NICOLAUS OLAHUS SI RENASTEREA EUROPEANĂ
NICOLAUS OLAHUS AND THE EUROPEAN RENAISSANCE
Sorin BULBOACĂ
Universitatea de Vest „Vasile Goldis” Arad
Facultatea de StiinŃe Umaniste, Politice si Administrative
Arad, România, Str. Unirii, nr. 3
Email: sorin_bulboaca@yahoo.com
Abstract
The present paper has not been intended to provide a detailed presentation of the
intellectual biography and of the cultural and scientific work of Nicolaus Olahus, but to explain the
extent to which the Romanian humanist integrated into the culture of the European Renaissance in
the 16th century, according to his social and political views, as well as, by means of his writings.
Nicolaus Olahus (1493-1568) enjoyed an outstanding politica and eclesiastical career in Central
Europe: secretary of the king of Hungary, Ludovic al II (1516-1526), primate archbishop of
Strigoniu (1553), regent of Habsburg Hungary (1562). He benefited of an illustrious origin, being a
descendant of the Basarabi dynasty, of the genealogical branch of Draculesti and nephew on part
of the sister of the former voivode of Transylvania, Iancu of Hunedoara. Raised to nobility in 1548
by king Ferdinand of Hapsburg in 1558, Nicolaus Olahus has been made baron of the Hapsburg
Empire.
He was in corespondence with the humanists of the epoch, especially with Erasmus de
Rotterdam, dedicating some of his epitaphs to his death. In his paper, Hungaria, Olahus supports
the Romanian origin of the Romanian people as well as the Latinity of its language. The same thing
is emphasized by his modern, renascent perception, which refers to the nation, being defined
according to ethno-linguistic criterion, and not according to the medieval criterion of privilege. He
set up a Printing House in Trnava(Slovakia), he founded the Catholic seminary in the same locality,
which later on became and University. Hei s the author of certain theological and historical works
of exception, drawn up in Latin, most of which have never been translated into Romanian.
Keywords
: Renaissance, culture, nation, church, biographical, humanist, eclesiastic
Cuvinte cheie:
renastere, cultură, natiune, biserică, biografic, umanist, eclesiastic.