writing_womans_lives_symposium_paper_book_v2

READING HABITS AMONG WOMEN IN THE DANUBIAN
PRINCIPALITIES DURING THE LATE ROMANIAN MIDDLE AGES
Carmen MANOLACHI *
During the late Romanian Middle Ages, that is between the 17th century and the beginning of the
19th century, Romanian families considered children’s education – especially girls’ education – as
something of little importance, leaving it with their mother. In general, the girls who lived in rural
areas never studied, but used to practice many of the so‐called feminine activities specific to the
epoch: sewing, embroidering or cooking. As far as children’s spiritual education is concerned,
mothers played the most important role in the majority of the families. 1
It is worthy of notice that the social status used to positively influence girls’ access to learning,
although to a little degree at first. In the boyar families, education of very young children was left
with nurses. Later, children had a governess or a preceptor. Parents did not use to intervene. In fact,
girls’ education did not last for long, but it usually consisted in assuming the role of wives and
mothers, the main responsibilities attributed to the women of the epoch. 2
Girls did not have access to study as much as boys did. Those who continued to study privately
usually belonged to rich boyar or ruling families. Firstly, they learned reading. Secondly, they learned
writing, but this activity was less practiced and it usually took a private form such as letter writing.
The majority of educated girls abandoned the learning process when it was considered that they had
gathered sufficient knowledge regarding their reading skills and had acquired several essential
aspects related to their religious education.
In Moldavia, Dimitrie Cantemir stated that boyars’ daughters could study in the same conditions
as their sons, but “only with the aim of acquiring better reading and writing skills in their mother
tongue.” 3 In the 17th century, learning, reading and writing was enough for a young woman; further
study was usually expected among boys only. The majority of families belonging to other social
categories were indifferent to anything related to schooling. 4
In the 17th century, women such as the future Princess Elena Năsturel, who later became Prince
Matei Basarab’s wife, or Vasile Lupu’s princesses were noticed for their knowledge and culture
learned within their family. It is a known fact too that Maria, Prince Vasile Lupu’s eldest daughter,
received excellent education in her youth, when she learned Greek, Latin and Polish languages. Some
of her documents and letters addressed to her fiancé, Janusz Radziwill 5 , still exist. Her sister
Ruxandra impressed her contemporaries with her linguistic knowledge too. When he met her in
1659, Sirian archdeacon Paul de Alep mentioned her name with admiration that “she knew four
languages: Romanian, Greek, Turkish and Russian.” 6
In 1775, Lionardo Panzini mentioned lady Smaranda Ypsilantis, Prince Alexander Ypsilantis’s
daughter: “she is an intelligent and very beautiful young lady, who can speak French quite well, a
language that she particularly likes and continues to learn.” 7
At the beginning of the 18th century, John George Caradja’s French secretary was a Swiss scholar
named François Recordon, who had studies in literature and philosophy. At the time when he had
already been Caradja’s children’s preceptor for six years, he noticed that boyar’s sons and daughters’
education was rather limited and consisted of: reading and writing in the local language and in
modern Greek, basics of French language, writing skills and mathematics. Throughout time, the study
of French language became a widespread preoccupation, because it used to be employed in
conversation and at parties, and learning it was a symbol of an educated person. 8
In The Women of Our Nation (1911), the Romanian famous historian Nicolae Iorga mentioned
Princess Smaranda, who was Prince Nicolae Mavrocordat’s sister and Prince Matei Ghica’s wife. The
historian Iorga wrote that: “she is a woman famous for her wisdom, especially for her medical
*
University of Bucharest - Bucharest, Romania
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