Ioan Constantin Filitti (; first name also Ion; Francized Jean C. Filitti; May 8, 1879 – September 21, 1945) was a Romanian historian, diplomat and conservative theorist, best remembered for his contribution to social history, legal history, genealogy and heraldry. A member of the Conservative Party and an assistant of its senior leader Titu Maiorescu, he had aristocratic (boyar) origins and an elitist perspective. Among his diverse contributions, several focus on 19th-century modernization under the Regulamentul Organic regime, during which Romania was ruled upon by the Russian Empire. As a historian, Filitti is noted for his perfectionism, and for constantly revising his own works.
I. C. Filitti had an auspicious debut in diplomacy and politics, but his career was mired in controversy. A "Germanophile" by the start of World War I, he secretly opposed the pact between Romania and the Entente Powers, and opted to stay behind in German-occupied territory. He fell into disgrace for serving the collaborationist Lupu Kostaki as Prefect and head of the National Theatre, although he eventually managed to overturn his death sentence for treason. Filitti became a recluse, focusing on his scholarship and press polemics, but was allowed to serve on the Legislative Council after 1926.
In his political tracts, written well after the Conservative Party's demise, I. C. Filitti preserves the orthodox conservative principles of Maiorescu. His attachment to boyar tradition was expanded into a critique of centralized government, etatism and Romanian liberalism. Toward the end of his life, he supported the dictatorial regime known as National Renaissance Front.
Biography
Origin and early life Through his paternal family, Filitti descended from historical figures whose careers were intertwined with the history of Wallachia, the Romanian subregion and former autonomous state. It originated with ethnic Greek migrants from the Epirus—where the Filitti family was known to be residing in the 17th century. Stanca, Dan and Filitti, Georgeta, "Pecetea nobleței este educația", in România Liberă, July 14, 2007 The main settlers were male monks, whose presence was attested in Buzău County around 1786: rising through the ranks of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Dositei Filitti served as Wallachian Metropolitan Bishop, assigning nephew Constandie to preside over the Diocese of Buzău.Filitti, G. (1995), p.47 Although his Epirote father was a noted Russophile, the Metropolitan regarded himself as a liberal-minded Wallachian patriot: he founded the local school of divinity, provided scholarships to young Wallachians,Djuvara, p.158, 313 and sponsored the growing printing industry. Laura Guțanu, "O convorbire cu Georgeta Filitti" , in România Literară, Nr. 31/2003 In tandem, he spoke out against the practice of slavery, protecting Romani women from their Wallachian mastersDjuvara, p.270-271 and donating money for the release of devșirme victims. During times of turmoil, when Wallachia effectively became a dominion of the Russian Empire, Dositei was swiftly deposed on Russian orders.Djuvara, p.158
The historian claimed lineage from the non-monastic branch of the Filitti clan. A Silvestru Filitti, active ca. 1810, was among the first private practitioners in Wallachia.Djuvara, p.198, 202 Fully Romanianized, 20th-century Filittis were still members of Romania's privileged class. A native of Bucharest, Ioan C. was the son of Colonel Constantin Filitti, a former Ordinance Officer of the Romanian Domnitori.Filitti, G. (2008), p.11 By then, the family owned a country estate, at Alexeni, Ialomița County.Filitti, G. (1995), p.46; (2008), p.12-13 The Filittis preserved strong connections with the Ialomița region, where Colonel Filitti had twice served as Prefect.Filitti, G. (2008), p.13 Ioan inherited from him a deep dislike and mistrust toward the dominant National Liberal Party (PNL), sentiments which carried him into Conservative politics: Constantin regarded himself as a political victim of the PNL establishment, and in particular of the Brătianu family.Filitti, G. (1995), p.45 Colonel Filitti had another son, Alexandru—better known under the moniker Filitti-Robănești.Filitti, G. (1995), p.48
The mother, Elena, was born into the Ghica family. Her father, Mihail Ghica, was a staff officer of the Royal Army, who had been married for a while to writer Elena Văcărescu.Filitti, M. & Guțanu, p.30 Thorough his mother's other relatives, Ioan also descended from the eponymous boyar line of Slatina (the Slătineanus).Filitti, G. (1995), p.47; (2008), p.11-12; Filitti, M. & Guțanu, p.30
I. C. Filitti studied at Saint Sava National College, where he was colleagues with future politician (and adversary) Ion G. Duca. He was an eminent student, who earned top distinctions annually, and moved on to study at the École Libre des Sciences Politiques in Paris. His first ever published work as a historian was a French-language tome, Le Rôle diplomatique des phanariotes de 1700 à 1821 ("The Diplomatic Role of Phanariotes from 1700 to 1821"). Signed Jean C. Filitti,Djuvara, p.376 it was probably his licence ès lettres, and, although receiving good reviews, was never listed by its author in his official résumés.Filitti, G. (1995), p.46 He became a Doctor of Law in 1904, when he published the first draft of his study about Regulamentul Organic as the first ever Romanian constitution.
