In the framework of “Dimitrie Cantemir Cultural Year”, Romfilatelia introduces, on the occasion of the National Day of Romanian Culture, the issue of postage stamps entitled “Dimitrie Cantemir, 350 years since his birth”.
The postage stamp of the issue with the face value of Lei 11, reproduces the portrait of Dimitrie Cantemir, based on an antique engraving having as an insert the image of the coat of arms of the Cantemir family.
The perforated souvenir sheet of the issue has in its graphic composition, together with the portrait within the postage stamp with the face value of Lei 34, the facsimile reproduction of the cover of the work History of Moldavia (German version, 1771) and the map of Moldavia included in the same work.
Considered a veritable homo universalis, a Renaissance type creator, he received the scientific recognition and appreciation of his contemporaries, in 1714 the Berlin Academy welcomed him among its members. Himself the son of a ruler, he would be sent, at only 12 years old, to Constantinopole, as his father`s guarantor, where he remained until 1691.
A scholar of European fame, who became a lord for a short time, he left a work that spans the ages to revere, in turn, a noble idea, that of Romanianness: “… like some copper walls put up, invincible defenders were considered… “, he would write in his “Chronicle…” about the Romanians among whom he had risen. But after the battle of Stănilești (1711) in which he allied himself politically and militarily with Peter the Great, the Turks won the victory, and the gentleman was forced to take the path of the bejenia, settling in Russia, where he continued to write.
The maxim of his humanism is concentrated in the now famous phrase from The Divan: “Not servant, but master of the world I have left you: therefore, you must rule over it, not it over you!”.
Romfilatelia thanks the Romanian Academy Library and the National Archives of Romania for their documentary and photographic support granted in the development of this postage stamps issue.
The philatelic issue will be available starting Monday, 16th January, in Romfilatelia’s shops network in Bucharest, Bacau, Brasov, Cluj-Napoca, Iasi and Timisoara and online on https://romfilatelia.ro/store/.
For further information, please contact the Public Relation Office:
Tel: 021 / 336 93 92
