Lexicography and the history of culture (The case of Teodor Corbea’s Romanian–Latin Dictionary )

This study aims at pointing to the cultural dimensions of lexicography, both by revealing the cultural content of lexicographic works and the authors’ cultural horizons and by searching for a precise cultural motivation for compiling dictionaries. One such particular exercise is applied to Teodor Corbea’s Latin– Romanian Dictionary , elaborated between 1691–1702. Our study focuses on the encyclopædic character of this work and its relations with the Greco-Roman culture. It also analyses the Latin–Romanian similarities and the way the Ro-mance character of the Romanian language is reflected.


Introduction
Regarded as a less spectacular part of the history of linguistics, the history of lexicography did not enjoy a special interest on the part of specialists.Beyond their accuracy, the few attempts related to lexicography consist, for the most part, in listing the works as such, in evoking their dimensions, mentioning the shortcomings of each or a group of them and the echo a dictionary or a group of dictionaries had for posterity.
1.1.As far as Romanian lexicography is concerned, beyond the concise character proposed by the very title of the book, a remarkable work such as Schiță de istorie a lexicografiei românești [Brief History of Romanian Lexicography] (Seche, 1966) reveals less than enough about the cultural context and reasons for writing such works, proving rather a kind of "Guinness Book" in the field of local lexicography, mentioning, for instance, the first German-Romanian bilingual dictionary, but failing to hint at the reasons for compiling such work.This is quite an important aspect, since, in principle, writing a lexicographical work requires a considerable amount of work and offers considerably less satisfaction to the authors-who, more than often in the case of our old literature, remain anonymous, unless the work is attributed to the last copyist whose signature it bears.Let us consider the case of our modern culture, where barely anyone remembers the names of Florian Aaron or Georges Hill, co-authors of the well-known Vocabular franțezo-românesc după cea din urmă ediție a dicționarului de Academia Franțozească [French-Romanian Vocabulary after the Last Edition of the French Academy Dictionary], volumes 1-2 (Vocab.1840-1841), commonly associated only with the name of Petrache Poenaru, who, in his capacity as director of "Saint Sava" College, was the first to sign it.Equally well-known is the name of George Baritiu, who contributed to the writing of the second volume of the first academic dictionary of the Romanian language elaborated primarily by August Treboniu Laurian and Ioan Massim.

Old Romanian bilingual lexicography
Resuming the statement of Henricus Stephanus (Henri Estienne) in the famous Thesaurus graecae linguae (tlg), according to which writing a dictionary is harder than rowing in galleys, we believe that one must look for the general and particular motivation of this seemingly fastidious endeavour.Obviously, such ‹ Email address: diortositor@gmail.com.
strenuous effort was motivated neither by material gain nor by the promise of fame or public recognition.At least in the case of bilingual lexicography the cause should be related to the need to access a foreign culture, whereas in the case of monolingual dictionaries the motivations are yet more subtle, pertaining to the development of national identity and the interest for one's own people.The context in which a lexicographic work is elaborated, a context that is hardly ever incidental and thus requires decoding, as well as the cultural horizon reflected in the respective work should be perceived as connected to the history of culture.To support our viewpoint, we shall focus on a few moments in the development of Romanian lexicography, the historical context and the motivation behind the creation of some of these works.
2.1.Slavonic-Romanian lexicography, which manifested itself in the second half of the 17 th century and the first half of the 18 th century is closely related, on the one hand, to the translation of liturgical texts into Romanian and, on the other hand, as indicated by the content of the Slavonic-Romanian glossaries, to the translation of a large volume of Slavonic property documents, a common practice at the time.

2.2.
The two lexicographic works edited in Țara Hațegului and Eastern Banat in the second half of the 17 th century, Anonimus caransebesiensis and Lexicon Marsilianum, regarded as "accidents" or curiosities of our old literature, should be perceived as representing a coherent aspect of the phenomenon of integration of a group of free Romanians living in the urban environment of Caransebeș, Lugoj or Hațeg, part of the structure and culture of the Principality of Transylvania (see Gherman, 2019).

