Origins Born a
Wallachian subject, Bonifaciu Florescu descended from the
boyar nobility: the Bălcescus recognized him as a family member; the Florescus, however, refused to accept that Nicolae Bălcescu was the father. His father's family, of lesser rank and prestige, had been founded by Father Necula, a
Wallachian Orthodox parson, who purchased the
Bălcești estate in 1766. Unusually rich for his social position, he bought for his sons small boyar offices. Despite taking the same name, Nicolae and his two brothers descended from the clan through their mother Zinca; she married
Pitar Barbu sin Petre Căpitanul—a gentleman farmer of
Prahova, who also owned townhouses in
Bucharest. Barbu's financial troubles and quick death contributed to the family's marginalization. The poet's mother, Alexandrina "Luxița" Florescu, claimed direct descent from
Wallachian Prince Michael the Brave, and was the daughter of
Logothete Iordache Florescu, as well as aunt of
Ioan Emanoil Florescu, the
Wallachian militia chief. The family also had
Greek and
Albanian ancestors. Iordache, a
Ghica on his mother's side, ran in the
1842 election for the Wallachian throne, under the
Regulamentul Organic regime; his wife, Anica, was a
Soutzos. At age 17, Luxița was married off to a
Russian Pole, but divorced him in 1836, alleging that he was hypersexual; She may have then met Bălcescu at the Florescu home in Șerban-Vodă, Bucharest, which functioned as a club for progressive intellectuals; however, Bonifaciu was most likely conceived while the couple reunited in Paris. Reportedly, Bălcescu, ill with
tuberculosis and absorbed by his conspiratorial work, informed Luxița that they could never be married, which she accepted. Youth from both families were deeply involved in the
Wallachian revolution of 1848, which occurred some weeks after Bonifaciu's birth. Luxița was shielded by her brothers in the
Kingdom of Hungary, without informing Nicolae of her whereabouts or her pregnancy, until after she delivered. Bonifaciu was thus born in
Pest; his date of birth is variously given as May 14, May 17, or May 27. In July, he was baptized into Orthodoxy at a Pest chapel shared by the
Greek and
Romanian Orthodox churches. The baptismal record omits mention of his father's family name, but indicates his godfather as
Inochentie Chițulescu (future
Bishop of Buzău). By July, Bălcescu had been appointed foreign minister of revolutionary Wallachia, but then a reshuffle pushed him into the background. Eventually, the
Russian and
Ottoman empires intervened militarily, and the revolutionaries were pushed into exile or imprisoned. Brothers Nicolae and Costache Bălcescu escaped to Paris, passing through
insurgent Hungary; the third Bălcescu brother, Barbu, was taken to Istanbul as a hostage. Three of Luxița's brothers—Iancu, Dumitrache, and Costache Florescu—participated in the events, and played a part in the shootout with the loyalist Colonel
Grigore Lăcusteanu, whom they eventually arrested. Unusually, Costache Florescu's daughter married Lăcusteanu's brother Iancu while the colonel was still in captivity. All three brothers were repressed during the foreign intervention: Iancu Florescu was arrested by the Russians and spent some eight years in
Siberia, returning after the
Crimean War removed Wallachia from the Russian sphere of influence; Costache and Dumitrache were taken into Ottoman custody, returning after nine years of exile in
Bursa. Dumitrache is best known for setting to music the poetry of
Vasile Alecsandri. With material support from Chițulescu, Luxița and her son returned to Wallachia in 1850. Although she only formally adopted Bonifaciu in 1858, to solidify his claim to the Florescu estate, he grew up knowing that the exiled Bălcescu was his father. Prevented from returning home (with a brief exception in August 1852, when he only met Zinca at
Turnu Măgurele), Nicolae died in the
Two Siciles (November 1852). His grave is presumed lost.
