Acta Universitatis Danubius. Relationes Internationales, Vol 11, No 2 (2018)

Abstract

: Starting from the idea of ​​the influence of the French cultural environment on the new elite in the Romanian culture in the second half of the nineteenth century and its role in shaping and affirming the self image of the Romanians in the "century of nationalities", we highlight in this article VA Urechia’s relations with the scientist Léon de Rosny, Orientalist and Americanist, president of the Society of Ethnography created in 1859, in Paris and the first holder of the chair of Japanese at the Imperial and Special School of Oriental Languages, "author of a singular work of epistemological reflection ". Our investigation exploits information from the archives and the correspondence of the two personalities kept in the Library of the Romanian Academy and in “V.A. Urechia" Library of Galati, from the press and the scientific publications of the time, from the country and abroad, memoirs, etc. The contribution of both scientists to structuring the Ethnography as a science, its relationships with other social sciences, its importance in understanding and explaining the realities of  the time and  the directions of evolution, are the most important aspects to which the conclusions of this study lead us. The appreciation that V. A. Urechia enjoys abroad from the personalities like Leon de Rosny is another aspect that can help to better shape the personality of this important representative of the Romanian cultural elite in the second half of the nineteenth century.