical Yearbook”, vol. XX, 2023, p. 199–203.
Compte rendu en français par Monsieur Andrei Mirea, 7 p., de l’ouvrage Mariana Goina, The Use of ... more Compte rendu en français par Monsieur Andrei Mirea, 7 p., de l’ouvrage Mariana Goina, The Use of Pragmatic Documents in Medieval Wallachia and Moldavia (Fourteenth to Sixteenth Centuries) (Volume 47 of Utrecht Studies in Medieval Literacy), Turnhout, Brepols Publishers, 2020, XVII + 329 p., în „Revista Istorică”, vol. XXXIII, nos. 4–6, 2022, p. 415–420.
Review Essay on Rebecca Haynes, Moldova. A History, London, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020, 256 p., ... more Review Essay on Rebecca Haynes, Moldova. A History, London, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020, 256 p., published in “Revista Istorică”, vol. XXXII, nos. 1–3, 2021, p. 215–225.
Comité d’organisation : Luminița DIACONU, Ecaterina LUNG, Mianda CIOBA, Andra JUGĂNARU, Andrei MI... more Comité d’organisation : Luminița DIACONU, Ecaterina LUNG, Mianda CIOBA, Andra JUGĂNARU, Andrei MIREA
Partager des savoirs au Moyen Âge. In memoriam Luminița Ciuchindel. Colloque international organisé par Le Centre d’Études Médiévales, Université de Bucarest, 10-11 novembre 2023.
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Papers by Andrei Mirea
Andrei Mirea, « Un logothète de Podolie à la cour voïévodale moldave dans la première moitié du XVe siècle », Revue des Études Slaves, vol. XCV, nº 3, 2024, p. 289–300.
L’auteur tente de retracer la biographie du logothète Dienis, qui remplit cette dignité à la cour moldave du voïévode Iliaș entre 1435 et 1443. La récente parution d’un dictionnaire de toponymes médiévaux de la Podolie, à Kiïv en 2021, a permis à l’auteur d’identifier le village de Chropotowa, mentionné dans un acte d’hommage de 1436 que les historiens roumains n’avaient pu localiser auparavant. Ce village ruthène auquel le logothète Dienis s’identifie est situé en Podolie, à environ quarante kilomètres de la foire de Kamianets-Podilskyï. En plus de l’identification du village, l’auteur apporte d’autres arguments venant étayer l’hypothèse que le logothète Dienis était originaire de Podolie. Parmi ces arguments figurent son nom, certaines particularités de sa carrière à la chancellerie moldave, l’absence de descendance documentée en Moldavie, ainsi que sa proximité avec le milieu ruthène. Cette étude de cas semble corroborer une théorie de l’historiographie roumaine, fondée jusqu’à présent sur des arguments linguistiques et diplomatiques qui met en lumière l’empreinte de la culture ruthène sur les débuts de la chancellerie slave de Moldavie. En dernier lieu, la biographie de Dienis offre à l’auteur l’occasion de mettre en lumière le caractère bilingue de la vie de cour moldave des XIVe-XVe siècles, où les interactions sociales se déroulaient tout aussi bien en roumain qu’en slave.
The Slavonic letters dispatched by the voivodes of Wallachia to Brașov, where they remain preserved to this day, constitute a major and invaluable source for the fifteenth-century history of Wallachia. In this article, our primary objective is to readdress the undated Slavonic epistolary corpus attributed to Basarab the Elder, who ruled Wallachia with several interruptions between 1473 and 1477. These epistles were addressed by the Wallachian voivode to the Saxon town of Brașov, while the answers of the Saxon authorities to the Wallachian lord did not generally survive. A diligent analysis of the clerks’ handwriting habits alongside a comparative investigation with other types of documentary evidence, such as charters, might not only suggest new reasoned dates for these Slavonic letters, but also could enlarge other research horizons, such as the Romanian-Ottoman relations, the history of audiences and of medieval political discourse, the political thought of the Wallachian lords, the careers of the scribes working in the chancellery, or the functional dynamics of the princely chancellery. Our essay aims to revisit this epistolary corpus through several analytical methods highlighting the usefulness and the potential of such approaches for future research.
Keywords: Basarab the Elder, Wallachia, Slavonic letters, chancellery, Brașov, the Romanian-Ottoman relations, medieval handwriting.
Keywords: Black Sea, winter navigation, Byzantine Empire, Venice, Genoa.
Under Arms in the Late Middle Ages in Central and Eastern Europe. The Case of the Ottoman Campaign of 1476
Abstract
The article examines the context of the Moldavian-Ottoman war of 1476 from the perspective of the fighters’ desertion from the Christian armies involved in this military conflict (there are considered the armies of Moldavia, Hungary, and Poland). There is also highlighted the military, social and climatic context of Southeast Europe which contributed to the phenomenon of desertion in the summer of 1476. In the case of the army of Stephen the Great, it is argued that neither the militarily necessary to defeat the Crimean Tatar army nor the boyars’ treason can explain the desertion of a portion of the Moldavian army before the battle of Războieni.
Keywords: Stephen the Great, Moldavia, Ottoman Empire, desertion, treason.
Keywords: medieval Moldavia, nobility, boyars, diplomas, methodology, laity.
Keywords: Dimitrie Cantemir, Descriptio Moldaviae, Latin manuscripts, G. S. Bayer, A. F. Büsching, G. F. Müller.