French studies and 1873 return Luxița and Bonifaciu were also largely absent from Wallachia as the country merged with
Moldavia into the
United Principalities (the basis for modern Romania). Bonifaciu attended
Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris, living with his mother on
Rue Saint-Jacques, and possibly obtaining a scholarship from the Romanian government. He grew up speaking French at home, and only later perfected his Romanian, which he always spoke with an accent and a
guttural R. His impromptu versions of
Romanian orthography reflected
phonemic spelling with unusual consistency for his day, and they unwittingly recorded his own difficulties in pronouncing Romanian words. This trait was ridiculed by philologist Hanes Suchianu as the very "apex of phoneticism". He would also confuse working-class Romanians by
code-switching between Romanian and French. In one instance, he asked a Bucharest
coachman to drive him
à la maison (French for "where I live"), only to discover that he was being taken instead to
Malmaison prison. Familiarized with Bălcescu's works by age 17, Bonifaciu declared his father to have been a "genius", "Romania's only prose writer". He followed Nicolae's radical orientation, declaring the
French Revolution as the "triumph of justice, liberty and equality, and a great step toward fraternity"; he also took up the cause of
Pan-Europeanism, arguing for "
one great European republic, as in America." Reading up on the events at home, Florescu was indignant about the 1866 coup against
Domnitor Alexandru Ioan Cuza. In his view, Cuza, albeit ruling with an "authoritarian hand", was preferable to the foreign-born replacement
Carol of Hohenzollern. Passionate about literature, Florescu and his colleague
Frédéric Damé set up their own newspaper, ''L'Avenir'' ("The Future"), which only put out a few issues. Florescu was described by teachers and relatives as a charming but inattentive student, and was once moved to a remedial class, ultimately obtaining his
baccalauréat in August 1868. From mid 1873, he returned with his mother to Bucharest, where she became the curator of a
retirement home maintained by the
Sisters of Charity. Her son debuted in the Romanian press with an overview of history as reflected in
Romanian folklore; it was hosted in
Românul, published by
C. A. Rosetti (July–August 1873). On October 3, Florescu married Rose-Henriette Le Roho d'Alcobia (born 1849), the orphaned scion of an Anglo-French-Portuguese family. According to one account, they did not have any children of their own, but later adopted a boy named Ion. Contrarily, literary historian
George Călinescu suggests that Ion was the couple's natural son, "a direct descendant of Nicolae Bălcescu". On October 5, following an examination performed by historian
Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu, Florescu had obtained a "provisional" professorate at the department of world literature within the literature faculty of
Iași University. He thus replaced
Nicolae Ionescu, who preferred to keep his seat in the
Assembly of Deputies. Researcher George Porta suggests that Florescu never actually took hold of his chair, being snubbed by two successive
Education Ministers:
Christian Tell and
Vasile Boerescu. However, his introductory lesson was published in Hasdeu's newspaper,
Columna lui Traian, which also hosted Florescu's homage to the retiring poet
Grigore Alexandrescu. During his time in
Iași, Florescu, supported by physician
Anastasie Fătu, also founded and operated an
adult high school.
Clash with Junimea In April 1874, a conservative coalition that included
Junimea society of
Iași formed the national government, with
Lascăr Catargiu as
Prime Minister. The cabinet had Bonifaciu's cousin,
Ioan Emanoil Florescu, for a
Defense Minister—described by critics as authoritarian in his handling of political opposition. Bonifaciu himself was dismissed immediately by the new Education Minister,
Junimist ideologue
Titu Maiorescu, who "could not stand him." Declaring himself dissatisfied with the
assonance of
Junimist poetry, Florescu demanded a more thorough
literary consonance. As noted later by the critic
Perpessicius, this request was "bizarre" and "drunk on
prosody", although Florescu had "his indisputable merits." Perpessicius also proposes that it formed part of a press campaign "in bad taste", "as vociferous as it was impotent", seeking to undermine
Junimeas steady rise, with Florescu "in so very many ways, from the pestering to the inept, ready to censor Eminescu's budding oeuvre." Florescu's review was immediately challenged by
Nicolae Scurtescu, who sent
Românul a letter in which he expressed solidarity with Eminescu, and asked to be struck out from Florescu's list of "good poets", suggesting that Florescu had no qualification to compile such lists. Eminescu would also respond later in 1876 with the
libel Epistolă deschisă homunculului Bonifaciu ("An Open Letter to Bonifaciu the
Homunculus"). Its reference to a mysterious newspaper,
Pruncul ("The Babe"), was later identified as a jibe at
Românul, whose predecessor was an 1848 sheet,
Pruncul Român ("The Romanian Infant"). The "letter", written in tones of "rising anger", reads:
, the liberal magazine, depicting Titu Maiorescu and the "new direction" at Junimea (November 1875). The barrel ridden by Maiorescu is marked Instrucțiunea publică'' ("Public Instruction"), in reference to his job as
Education Minister Călinescu finds the poem to be a "vigorous satire", its reference to "B. Florescu's 'oakum' brain [...] describing quite well a fibrous arrhythmic state". As noted by Perpessicius, Florescu, unlike Rosetti, was never mentioned in the more definitive satire,
Scrisoarea III. This, he suggests, may be a sign of his relative insignificance among Eminescu's enemies.
