On the occasion of the 350th anniversary of Dimitrie Cantemir’s birth and the 300th anniversary of his death, the National Library of Romania, in partnership with the Institute of South-East European Studies of the Romanian Academy and the DAR Development Association, organized a series of events dedicated to Dimitrie Cantemir and to the period in which he lived.

Philosopher, historian, writer, composer, politician and scientist, Dimitrie Cantemir is an important personality of Romanian humanist culture and a recognised figure of universal culture.

Using the occasion of this double anniversary to research and highlight the influence of Dimitrie Cantemir in the evolution of Romanian culture and in extenso in South-East European culture, at the headquarter of the National Library of Romania, on 5-6 October 2023, took place the international colloquium “Dimitrie Cantemir and South-East Europe”, with the participation of the most important specialists in the field from Romania and abroad, among them we can name Andrei Pippidi, Stefan Lemny, Maria Magdalena Székely, Radu G. Păun, Andrei Eșanu, Ioana Feodorov, Vlad Alexandrescu, Oana Uță Bărbulescu etc.

The conference was accompanied by the opening of the exhibition “Dimitrie Cantemir 300”, containing first editions and images from the works of the great scholar preserved as part of the collections of the National Library of Romania, as well as an important collection of paintings, objects and weapons from the period of Dimitrie Cantemir, belonging to the collection of Petru Costin, a well-known collector from the Republic of Moldova. The exhibition offered the public a truly unique opportunity to see and understand, thanks to the wealth of objects and documents on display, more about that specific period in the history of South-East Europe.