Keywords: Mehmed the Conqueror, Uzun Hasan, Stephen the Great, supply trains, supply lines, local provisioning.
Keywords: Moldavia, Caffa, Black Sea, trade, Genoa, grain export, fleet
Keywords: locust invasion, historical memory, Moldavia, Central-Eastern Europe, the Moldavian-Ottoman war.
Keywords: blood rain, red rain, medieval culture, Bible, history of
mentalities, prodigy
Keywords: Ottoman chronicle, Bodleian Library, Bayezid II, medieval history of the Romanians, Stephen the Great
Book Reviews by Andrei Mirea
Andrei Mirea, « Un logothète de Podolie à la cour voïévodale moldave dans la première moitié du XVe siècle », Revue des Études Slaves, vol. XCV, nº 3, 2024, p. 289–300.
L’auteur tente de retracer la biographie du logothète Dienis, qui remplit cette dignité à la cour moldave du voïévode Iliaș entre 1435 et 1443. La récente parution d’un dictionnaire de toponymes médiévaux de la Podolie, à Kiïv en 2021, a permis à l’auteur d’identifier le village de Chropotowa, mentionné dans un acte d’hommage de 1436 que les historiens roumains n’avaient pu localiser auparavant. Ce village ruthène auquel le logothète Dienis s’identifie est situé en Podolie, à environ quarante kilomètres de la foire de Kamianets-Podilskyï. En plus de l’identification du village, l’auteur apporte d’autres arguments venant étayer l’hypothèse que le logothète Dienis était originaire de Podolie. Parmi ces arguments figurent son nom, certaines particularités de sa carrière à la chancellerie moldave, l’absence de descendance documentée en Moldavie, ainsi que sa proximité avec le milieu ruthène. Cette étude de cas semble corroborer une théorie de l’historiographie roumaine, fondée jusqu’à présent sur des arguments linguistiques et diplomatiques qui met en lumière l’empreinte de la culture ruthène sur les débuts de la chancellerie slave de Moldavie. En dernier lieu, la biographie de Dienis offre à l’auteur l’occasion de mettre en lumière le caractère bilingue de la vie de cour moldave des XIVe-XVe siècles, où les interactions sociales se déroulaient tout aussi bien en roumain qu’en slave.
The Slavonic letters dispatched by the voivodes of Wallachia to Brașov, where they remain preserved to this day, constitute a major and invaluable source for the fifteenth-century history of Wallachia. In this article, our primary objective is to readdress the undated Slavonic epistolary corpus attributed to Basarab the Elder, who ruled Wallachia with several interruptions between 1473 and 1477. These epistles were addressed by the Wallachian voivode to the Saxon town of Brașov, while the answers of the Saxon authorities to the Wallachian lord did not generally survive. A diligent analysis of the clerks’ handwriting habits alongside a comparative investigation with other types of documentary evidence, such as charters, might not only suggest new reasoned dates for these Slavonic letters, but also could enlarge other research horizons, such as the Romanian-Ottoman relations, the history of audiences and of medieval political discourse, the political thought of the Wallachian lords, the careers of the scribes working in the chancellery, or the functional dynamics of the princely chancellery. Our essay aims to revisit this epistolary corpus through several analytical methods highlighting the usefulness and the potential of such approaches for future research.
Keywords: Basarab the Elder, Wallachia, Slavonic letters, chancellery, Brașov, the Romanian-Ottoman relations, medieval handwriting.
Keywords: Black Sea, winter navigation, Byzantine Empire, Venice, Genoa.
Under Arms in the Late Middle Ages in Central and Eastern Europe. The Case of the Ottoman Campaign of 1476
Abstract
The article examines the context of the Moldavian-Ottoman war of 1476 from the perspective of the fighters’ desertion from the Christian armies involved in this military conflict (there are considered the armies of Moldavia, Hungary, and Poland). There is also highlighted the military, social and climatic context of Southeast Europe which contributed to the phenomenon of desertion in the summer of 1476. In the case of the army of Stephen the Great, it is argued that neither the militarily necessary to defeat the Crimean Tatar army nor the boyars’ treason can explain the desertion of a portion of the Moldavian army before the battle of Războieni.
Keywords: Stephen the Great, Moldavia, Ottoman Empire, desertion, treason.
Keywords: medieval Moldavia, nobility, boyars, diplomas, methodology, laity.
Keywords: Dimitrie Cantemir, Descriptio Moldaviae, Latin manuscripts, G. S. Bayer, A. F. Büsching, G. F. Müller.
Keywords: Mehmed the Conqueror, Uzun Hasan, Stephen the Great, supply trains, supply lines, local provisioning.
Keywords: Moldavia, Caffa, Black Sea, trade, Genoa, grain export, fleet
Keywords: locust invasion, historical memory, Moldavia, Central-Eastern Europe, the Moldavian-Ottoman war.
Keywords: blood rain, red rain, medieval culture, Bible, history of
mentalities, prodigy
Keywords: Ottoman chronicle, Bodleian Library, Bayezid II, medieval history of the Romanians, Stephen the Great
Partager des savoirs au Moyen Âge. In memoriam Luminița Ciuchindel. Colloque international organisé par Le Centre d’Études Médiévales, Université de Bucarest, 10-11 novembre 2023.