2.3.
Likewise, the Transylvanian School lexicography, in which the number of dictionaries and glossaries using Latin prevailed, should be regarded not only from a general cultural perspective-Latin was still the language of European culture and until towards the end of the 18 th century it was the language that unified the multiethnic Habsburg Empire-but also from the perspective of the political programme of the movement aimed at proving the Romance appurtenance of the people and implicitly the Latin character of the language as an argument in favour of the Romanians' right to enjoy the same privileges as the other political nations (Hungarians, Saxons and Szeklers) had in the Principalities, according to the Medieval legislation still in force at the time.Thus, for the Transylvanian scholars, lexicography turned into a political weapon1 .

An extension of this perspective seemed normal for two Transylvanian scholars, namely Alexandru
Treboniu Laurian and Ioan Massim, as the fight of Romanians from Transylvania was a logical continuation of the efforts supported by the Supplex generation in achieving the first dictionary of the Romanian language under the patronage of the Romanian Academy.However, on the opposite side of the mountains, the Transylvanians' political programme did not have any echo for scholars such as Alexandru Odobescu or Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu, so that the misunderstandings that occurred after the publication of this work are related to a lack of comprehension rather than to the shortcomings of the work itself.

2.5.
A last example: Ienăchiță Văcărescu compiled two dictionaries, a German-Romanian and a Romanian-German dictionary (both preserved in manuscripts, which, in our opinion, deserve a future editing), in which, quite unusually, the German lexicon is phonetically transcribed with Cyrillic characters.An explanation for this peculiarity can be traced in the political context of the second half of the 18 th century, as Oltenia had been occupied by the Austrians for a long time.The two works had a precise, practical destination, being aimed at facilitating communication with the temporary occupants.

Teodor Corbea's Latin-Romanian Dictionary
Teodor Corbea's Latin-Romanian Dictionary2 (entitled by the author Dictiones latinae cum valachica interpretatione) holds a special place in the old Romanian literature and lexicography due to its character, being the most extensive lexicographic work compiled in Romanian before the second half of the 19 th century which contained, as did Biblia de la București [The Bible from Bucharest] (1688), the vastest lexical inventory of an old text.

3.1.
Corbea's dictionary is the author's autograph manuscript, but it is not dated.The following mention appears in the end: "La tălmăcirea acestuiu lixicon ostenitu-s-au din plata părintelui Mitrofan, episcopul de Buzău, Todor Corbea, sîn iermonah Ioasaf din Braşov" [This lexicon was translated by Teodor Corbea, son of hieromonk Ioasaf from Brașov, paid by father Mitrofan, Bishop of Buzău].As the precise date is unknown, considering the period in which Mitrofan was the Bishop of Buzău, Teodor Corbea's dictionary was definitely written sometime between 1691 and 1702.As Teodor Corbea travelled extensively to Russia and Transylvania starting with 1698, he obviously could not have written such a vast work during his travels, which entitles us to believe that the dictionary was actually elaborated in the first part of this period.

3.2.
Mitrofan, the Bishop of Buzău, is one of the most complex personalities of our culture in the second half of the 17 th century and the early 18 th century: he collaborated closely, while he was Bishop of Huşi, with Metropolitan Dosoftei; after Dosoftei's second exile, he took refuge in Wallachia and was the corrector of The Bible from Bucharest and other books printed during the first years of Constantin Brîncoveanu's reign.The mixture of dialectal forms specific to Wallachia and Moldova in the first complete printed edition of the Bible in Romanian is attributed to him.As Bishop of Buzău (1691-1702), where he established a printing house, he edited several works of great importance for the Orthodox Church, and especially for supporting the Orthodox spirit: the first Romanian translation of Pravoslavnica mărturisire [The Orthodox Confession] (due to Brîncoveanu's faithful collaborator and official chronicler, Radu Greceanu, who, together with his brother, contributed to the elaboration of the printed text of the Bible), the first printed edition of Menaion (1698, in which there appear some text fragments from Metropolitan Dosoftei's Viaţa şi petreacerea svinţilor [The Life of Saints], an aspect which has not been revealed before), a Slavonic and Romanian Molitvenic (1699), Octoih ce să zice osmoglasnic [Octoechos] (1700), Triod, ce să zice tripeasneţă [Triodion] (1700), a Slavonic and Romanian Euhologhion, adecă molitvenic [Euchologion] (1701), a Slavonic and Romanian Pentekostarion (1701), Psalter (1701), Învăţătura preoţilor pre scurt de şapte taine [Short Teaching on the Seven Mysteries for Priests] (1702), Sfînta şi dumnezeiasca liturghie [The Holy and Divine Liturgy] (1702).At least some of the dedicatory lyrics in these printed works and some fragments in the life of saints from the Menaion can be attributed, as indicated by the linguistic forms and versification style, to Teodor Corbea.The fact that he was asked by Mitrofan to write this dictionary was motivated by his solid command of the Latin language.He had actually been appointed "sicritariu de taină" (personal secretary) of Constantin Brîncoveanu and had carried out, on behalf of the prince, the Cantacuzino family and himself a vast correspondence in Latin with the Habsburg authorities and the Transylvanian Prince Francisc Rákóczi the 2 nd (see Pippidi, 2005).

