Mihail Moxa

Mihail Moxa (Romanian pronunciation: [mihaˈil ˈmoksa], Cyrillic: Михаил Мoѯа; also known as Moxalie,^[1] and originally named Vasile Moxa; after 1550 – before 1650)^[2] was a Wallachian historiographer, translator, and Orthodox monk. Associated with the Oltenia region (the western third of old Wallachia), he lived for much of his life at Bistrița Monastery; his career spanned a moment of deep political subjugation to the Ottoman Empire, to which he, as a historian, opposed an early version of Romanian nationalism. Moxa was one of the first authors to champion the usage of Romanian as a literary language, at a time when education (including his own) was done in Old Church Slavonic, which was still the Wallachian court language, or in Greek.

Moxa's universal chronicle, probably the first of its kind in Romanian literature, was closely based on the standards of Byzantine literature, and especially on Constantine Manasses, but veered away to offer his personal musings. These include Moxa's acceptance of heliocentrism, his beliefs about the origin of the Romanians, as well as his praise of heroes in the anti-Ottoman struggles. Moxa's work was overall less accomplished than locally-centered chronicles produced in Moldavia during the previous century—though these were entirely in Slavonic. Completed in 1620, the chronicle is the first of three surviving works by the monk. His output also includes a liturgical book, as well as a legal collection, Pravila, which was commissioned by the Wallachian Prince Matei Basarab. The latter is also the only one of his contributions to have been printed in his lifetime; the chronicle, preserved in three manuscripts, was only published in fragmentary form after 1845, and as a complete edition in 1942.