"Free" course and 1875 incidents Overall, Potra notes, Florescu was largely unemployed, and pushed to make his living by giving private lessons in French—his students included the two daughters of physician
Constantin Istrati and the future dramatist
Ioan Bacalbașa. "Turned proletarian", Although Florescu expressed his frustration over lacking oratorical skills, the lectures made him very popular with Bucharesters. Florescu's radicalism also brought him into contact with
Hristo Botev, instigator of the
Bulgarian National Revival, whom Florescu met in Bucharest and perhaps acquainted with the works of Bălcescu. Some controversy did occur locally when Florescu expressed his democratic beliefs in his university lectures, describing boyardom as a bane and congratulating his own family for giving up on privilege. His early work as a polemicist includes two volumes of
Etiam contra omnes ("Even against All"), published alongside the brochure
Una suta de adevĕrurĭ ("A Hundred Truths"). The latter comprised
aphorisms tinged by anti-
Junimism, originally appearing in the daily
Telegraphul de Bucurescĭ, where he also published essays discussing
Étienne de La Boétie's
Discourse on Voluntary Servitude. He kept a grudge against Maiorescu, and, in 1875 letters for
Apărătorul Legeĭ newspaper, accused others, notably
Cezar Bolliac, of behaving "like Maiorescu". Despite this, in 1877 Florescu was theater chronicler at the
Junimea daily,
România Liberă. His journalism was by then prolific, with articles also taken up in
Columna lui Traian and
Românul, and also in liberal papers such as
Albine și Viespi,
Alegătorul, and
Revista Contimporană. Some were encyclopedic overviews, with topics such as
Pre-Columbian Mexico (1875) and the
settlement of Iceland (1877); others were the first in a series of
Studiĭ literare ("Studies in Literature") where he carried on with critiques of prosody. Another contribution was as a translator, where he made local literary history with
Edgar Allan Poe's "
Tell-Tale Heart" in 1875, followed in 1876 by "
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar". Also in 1875, Florescu involved himself in the dispute between Romania and
Austria-Hungary, concerning the
Duchy of Bukovina—Romanian-inhabited, but taken by the
Austrian Empire following the
rearrangement of 1775. His work, published as a brochure co-authored by
Vasile Maniu, accused the Austrians of double-dealing and fraud perpetrated against Moldavia and the Ottomans. Such ideas endeared him to the
Romanian nationalists in
Transylvania, which was also under Austro-Hungarian rule. In that region, Florescu's work was displayed as an important contribution in
Orientul Latin, the nationalist,
Pan-Latinist, anti-
Junimist review of
Ioan Alexandru Lapedatu. Florescu also involved himself in the dispute over
Jewish emancipation: with his school friend Damé, he translated into French Hasdeu's
Histoire de la tolérance religieuse en Roumanie ("History of Religious Tolerance in Romania"). In April 1875, with help from liberal agitators, Florescu seized the opportunity to lecture on Bukovina at the
Romanian Atheneum. The Catargiu government forbade it and threatened him with arrest, though he eventually found an open venue at Suhr Circus, between
Calea Victoriei and
Lipscani. Despite his attested incompetence in public speaking, this event attracted a crowd comprising, in some reports, as many as 6,000 nationalists. Shortly after the Suhr Circus incident, Romanian liberal groups formed the
National Liberal Party, which became focused on regaining power. For three weeks in April 1876, Florescu's cousin was the conservative Prime Minister of a mainly soldiers' cabinet. Outmaneuvered by the opposition, it fell and was replaced with a National Liberal government, headed by
Manolache Costache Epureanu—himself replaced after the
June election with
Ion Brătianu, supported by the party's radical, or "Red", majority.
