The Paharnic (plural: Paharnici; also known as Păharnic, Paharnec, or Păharnec; Moldavian dialect: ceașnic,Biliarsky, pp. 331–333; Rezachevici (1971), p. 24; Stoicescu, p. 79; Tașcă, passim , pakharnikos,Iorga (1932), p. 219 & 1934, pp. 206–207 , paharnik) was a historical Romanian rank, one of the non-hereditary positions ascribed to the boyar aristocracy in Moldavia and Wallachia (the Danubian Principalities). It was the local equivalent of a cup-bearer or cześnik, originally centered on pouring and obtaining wine for the court of Moldavian and Wallachian Princes. With time, it became a major administrative office and, in Wallachia, also had a lesser military function. The retinue of such boyars, usually called Păhărnicei, was in both countries also a private army.
Dating back to c. 1400, the Paharnici were at the forefront of political life in Wallachia over the following two centuries, often as a title associated with the Craiovești and Florescu boyars. Wallachian Paharnici were especially important during the 16th and 17th centuries, when they included figures such as Lupu Mehedințeanu, Șerban of Coiani, and Matei Basarab. They and other Paharnici established means of boyar protection against the social ascent of immigrant Greeks. Prince Constantin Brâncoveanu, himself a former Paharnic, gave a privileged position to the Păhărnicei, but put to death their controversial Paharnic, Staico Bucșanu. Before 1700, figures associated with the Moldavian office included close relatives of the monarchs, such as Alexandru Coci and Ștefan Lupașcu Hâjdău. Though the office itself steadily declined in importance, it was still subjected to a meritocratic reform by Prince Dimitrie Cantemir.
The Paharnici grew in numbers and declined in political relevancy from ca. 1720, with the rise of the Phanariotes, and ultimately fell into a second class of boyars. Their descendants were recognized as a branch of the small boyardom, alongside the Păhărnicei. While these became a rural middle class, the Paharnici offices were increasingly permeable to the commercial classes of the city. The three groups intertwined, with some Paharnici, including Ianache Hafta and Manuc Bei, having a noted effect on the development of Bucharest. Various Paharnici also participated first-hand in the cultivation of Romanian nationalism, leading up to Gavril Istrati's clashes with the Greek "Sacred Band".
From Moldavia, the office was for a while inherited by the Russian Empire, which preserved titular Paharnici in its Bessarabia Governorate. In both Moldavia and Wallachia, the Russian regime of 1834–1854 recognized a multitude of titular Paharnici, from inspectors Ion Heliade Rădulescu and Constantin N. Brăiloiu to painter Constantin Lecca. The proliferation of Paharnici and other offices, taken up by Moldavian Princes Ioan and Mihail Sturdza, contributed to social tensions, and then to a failed revolutionary attempt. Following the Crimean War, the position of Paharnic was abolished, alongside all other historical titles.
Name Paharnic is a Romanianized term, originating with the Church Slavonic variant, (Peharnik).Panaitescu, p. 214 Dimitrie Cantemir, the intellectual Prince of Moldavia, was the first to note that the institution was copied from the old Serbian nomenclature, as opposed to other boyar titles, which were originally Byzantine or (in one case) Hungarian.Bacalov, p. 60 However, legal historian Ivan Biliarsky notes that both the Serbian and the Romanian term originate with a Byzantine office, the Pinkernes, being its functional equivalents.Bilarsky, pp. 329–331, 334–335 The component Romanian term is pahar ("glass" or "chalice"), which reached Romanian either from the Hungarian pohár or the Serbo-Croatian pehar.Chirilă, p. 31 After passing through Slavonic, Paharnic acquired a form in historical Romanian, and Romanian Cyrillic, as , transliterated Păharnic (, rather than ). It was still codified in this manner by the early-18th-century scholar Anthim the Iberian.Chirilă, pp. 31, 92, 163, 272
All these terms continued to be spelled in Cyrillic for as long as the titles they represented were in use. However, attempts at Romanization were made as early as 1468, when Paharnic appeared as Poharnig in a Renaissance Latin document;Mihaela Paraschiv, "Elemente lexicale alogene în latina documentelor de cancelarie din Moldova", in Analele Universității Alexandru Ioan Cuza din Iași. Secțiunea IIIe. Lingvistică, Vol. LIV, p. 116 this was also rendered as Paharnig.Biliarsky, p. 332 In the 1670s, Miron Costin, using standardized Polish spellings, produced Paharnik.Raluca Elisabeta Iftime, "Modelul ortografic polonez în scrieri ale unor cărturari moldoveni din secolele al XVI-lea și al XVII-lea (Luca Stroici și Miron Costin)", in Rodica Zafiu, Isabela Nedelcu (eds.), Variația lingvistică: probleme actuale. Actele celui de-al 14-lea Colocviu Internațional al Departamentului de Lingvistică, Vol. 1, pp. 203–204. Bucharest: Bucharest University Press, 2015. Before 1600, Slavonic documents also admitted a Romanian translation, Canatnic, created from the dialectal canată, "tiny mug".Ion Penișoară, "Recenzii și prezentări de cărți. Dicționarul elementelor românești din documentele slavo-române, 1374—1600", in Cercetări de Lingvistică, Vol. XXIX, Issue 1, January–June 1984, p. 72 Ceașnic was another Slavonic variant which acquired use in Moldavia, where it was generally spelled as ; it could also appear in Wallachia, but as .Biliarsky, pp. 331–333 Both have their etymological source in Cześnik, used by szlachta nobility to the north.Biliarsky, p. 333; Tașcă, p. 8 A synonymous term originating from the Second Bulgarian Empire, (Picernic), only appears once, in 1392 Wallachia.
