The Diary of a Murderer: General Basta’s Memoirs of Mihai Viteazul

“Historia della Transilvania” was published in Venice in 1638, but today a copy can be found in the Special Collection of the “Dinicu Golescu” County Library in Argeş.

“For unknown reasons, the specimen rarely remained in water for a while. After drying, the body of the book remained slightly rippled, but the high-quality factory paper, a product of the European Middle Ages, and the ink, too of good quality, did not deteriorate, as the book showed no major signs of degradation. It shows the level of printing in Venice in 1638. Maintaining the original connection and at 351 pages, the book is adorned with ornate capital letters at the beginning of each chapter , but also with vignettes and miniatures, which highlight delicacy and craftsmanship. Venetian printers ”, explains Gabriela Tomescu, head of the Special Collections section of the Arges library.

This book is, in fact, the chronicle of the murder of Miguel el Valiente. On September 18, 1600, at the Battle of Mirăslău, the Romanian voivode was defeated by General Basta. After a series of defeats of the voivode in battle with the Polish army, Mihai Viteazul was forced to leave Vienna in January 1601. In the spring of that year, he appealed to the Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolph II, who mediated the dispute. with General Basta.

Gabriela Tomescu, Head of the Special Collections section of the Argeş County Library PHOTO: personal archive

After the intervention and reconciliation of the emperor, the two were given the mission to subdue Transylvania, where Sigismund Báthory had returned to power. On August 13, 1601, the Battle of Gurus-lău (Gorăslău) took place, where the united forces of Mihai Viteazul and Basta defeated Bathory. However, on August 19, by order of Basta, Mihai Viteazul was assassinated in Câmpia Turzii.

After the assassination of the ruler and the defeat of Bathory, Basta became the military commander of Transylvania, but his ruthlessness attracted general discontent. In 1604, Basta called Hungarian nobles to Cluj, on which occasion he sentenced some to be hanged. At the same time, Rudolf II decided to call him to his court and thus Transylvania finally got rid of Basta.

Retired from his military career, Giorgio Basta wrote several military treatises, but also memoirs, in handwritten form. After his death, in Prague, in 1607, the manuscript was taken, written and printed by the Italian gentleman Ciro Spontoni, secretary and housekeeper of the general, under the title “Historia della Transilvania”.

The story of the head of Mihai Viteazul

The memoirs describe the episode about the fate of Mihai Viteazul’s head from the perspective of the ruler’s rivals and denying him his courage and greatness at the time. From Spontoni’s accounts we learn that, after the murder of the voivode, his devoted armies began to murmur against Basta, who managed to reassure them: “After this there was a council, where the commanders in chief of both armies participated, where he settled and Enough’s approval of the decision to send Prince Michael’s head to Wallachia, considering that if he had not sent him, his army that he kept there would not have thought he was dead, and the boyars would have to choose another knight. So his head was embalmed and entrusted to Prince Michael’s knight, who urged him to take it to Wallachia. He left and took a letter from Basta to the barons and knights of Wallachia. “

The historian Gheorghe Anghel presents, in the work “Historical sources of the second half of the seventeenth century that attest that the body of the voivode was reburied in its Cathedral of Alba Iulia”, several theories about the identity of the head of the voivode in Wallachia. Thus, Nicolae Iorga, referring to an Italian source that was not confirmed later, wrote in 1935 that after the murder of the voivode “the wife of one of Mihai Viteazul’s captains was able to steal the beautiful head to sneak into the Dealu Monastery.” Subsequently, he abandoned this thesis, accepting, like Constantin C. Giurescu, the variant by which he points to the commissioner Radu Florescu as the one who took the head of Mihai Viteazul and took it to Wallachia, entrusting it to be buried. to Radu Buzescu.

According to Gheorghe Anghel, the Serbian chronicler Gheorghe Brancovici made a similar account: “The hidden head was secretly taken by a certain captain named Izbaşa at the Târgovişte Monastery, which is located on a high hill, called Deal Monastery and was buried there” .

The mysterious knight who took an oath

From the “Historia della Transilvania” it seems that some commanders of the Romanian army and especially one of the “knights of the prince” insistently demanded Mihai’s head, without mentioning his name. Look for him among the 30 faithful boyars who accompanied the voivode to Vienna and Prague, says historian Anghel. We owe the knowledge of the name of the knight who took the head of Mihai Viteazul and brought it to the Dealu Monastery to the historian C. Razachevici, and the character he had been looking for for so long was the boyar Turturea Paharnicul. In one of the versions

In the “Chronicle of Cantacuzin”, from the 18th century, an anonymous person added at the end of the “History of Mihai Vodă” a story about a boyar who was with him: to seek each other to the death. And yes, he will catch Mihai Vodă to die in another country, not to leave Mihai Vodă’s bones, but to take them to Wallachia and bury them. That is why if Turturea Paharnicul saw Mihai Vodă cut, they had to swear a lot to take Mihai Vodă’s bones. But they couldn’t, they just took his head and took him to Wallachia and buried him in the Den Deal monastery in Târgovişte ”.

This story has long been considered a mere legend, but it has been documented, as Gheorghe Anghel says. It is a document issued by Radu Mihnea, the voivode of Wallachia, on December 7, 1612, which reinforces Turturea Paharnicul, the village of Găuriciu, bought by Mihai Viteazul and delivered to him: “For the many good and faithful services with those who served a lot without ceasing, with a lot of work, and even in other foreign lands to the German Country. And then the late Mihai Voievod died there of perishing. In that servant of his reign, said above, Turturea Paharnic stole his head and they brought him to the country, to serve him and they buried him with great honor as lord ”. Therefore, the historian explains, Turturea Paharnicul was the “prince’s knight” in Spontoni’s stories, demanding the head of the ruler from General Basta.

“If we stole it, as the chronicles and the document issued by Radu Mihnea report, or we obtained it with the consent of Basta, as Spontoni claims, we still cannot know. What can be found from the cited sources is that in those days of August 1601 there were several boyars close to the Romanian lord, among the 30 who accompanied him to Vienna and Prague. Among them stand out the figures of Ban Mihalcea and Paharnicul Turturea ”, says Gabriela Tomescu.

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