3.3.
Originally from Șcheii Brașovului, son of one of the priests from the local "Saint Nicholas" Church and brother of David, a well-known diplomat of the time, Teodor Corbea was a good connoisseur of Latin, Slavonic and Hungarian.Most probably he had studied the first two languages at the Kiev Academy.His excellent command of the Latin language recommended him as secretary of Prince Constantin Brîncoveanu, and a close collaborator of the Cantacuzinos.After his flight to Russia, following Peter the Great's 1711 campaign in Moldova and Wallachia, he was also a close collaborator of the Tsar of Russia.
He did not consider himself the author of the dictionary, but rather its translator, as evidenced by the entry Theodorus in the dictionary: "Theodorus, g.m.3 nume de bărbaţi de obşte; item: numele acestui de pă urmă, care această carte de pă latinie şi ungurie o au tălmăcit rumîneaşte" [name for men; item: name of the above-mentioned, who translated this book from Latin and Hungarian into Romanian].The source of the dictionary is specified by the author himself: it is the third edition of Albert Szenczi Molnár's Latin-Hungarian Dictionary (see dul) ((who, in turn, used Dictionarium latino-germanicum by Petrus Dasypodius and Petrus Cholinus, one of the many editions of Calepinus or Dictionarium latinogermanicum, written by Johannes Frisius), with entries such as: "ltorsium, g.n.orăşăl în ţînutul domnilor norimbergheani, în care acest noriberghean svat cinsteş bogată academie au zidit în numărul anilor 1575, unde acest Lixicon l-au scris Albertus Molnar în numărul anilor 1603" [a small town in the land of the lords of Nuremberg where a rich academy was built in the year 1575, where Albertus Molnar wrote this Lexicon in the year 1603] or: "Argentina, g.f.et Argentoratum tare oraş al Ţărei Nemţeşti lîngă apa Rhenus, în ţînutul Alsaţiei.Acolo ca acela înalt turn iaste şi bisearecă înfrîmşeţată, cît în Europa altă bisearică sau turn aseamine acestora nu iaste.Iaste iarăş acolo o academie vestită, în care de demult mulţi înţelepţi oameni s-au învăţat, unde şi eu, care această carte am scris (adecă Albert Molnaru) trei ani şi jumătate am lăcuit în vreamea copilăriei" [a mighty town in Germany near the Rhine River, in the region of Alsace.There you can find a tall tower and a beautiful church as nowhere else in the whole Europe.There is also a famous Academy where many famous people studied in the past.I, Albert Molnaru, who wrote this book, also lived there for three years and a half when I was a child].However, this is not a mechanical translation of the Hungarian dictionary, as Teodor Corbea eliminated several entries that he probably considered irrelevant, he shortened a series of other entries and added some others to Szenczi Molnár's list, also providing their Romanian equivalents.

The encyclopaedic dimension of the dictionary
The comparison of the lists of Latin words included in Szenczi's and Corbea's dictionaries indicates, however, that the latter had a creative attitude, both by eliminating some entries and by selecting, within the entries, the meanings for which he provided the Romanian equivalents, occassionally adding entries he considered relevant, due to his experience as Latin secretary of Constantin Brîncoveanu or of the Cantacuzinos.

