Bonifaciu Florescu
Romanian literary critic (1848-1899) · Romania · On the map · Writers · Died at 51
Bonifaciu Florescu was a Romanian polygraph, the illegitimate son of writer-revolutionary Nicolae Bălcescu. Born secretly outside his parents' native Wallachia, at Pest, he was taken by his aristocratic mother in France, growing up as an erudite Francophone and Francophile.
Bonifaciu Florescu is read about 4 times a day, in 6 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 30 June 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 60 days, one point a day.
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Photos 6
Cartoon in Ghimpele, the liberal magazine, depicting Titu Maiorescu and the "new direction" at Junimea (November 1875). The barrel ridden by Maiorescu is marked Instrucțiunea publică ("Public Instruction"), in reference to his job as Education Minister
Literatorul of June 1, 1880, featuring Floescu's essay on the Greek chorus and translations from Henri Murger, alongside poetry by Macedonski, Th. M. Stoenescu, and Carol Scrob
University of Bucharest students rallying in support of the Transylvanian Memorandum, 1892 photographAbout this person
Florescu graduated from the Lycée Louis-le-Grand and the University of Rennes, returning home at age 25 to become a successful lecturer, polemicist, and historian of culture. Influenced by his father's politics, he was for a while a prominent figure on the far-left of Romanian liberalism and nationalism, which pitted him against the conservative society Junimea, and against his own conservative cousin, Prime Minister Ioan Emanoil Florescu. The conflict led to his losing a professorship at Iași University and being sidelined when applying for chairs at the University of Bucharest. His critique of Junimist literature, structured around a classical defense of prosody, inspired a libel by Mihai Eminescu - famously depicting Florescu as a "homunculus".