History Creating the office
Paharnici or similar were first mentioned in Wallachia under Mircea the Old (1386–1418) and in Moldavia under Alexander the Good (1400–1432).Rezachevici (1971), p. 24 The Moldavian version of the office ranked it immediately after the Spatharios; in Wallachia, it was originally mentioned as below the Vistier, who was fourth or fifth in line in the Boyar Council () the Ban, Vornic, Logothete, and sometimes also the Spatharios, ranked above them.Rezachevici (1971), pp. 22–24 A social and functional differentiation cut across these boyar classes. According to such typologies, some boyar offices were administrative or "public" (Ban or Logothete), while others, including Ban and Spatharios, were purely military. Paharnici fell into a third category of offices, deemed "courtly" (de curte)—alongside Cluceri, Jitniceri, Medelniceri, Pitari, Postelnici, Slugeri, and Stolnici.Palade, p. 144
As summarized by historian Constantin Rezachevici, a Paharnics function was "to fill up the first cup at the prince's table, and while in the country he supervised the princely vineyards and made sure that these were well kept". Biliarsky also notes that the Paharnic acted as a waiter and a wine taster, who made sure that the beverage was safe to drink, being thus "close to and very highly trusted by the ruler."Biliarsky, pp. 331–332 From the beginning, these attributes alternated with the business of state: in October 1407, Paharnic Iliaș "Dumitrovscio" was present on the Moldavian delegation which swore fealty to the Kingdom of Poland, and consequently fought at Grunwald.Tașcă, pp. 7–8, 14 A variation of the office, already present in 1540s Moldavia, was the Paharnic in service to the Princess-consort.Rezachevici (1977), p. 78
Also in Moldavia, Paharnici had direct control over the Staroste of Cotnari, who produced the eponymous sweet wine variety, seen as the region's best,Rezachevici (1971), p. 24. See also Aramă & Jecev, p. 3 as well as over the wine regions of Dealu Morii, Hârlău, Huși, and Târgu Trotuș.Stoicescu, p. 79 After 1482, the Moldavian institution also appeared in the wine-rich Panciu, Putna County, which had been previously disputed between the two principalities.Pușcă, pp. 359–361 By 1700, the greater Paharnic was, ex officio, the head of Putna's administration, while his assistant only controlled the princely vineyards of Huși.Mihordea, p. 1090 Historian N. Stoicescu proposes that the Wallachian Paharnici may have also exercised some control over the winemakers of Dealurile Buzăului. This function remains unattested, but is suggested by the Paharnici being traditionally reliant on support from that area, on the Wallachian border with Putna.
In tandem, Paharnici in both principalities operated as tax farmers, receiving a small contribution from all other winemakers. This was presented to them personally on September 14 of each year. Moldavia's Paharnic collected only the wine tithe known as vinărici. For the Wallachians, the vinărici was set at 1,000 barrels of wine yearly, from the wineries of Argeș County (Ștefănești, Topoloveni) and Vâlcea County (Drăgășani). Here, another special tribute, also collected from private wine cellars, was generally known as păhărnicie, and was primarily lucrative in Bucharest.C. C. Giurescu, pp. 346, 354–355; Stoicescu, pp. 78–79. See also Mihordea, p. 1090 18th-century sources inform that the Paharnic of Wallachia also collected the wine tax known as cămănărit, which had its origins in feudal aid (plocon).Al. Constantinescu, "Ploconul", in Studii și Materiale de Istorie Medie, Vol. VI, 1973, p. 220. See also Mihordea, p. 1090
Early feudal revolts
The Paharnici were assisted by their own private army, the Păhărnicei ("little Paharnici", singular Păhărnicel). At least originally, these were junior members of the aristocracy: the first known Moldavian Păhărnicel, mentioned as such in December 1437, was a Pan Ureche. He had earlier been Iliaș I's Paharnic, and went on to become his Vornic in 1438.Stoicescu, p. 78 At some point in or after 1479, Stephen the Great rewarded another Păhărnicel, Cârstea, with the deeds to Coșești village.Cătălina Chelcu, Marius Chelcu, "«...din uricul pe care strămoșii lor l-au avut de la bătrânul Ștefan voievod». Întregiri documentare", in Petronel Zahariuc, Silviu Văcaru (eds.), Ștefan cel Mare la cinci secole de la moartea sa, p. 150. Iași: Editura Alfa, 2003. Also in Moldavia, Paharnici were the only ones mandated to pass judgment in cases involving their retinue.Aramă & Jecev, p. 2 Other records show that they (assisted by the relevant Pârcălabi) passed judgment in all cases directly involving wine, either at Cotnari or Hârlău.Aramă & Jecev, p. 3 The Paharnici were nevertheless entirely subject to the Prince's expedient justice, as already shown in the 1480s, when Stephen the Great ordered the execution of his Paharnic Negrilă, for reasons unrecorded.Panaitescu, p. 150
During the Wallachian 15th century, the titles of Paharnic and Ban were closely associated with a family known as Craiovești. Its founder, Barbu I, emerged ca. 1431 as Paharnic of Alexander I Aldea, sitting on the Boyar Council, but was probably chased out of the country by Vlad II Dracul.Oprea, pp. 133–136 This period highlighted the civil war between the houses of Dănești, to whom the Craiovești were loyal, and the family of Vlad II, or Drăculești. A differentiation of boyar offices first occurred in Wallachia under Dănești rulers. Vladislav II (1447–1456) created the Craiovești family as his Vlastelini, presumably meaning "strong" or "immovable boyars".Donat, pp. 178–179 That category included the Paharnic alongside the Ban, Vornic, Logothete and other lesser dignities. Most of these functions (20/34) went to boyars who were also family with the Prince, descending from the earlier House of Basarab.Donat, p. 179