4.1.
The fact that a considerable number of entries referring to ancient Greco-Roman culture were preserved proves Teodor Corbea's adherence to the current of modernization of our culture known as "Romanian humanism", placing his works besides the contributions of Constantin Cantacuzino and even those of Dimitrie Cantemir, because his dictionary acquires, along with the character of a bilingual dictionary, a pronounced encyclopaedic dimension.

4.2.
In Teodor Corbea's work, for the very first time in the Romanian culture, the Rome of martyrdoms (seen before him, from a Christian point of view, only as a new apocalyptic Babylon, and from the point of view of the Eastern Church, as a centre of religious schism) becomes the glorious city of ancient culture.Such research is only possible by conducting a thorough text analysis, and Teodor Corbea's Latin-Romanian Dictionary seems to provide the ideal material for such an approach.The confrontation between the two perspectives over the Eternal City produced an equally strong debate in the western world, during the Humanist and Renaissance periods, and also afterwards.

4.3.
One should note from the very beginning that there are very few references to Christianity and Roman martyrdoms4 : "Bibiana, g.f.o fată creştină rimleancă, care supt Iuliian s-au omorît pentru căce că au ajutat tătîni-său să îngroape trupurile ceale moarte ale creştinilor" [a Christian girl from Rome who was killed under Julius' rule because she helped her father burry the dead body of the Christians], "Chrysantus, g.m. un voinic de la Alixandriia, care la Roma pentru leagea credinţei creştineşti s-au omorît" [a young man from Alexandria who was killed in Rome for keeping his Christian faith], "Betlehem, g.f.[n.n.: recte: Bethleheem] oraş al Iudeii, de-acolo pînă în Ierusalim 7 mile de loc, în care Domnul nostru Isus Hristos s-au născut" [a city of the Kingdom of Judah, 7 miles far from Jerusalem, where our Lord Jesus was born], "Bethsames, g.f.oraş al Galileei în care Domnul nostru Isus Hristos, precum spun scripturile, multe minuni au făcut" [a town in Galilee where our Lord Jesus Christ, as the Scriptures say, performed many miracles], "Origenes, g.m. numele unui dascal creştin" [the name of a Christian teacher], etc.The emperors that persecuted the Christians are not necessarily depicted in a negative light, as in the hagiographic literature: "Decius, g.m. nume al unui rimlean" [name of a Roman], "Julianus, g.m. numele unui împărat rimlenesc" [name of a Roman emperor], etc.In the case of Nero, the negative image can be traced from the texts of the ancient historians rather than from the lives of the saints: "Nero, -onis, g.m. numele unui împărat rimlean nemilostiv" [name of a merciless Roman emperor].
4.5.The geographical horizon of Corbea's Romanian-Latin Dictionary is limited to the ancient perspective, as he only mentions the three continents known of in Antiquity (Asia, Africa and Europe), with a focus on the European continent: "Africa, g.f.o parte dintre trei părți a ocolului pămîntului" [one of the three parts of the Earth], "Aphrica, g.f. a treia parte a acestui pămînt" [the third part of the Earth], "Asia, g.f.una dintre ceaste 3 părți ale lumiei" [one of the three parts of this world]; a slight hesitation triggered by some vague knowledge of the new geographical discoveries occurs in the definition of