Page:Nicolae Iorga - My American lectures.djvu/6

 contributing articles on foreign affairs to «Romanul» (The Romanian), a provincial journal.

''From Botoșani Iorga went to the University of Jassy, where at the age of nineteen he received the degree of Licentiate, or Master, in Letters. During his course of study he was writing poetry for the «Contemporary» (Contemporanul) and the «New Review» (Revista Nouă) and contributing literary criticism to «Arhiva»'' (The Archives).

After graduating at Jassy, Iorga continued his studies at Paris, Berlin and finally Leipzig, where he was rewarded with the doctorate for his thesis on Thomas III, Marquis de Saluces. Shortly afterward, the University of Paris awarded him a diplôme des hautes études for his dissertation on Philippe de Mézières.

''On Nov. 1, 1894, at the early age of twenty-three, he was appointed professor in the University of Bucharest. He then traveled extensively in the Roumanian provinces and continued his researches in the libraries of more than a dozen different countries—from Sweden and England, in the north, to Italy and Turkey, in the south, and as far west as Portugal. The results of this gathering of a vast material are revealed in his numerous works.''

In 1903, Iorga became editor of the well-known literary review The Sower (Sămănătorul), ''to which his contributions, consisting of articles and essays, resulted in a reawakening of Roumanian literature, changing its course completely for the generations to come. In fact, one may say without fear of contradiction that all the leading writers of present-day Roumania are still under the spell of Iorga's genius.''

When he entered the Roumanian Parliament for the first time in 1907 as Deputy for Jassy, Iorga interested himself at once in the emancipation of Roumanian peasantry; and again it may be said that the remarkable bloodless revolution which 7