Entry into public life Young Filitti made a remarkably early entry into the diplomatic corps, and stayed on with the Romanian Legation in France. In this capacity, he purposefully embarrassed PNL Foreign Minister Ion I. C. Brătianu by not sending in all Legation employees to receive him during an official visit. During his return trips to Romania, Filitti was focusing on researching his own family archives, and, in 1910, published the volume Așezământul cultural al mitropolitului Dosit[h]ei Filitti, de la înființare până azi ("Metropolitan Dosit[h]ei Filitti's Cultural Foundation, from Its Establishment to the Present Day"). In researching this work, Filitti sought input from the genealogical school in Greece and Macedonia, and from Romanian diplomats working in Istanbul. In a show of perfectionism, Filitti constantly revised the work as new data surfaced, and, in 1936, declared the 1910 edition to be entirely unusable.
Filitti was soon drawn into the Conservative establishment, by politics and family connections. His wife Alexandrina ("Sanda"), descending from another branch of the Ghica clan, was a distant relative of two Conservative potentates and doyens of the Cantacuzino political family: Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino-Nababul, who was twice the Prime Minister of Romania, and newspaper magnate Grigore Gh. Cantacuzino. She brought in considerable wealth.Filitti, G. (2008), p.14 Filitti was by then also in contact with Junimea, an inner-Conservative club dedicated to cultural criticism, presided upon by the aged literary patron Titu Maiorescu. As noted in 2008 by political scientist Ioan Stanomir, the young diplomat was "an orthodox Junimist who survived the end of his world."Stanomir, p.130 Like other historiographers and doctrinaires raised by Junimea, Filitti the scholar firmly believed in the preservation of boyar demesnes and, as political scientist Victor Rizescu suggests, took part in the century-long debate opposing elitist historians to the advocates of natural law. Rizescu, Victor, "Ideologii și istorii ideologice: tradiția românească" , in Cuvântul, Nr. 377, November 2008 (republished by România Culturală )
Filitti's biographer and posthumous daughter-in-law, Georgeta Penelea-Filitti, also writes that, even in the 1910s, he had become a Conservative apologist, who felt compelled to justify the party line in a "trenchant and unresponsive" manner. Like senior Junimists Maiorescu and Petre P. Carp, Filitti reserved contempt for Take Ionescu, the rising star of Romanian conservatism, whom he depicted as a manipulator with no actual convictions.Filitti, G. (2008), p.10
Filitti's first important postings were received from the Conservative cabinet of P. P. Carp, wherein Titu Maiorescu held the Foreign Affairs portfolio. After 1910, Maiorescu appointed Filitti head of the Ministry's Political Section in Bucharest, and then granted him supervision of the Consular and Litigation sections.Filitti, G. (1995), p.45; (2008), p.10, 11. See also Boia, p.216 Filitti was also sent on regular missions to France, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, Serbia and Italy.Filitti, G. (1995), p.45-46, 47 The missions allowed Filitti to expand his activity as a historiographer and archivist. The main stimulus of this activity was, according to Filitti's son Manole, a sense of filial duty: "since destiny wished for his parents to have such assets as would allow him to study in Paris for a couple of years, [my father] felt compelled to repay them by publishing works which would live up to that degree of education." According to historian Lucian Boia, although "non-academic", Filitti's work has earned deserved praise from within the scholarly community.Boia, p.108, 216 Georgeta Penelea-Filitti argues that I. C. Filitti's work, indicative of his personality, covers an impressively "large horizon."
On May 8, 1913, shortly before the Second Balkan War, Filitti began keeping a diary, which records the political intrigues of his age, and offers insight into Conservative affairs. One of the first events recorded there is the August 1913 Peace Conference of Bucharest. Filitti was the official Secretary during the proceedings.Boia, p.216; Filitti, G. (2008), p.10 In this context, he also helped Titu Maiorescu with drafting Cartea Verde ("The Green Book"), that is the official justification of Romanian foreign policy.Filitti, G. (1995), p.46; (2008), p.10, 11 Decades later, he recalled that the congress had been a magnificent affair, noting especially the triumphant arrival of King Carol I, that "old Nestor of European monarchs".Stanomir, p.70-71 The Conference, he recalled, "was the swan song of the old Conservative Party."Stanomir, p.71
His services during the Conference earned him public praise from Maiorescu,Filitti, G. (1995), p.46; (2008), p.10 and Filitti, who feared for his prospects, was kept on at the Ministry even after the National Liberal Emanoil Porumbaru became Minister in January 1914.Boia, p.216 In tandem with his diplomatic endeavors, he spent time researching at the Vatican Library in Rome. As noted by Manole Filitti, Ioan C. received "special recommendations", which allowed him entry into the less accessible archives of the Holy See. Such study trips resulted in a two-volume anthology of historical sources, Din arhivele Vaticanului ("From the Vatican Archives", 1913 and 1914).Filitti, G.(1995), p.47; Filitti, M. & Guțanu, p.30
Germanophile polemicist and Domniile române...