Europe: "Europa, g.f. a treaea sau a patra parte a ceștii lumi, în care iaste Țara Nemțască, Țara Ungurească și Țara Italiei, de la Nemțasca Mare pînă la Marea-din-Mijlocul-Pămîntului și pînă la apa Tanaisului" [the third or the fourth part of this world that contains Germany, Hungary and Italy, from the German Sea to the Middle Sea and to the water of Tanais].This eurocentrist perspective rooted in the ancient culture explains why Italy is depicted as better known than any other peripheral region of the continent; Rome is the centre of Italy, as implied by the following definition: "Italia, g.f.Italiia, în Europa între Marea Adriaticum şi Tyrhenum, care are oraş mare pă Roma" [Italy, situated in Europe between the Adriatic Sea and the Tyrrhenian Sea, which has a big city, Rome].It becomes an essential reference point, the distance from and proximity to it being very important 6 .4.6.The Roman history is equally well-known 7 , yet for Teodor Corbea the true Antiquity relates to culture.He knows the names of the great Latin writers: Cicero 8 , Horatio 9 , Ovid 10 , Juvenal 11 , Lucretius 12 , Titus Livius 13 , etc.He had extensive knowledge about Vergilius and his books 14 , while Cicero's Latin (he expressly quoted linguistic forms from Cicero's works) is a point of reference to which he turns again and again.
8 "Cicero un vestit şi mărit boiar de la Roma şi înţelept înfrîmşeţat vorovitori" [a famous and great nobleman in Rome and a wise and talented orator].
whose work he mentions the two epic poems, the Iliad 15 and Batrachomyomachia; Corbea's dictionary abounds in events and characters from the Iliad and the Odyssey 16 , and also mentions "Batrachonyomarchia, război de broaşte şi de şoareci, adecă războiul broaştelor cu al şoarecilor, de care au scris Homerus" [war between frogs and mice, of which Homer wrote].
We note thus that for Corbea, ancient Rome and Christian Rome did not represent conflicting images (Gherman, 2001) simply because the two aspects of the Eternal City evoked two different universes.This fact clearly points to the process of laicization of the Romanian culture, which starts at the point where the cultural and the religious dimensions no longer coincide 20 , the two worlds evoking different spaces.
4.9.If Italy and Greece are known primarily from information provided by the Greek-Latin literature, Europe (France and Germany, especially) is presented by means of pertinent information belonging to the modern times; thus, Nuremberg becomes the centre of the world: "Noriberga, g.m. oraș mare al Țărei Nemțești, care cu frumoasa zidire, cu bogățiia, cu neguțători, cu fealiuri de fealiuri de lucruri scumpe și cu oameni meșteri iaste vestit și nu o mint.Acesta, în toată Evropa, în Țara Nemțască alte orașuri biruind, cu Vinețiia frîncească [sic!] să priceaște.Acest oraș nu numai Țărei Nemțăști ci și toții Evrope în mijloc iaste" [large city of the German country, famous for its beautiful buildings, wealth, merchants, all sorts of precious things and great people.This city, more beautiful than any other in the German land, rivals Venice in France [sic!].This city is located not only in the center of Germany, but also in the very heart of Europe], or "Norvegia, g.f.ţînutul Evropei de cătră crivăţ, care îl biruiaşte craiul danienesc" [Europe's country in the direction of the north wind, ruled by the king of Denmark].