Literatorul '' of June 1, 1880, featuring Floescu's essay on the
Greek chorus and translations from
Henri Murger, alongside poetry by Macedonski,
Th. M. Stoenescu, and
Carol Scrob During this episode of liberal triumph an intrigue, Florescu befriended the liberal poet
Alexandru Macedonski, who sympathized with him in his conflict with Maiorescu. Macedonski wrote a poem denouncing Maiorescu's "scholarly tribe" and Florescu's 1874 sacking. Between March and June, Florescu published his own newspaper, the republican and anti-conservative
Stindardul ("The Flag"), alongside Macedonski and dramatist
Pantazi Ghica; however, Macedonski soon quit the enterprise. As a "Red", Florescu tried but failed to present himself as a candidate in
Ilfov County: in primaries, his colleagues preferred
Eugeniu Stătescu over him; in June 1876, he withdrew from
Stindardul, declaring himself exhausted by the elections and by his regular work, the "five hours of daily tutoring". As noted by memoirist
Constantin Bacalbașa, both Florescu and Macedonski had political ambitions and were very popular in liberal circles, but they were also "transient heroes, the sort that go down with their ephemeral wave." In July 1876, minister
Gheorghe Chițu ruled Florescu's 1873 appointment valid, but only assigned him to a history-and-French teacher's position at
Saint Sava High School. According to the satirical gazette
Ghimpele, Florescu, "erstwhile a communist, yesterday a liberal", taught his pupils extravagant and inaccurate lessons in history. It also alleged that he skipped classes in order to promote the magazine
Nuvelistul, on which he also worked as a writer. In 1877–1878, the
Romanian War of Independence (or more specifically, Romania's contribution to the
Russo-Turkish War) opened the way for the country's evolution into a
Kingdom of Romania (1880). Although independence occurred under a National Liberal mandate, Bonifaciu's cousin is widely credited with having helped modernize the
Romanian Land Forces and getting them battle-ready. Bonifaciu also contributed as a writer and humanitarian. In August 1877, he covered the troops' inspection for the newspaper
Războiul, announcing that their bravery "defied death itself". His poetry collection
Quelques vers specified that it collected money
au profit des blessés ("to help the wounded"). Meanwhile, Florescu saw himself as fit to occupy the vacated French-language chair at Bucharest University. However, this was converted into a
Romance studies chair by government order, then assigned to Gian Luigi Frollo—the enduring perception was that Brătianu was clamping down on French influence, for fear of upsetting
Germany. Florescu tried but failed to obtain a professorship in psychology and aesthetics at Bucharest University, and narrowly lost the race for the Romance chair. From January 1880, with Macedonski and
Th. M. Stoenescu, Florescu edited a cultural review,
Literatorul, where he published notes on the
Franco-Prussian War and his new
prose poetry, the "watercolors" and "sanguines". The embryo of a
local Symbolist movement,
Literatorul soon became noted for its prolonged polemic with Eminescu, which was carried by both Macedonski and Florescu. The latter also censured Macedonski's estranged friend,
Duiliu Zamfirescu, who defected to
Junimea. When he later alleged that this was for material gain, Zamfirescu simply dismissed him as a
zevzec ("nitwit"). Florescu himself eventually withdrew from the enterprise after a mysterious quarrel with Macedonski, who then accused him, also in
Literatorul, of having squandered public money with his teaching. However, according to scholar
Șerban Cioculescu, Florescu and Stonescu, together with poet-actor
Mircea Demetriade—all three "faint and subdued figures"—, remained the last Macedonski loyalists as the latter fell into disgrace. Similarly, critic
Adrian Marino notes that, while Macedonski's program was "constructive, evolved and receptive of the most fecund modern orientations", its main adherents, Florescu included, were "insignificant [and] obscure". A Macedonskian disciple,
Alexandru Obedenaru, reports that the two senior writers were still sitting at the same table in
Terasa Otetelișanu during late 1883, when they were both assaulted by some of Eminescu's followers. Florescu was pummeled by the intruders (and also sprayed with
carbonated water by Costache Câmpineanu, who was aiming a
soda siphon at them, and missed). Florescu's own monthly,
Portofoliul Român ("The Romanian Portfolio"), appeared between March 1881 and June 1882, as well as his various historical essays—much praised by the Romanophile Frenchman
Abdolonyme Ubicini. In a note published therein, he revealed that
Portofoliul only existed because of
Petru Grădișteanu, whose recent law on
debt relief had spared Florescu from his creditors. His other contributions included a rhyming obituary to painter
Ion Andreescu, taken up in
Binele Public newspaper and then carved on Andreescu's tombstone.
