Dimitrie Cantemir

Dimitrie Cantemir
Portrait of Dimitrie Cantemir from the first edition of Descriptio Moldaviae (1716)
Native name	Dimitrie Cantemir
Born	(1673-10-26)October 26, 1673 Silișteni (now Dimitrie Cantemir), Vaslui County
Died	August 21, 1723(1723-08-21) (aged 49) Dmitrovsk, Oryol Oblast
Resting place	Three Holy Hierarchs Church, Iași 47°9′35″N 27°35′5″E / 47.15972°N 27.58472°E / 47.15972; 27.58472
Nationality	Romanian
Occupation	Encyclopedist, ethnographer, geographer, philosopher, historian, linguist, musicologist, composer
Notable work	Divanul sau gâlceava înțeleptului cu lumea, Descriptio Moldaviae
Title	Prince of Moldavia
Term	March–April 1693 1710–1711
Predecessor	Constantin Cantemir Nicolae Mavrocordat
Successor	Constantin Duca Lupu Costachi
Spouse(s)	Casandra Cantacuzino (m. 1699) Anastasia Trubetskaia
Children	Matei Constantin Șerban Maria Antioh Smaragda
Parent(s)	Constantin Cantemir Ana Cantemir (née Bantaș)

Dimitrie or Demetrius Cantemir (Romanian pronunciation: [diˈmitri.e kanteˈmir]; 1673–1723), also known by other spellings, was a Moldavian soldier, statesman, and man of letters. He was twice voivode of Moldavia (March–April 1693 and 1710–1711). During his second term, he allied his state with Russia in their war against Moldavia's Ottoman overlords; Russia's defeat forced Cantemir's family into exile and the replacement of the native voivodes by the Greek phanariots. Cantemir was also a prolific writer, variously a philosopher, historian, composer, musicologist, linguist, ethnographer, and geographer. His son Antioch, Russia's ambassador to Great Britain and France and a friend of Montesquieu and Voltaire, would go on to be known as "the father of Russian poetry".

Dimitrie is the Romanian form of the name Latinized as Demetrius and, less often, anglicized as Demeter. The Russian form of his name was Dmitri Konstantinovich Kantemir (Дми́трий Константи́нович Кантеми́р). He is also known as Dimitri Kantemiroğlu in Turkish contexts, Dymitr Kantemir in Polish, and Dēmētrios Kantimērēs (Δημήτριος Καντιμήρης) in Greek.