MIHAI EMINESCU • Chronology / Life, Creation, Cultural Context

• December 20. Presumptive date of Mihai Eminescu's birth - it is the date written down by the poet himself in the register-album of Junimea. Matei, the poet's youngest brother, defends this date, as having been written by their father on an old Psalm Book. In the absence of any documentary evidence, the date as such has not been accepted by literary history. • December 24. Another presumptive date of Mihai Eminescu's birth, as communicated by Aglaia, the poet's sister. • 1850, January 15. Birth, in Botosani, of Mihai, the seventh son in the Eminovici family. The date, written down in the „Register of births and baptisms” for the year 1850, is the only one having a documentary support. • April 22. Birth of Veronica Câmpeanu, in Năsăud; married in 1864 to professor Stefan Micle, Veronica will meet Eminescu in 1872, in Vienna. With the poet’s taking up his abode in Jassy, a deep love – which will sign their existence – rises between the two. • In Jassy, opening night of Vasile Alecsandri's play Chirita in Iasi (Chirita in Jassy). • 1851, April 23. The Eminovici family moves to Ipotesti. Yet, unable to pay the whole sum owed to the former owner, they will return in October in Botosani. • Inauguration, in Bucharest, of the Big Theatre, the future National Theatre (whose first director was Costache Caragiale).
• 1852-1853. Vasile Alecsandri publishes in Jassy Poezii poporale. Balade (Popular Poems. Ballads). The anthology is translated into french as Ballades et Chants populaires de la Roumanie - Paris, 1855. • January 30. In the village of Haimanale (Ploiesti), birth of Ion Luca Caragiale, the future playwright and friend of the poet. • May 7. Birth of Aglae, the 8th child of the Eminovici. In 1870, she'll marry professor Ioan Drogli, taking her abode first in Bukovina (Suceava), then at Chernovitz. Two children – Ioan and George – are born during this first marriage; in 1887 she becomes a widow and, in 1890, she marries again to Heinrich Gareiss von Dollitzsturm. Dies in 1890. • Death of the historian Nicolae Bălcescu (b. 1819), the ideologist of the 1848 Revolution; buried in Palermo. • 1853. Ciprian Porumbescu, the future composer, is born in the the village of Sipotele (Suceava). • In Paris, Vasile Alecsandri's volume Doine si lăcrămioare (Lyrical Folk Poetry). • 1854. Birth of Harieta, the ninth child in the Eminovici house. Endowed with a sharp intellect, yet affected since early childhood by a severe physical deficiency, she will not be able to attend regular courses; however, the tenacity and energy with which she trained herself along her whole life will be reflected in the way in which she assumed the most difficult task of looking after the poet between 1887-1888. She'll survive Mihai only for a few months, dying in October 1889. • November, 2. Death, in Bucharest, of Anton Pann (b. 1795). • Birth of the poet Al. Macedonski (d. 1920). • 1855. Gheorghe Eminovici is forced to sell the houses he owns in Botosani for paying the debt to Eufrosina Petrino, the former owner of Ipotesti. In view of settling their residence in Ipotesti, Eminovici begins building of the family's new house. [next]

RO / MIHAI EMINESCU • Viaţa, context/ Cronologie