4.10.
The landmarks of the modern world are first and foremost the cultural ones: "Argentina, g.f.et 18 "Rhadamanthus, g.m. fiiul lui Iupiter şi al Europei, derept şi vîrtos împărat al Liţiei, de unde poeticii îl ţîn a fi împărat sufletelor din iad" [son of Zeus and Europa, fair and brave king of Lycia, of whom the poets say he was the judge of the souls in the underworld], "Cunina, g.f.bătrînii o au ţînut a fi dumnezăoaie a copiilor înţelepţi" [the ancient people say she was the goddess of wise children], "Atropos, g.f.nepurcegătoare, adecă una dintru 3 parche, carele fieştecăruia de la dumnezău svîrşită viiaţă croiescu, (jerebiia) tortul îl taie.Bătrînii cei de demult precum au fost romanii şi elinii pre aceastea mai sus zise le-au numit a fi dumnezăoaie" [one of the three Moirai, who chose how people ended their life by cutting their threads.The ancient Greeks and Romans would call them goddesses], "daps, g.f.feali al jîrtvei au fost la cei de demult" [type of sacrifice for ancient people], "Druidae, g.m. pl.înţelepţii cei de demult ai frîncilor" [ancient wise men of the Celts], "lucuus, g.m. nume de bucate au fost la cei de demult" [ancient name for foods], "Marica dumnezău l-au ţînut cei de demult a fi purtători de grija ţărmurilor" [a god, of which the ancient men considered the protector of the shores], "Opigema, g.f.Iuno, pre care cei de demult o au socotit ajutătoare copiilor celor ce să nasc" [ Juno, of which the ancient people considered the protector of new-born children], "Taenarus, g.m. pl.Taenara, g.n.un deal aproape de Spartha sau un loc sub dealul Malca unde iaste o groapă mare şi o peştere adîncă, îmbăsnată, care cei de demult o au socotit poarta iadului" [a hill in the vicinity of Sparta or a place under the hill of Malca where there is a big hole and a deep cave where the ancient people believed was the gate to hell], etc.The cultural reception of ancient mythology is also marked by the fact that more than often the authors whose writings contain relevant references related to it are also cited: "Tutilina, g.f.Varro et Nonius dumnezăiţă s-au ţînut a scutirei, a ferirei la romanii cei de demult" [Roman goddess considered responsible for protection], etc.
Argentoratum tare oraș al Țărei Nemțești lîngă apa Rhenus, în țînutul Alsației.Acolo ca acela înalt turn iaste și bisearecă înfrîmșețată, cît în Europa altă bisearică sau turn aseamine acestora nu iaste.Iaste iarăș acolo o academie vestită, în care de demult mulți înțelepți oameni s-au învățat" [a German town near the Rhine River, in Alsace.There you find a tall tower and a beautiful church as nowhere else in the whole Europe.There is also a famous Academy where many famous people studied in the past], "Altorsium, g.n.orășăl în țînutul domnilor norimbergheani, în care acest noriberghean svat cinsteș bogată academie au zidit în numărul anilor 1575" [small town of the land of the Nuremberg where a rich academy was built in the year 1575], "Herbona, g.f.oraș în țînutul Nasoviei al Țării Nemțăști, în care iaste școală vestită, care să priceaște cu academiile și pre care le și învince" [German town in the region of Nassau where there is a famous school, even better than the academies], "Marpurgum oraș al Țărei Nemțești în țînutul Hassiei în care iaste academie vestită" [German town in the region of Hessen, where there is a famous academy].The information related to culture in the period following Antiquity is rather scarce: the name of Venerable Beda is mentioned among others ("Beda, g.m. în Țara Angliei au fost dascal învățător de Scriptura Svîntă" [he taught the Holy Scriptures in England]) along with composer Orlando di Lasso ("Lasus, g.m. cel mai dintîi care au scris de muzică" [the first one to write music]); Boccaccio is only mentioned in relation to his historical works: "Boccatius, g.m. un istoriceari italiian" [an Italian historian].
Teodor Corbea's humanist perspective is expressed, as in the case of his contemporaries, by the fact that he emphasizes the Latin character of the Romanian language.This perspective was shared by numerous western men of culture who came into contact with the Romanians, being also embraced by the Romanian historiography starting with the 17 th century (Grigore Ureche, Miron Costin, Constantin Cantacuzino, Dimitrie Cantemir, etc.).Unlike the other scholars, Teodor Corbea does not state it directly nor does he mention the Roman descent of his people explicitly.By commonly identifying the ancient populations of the Antiquity with those who inhibited the respective region in his time, he extrapolates to the Romanian territory: "Daci, g.m. pl.rumînii" [Romanians], "Getae, g.m. pl.rumînii" [Romanians], "geticus, -a, -um rumînesc, -ă, din Țara Rumînească" [Romanian, of the Romanian country], although the same population is also identified differently as: "Dacae, g.m. pl.seminții de la Sțithiia" [people from Scythia].

Conclusions
The question that obviously comes to mind, namely for what purpose did Bishop Mitrofan of Buzău need this dictionary?, has several answers, all equally valid.Mitrofan, the former Bishop of Huși and close collaborator of Metropolitan Dosoftei, who, after coming to Walachia, contributed to the printing of the Bible from Bucharest, was a highly cultivated man who valued and needed access to texts written in Latin.He had a special interest in the greatest Latin collection of the lives of saints, Vita sanctorum, which he used for printing the Menaion in 1698.Since a simple linguistic preference can justify the identification of a writer, the phrase cici și colea meaning 'here and there' , which can be identified in the texts of that time only in Teodor Corbea's work and in some of the lives of saints in the Menaion from Buzău, entitles us to believe that he was not merely a paid translator of the dictionary, but also a collaborator of the monumental Menaion.