Bohemian In 1884, the Florescus moved out of Pasajul Roman and to a small house on Calea Victoriei, with Bonifaciu founding a literary
serial,
Biblioteca Omuluĭ de Gust ("The Library of Tasteful Men"), where he issued the collected poems of
Alexandru Depărățeanu. The year also witnessed a release of his collected historical essays, as
Memento de istorie universală sau Istoria în tablourĭ ("World History Memento or, History in Scenes"); his translation of Musset's play "Never Swear That You Be Not Forsworn"; and his critical edition of
Count Buffon's
Discours sur le style. In August of the following year,
Românul had a row with the National Liberal Party, causing Florescu to side with the former. The core issue was again nationalism: Prime Minister Brătianu gave in to Austro-Hungarian demands, and expelled a group of Transylvanians, including
Nicolae Ciurcu, publisher of ''
L'Indépendance Roumaine. When Românul
protested and was raided by police, Florescu showed up to express solidarity, one of several National Liberals to do so—the others were Grădișteanu, Dimitrie Gianni, and George D. Pallade. In 1886, his essay on the 1848 revolution was taken up by the same L'Indépendance Roumaine''. or even: "the most absentminded man the world has ever known." Potra notes that Florescu was memorable as a Bucharest "type", "with his quite disheveled appearance, his paddling, slow and measured stride, and above all with his way of life". Reportedly, he always wore just one
galosh, or sometimes one of his wife's boots, and his suits were covered in ink blots. Obedenaru describes him as the Romanian answer to an "
Assyrian mage", who looked like he had never seen a barber, and whose "black frock was always stuffed with books and manuscripts." An unnamed Saint Sava alumnus recalled in 1926: "Just about every day, he would walk the streets reading from a newspaper or a book, and, since he was shortsighted, he kept [it] very close to his eyes, and so he bumped into streetlights or street corners, after which he would present his excuses."
Carol, by then
King of Romania, allegedly kept informed about Florescu's lifestyle, and called him out as Romania's
Rumpelkammer ("junkroom"). Florescu was a heavy drinker and smoker, and, according to another one-time student,
Constantin Kirițescu, only seemed at ease in coffeehouses and bars; he despised Saint Sava and, with time, only showed up for that work because it paid a salary. A rumor later recorded by poet
Tudor Arghezi has it that he let all his students pass the final exams if they bought one of his books—Florescu himself handed them their copies, after rummaging through a coffer that also included "his and his wife's dirty linen", as well as "Swiss-cheese rind". Among the students who remained loyal to Florescu was the poet
Iuliu Cezar Săvescu, who, in 1886, also became a member of Macedonski's circle. While his picturesque demeanor was laughed at, Florescu's erudition was acclaimed, in particular concerning his passionate Saint Sava lessons about
18th-century French literature, which was regarded as his main field of expertise. The courses were published in several installments, from 1887 to 1893, followed by the book edition of
Studiĭ literare. In April 1888, Macedonski and Florescu took over management of
România Literară review from
D. Teleor; it survived until 1889. Also in 1889, Florescu translated
Catulle Mendès'
Imagerie parisienne, adding his own "Romanian Sanguines", and returned to the University of Bucharest with another "free" course, this time on French literature. By then, he had joined several members of the
Literatorul school who were migrating toward
Revista Nouă, put out by Hasdeu and featuring authors disliked by Macedonski. Interested in
spiritism, from about 1890 Florescu also attended Hasdeu's
séances, alongside
Bishop Ghenadie,
George Ionescu-Gion, and
Ioan S. Nenițescu;
Theodor Speranția acted as
medium. In 1892, he produced a volume of his collected poetry, as
Ritmurĭ și rime ("Rhythms and Rhymes"). Its theoretical notes on prosody relaunched the attack on Eminescu, depicting him and the younger
Alexandru Vlahuță as "enemies of rhythm and rhyme"; of the latter two, he favored rhythm, and translated a fragment from
Victor Hugo in
blank verse, to prove his point. His work of the period also covered selections from other classics and moderns of French literature:
Molière,
Voltaire,
Rodolphe Töpffer,
Alexandre Dumas,
Edgar Quinet,
George Sand,
Henri Murger,
Paul Armand Silvestre,
Théodore de Banville, and
José-Maria de Heredia; more exotically, he also rendered into Romanian works by
Walter Scott and
Fernán Caballero, as well as samples of
Malagasy and
Indian poetry.
1890s irredentism students rallying in support of the
Transylvanian Memorandum, 1892 photograph A while after, Florescu's cousin, a prominent figure in the
Liberal Conservative Party, briefly served as Prime Minister. Reportedly, Bonifaciu had hopes that Ioan Emanoil would reestablish the Bucharest French-language chair and assign him to it, but the relevant minister,
G. Dem. Teodorescu, vetoed any such move. Around that time, Bonifaciu had begun writing a biography of his father, in French; unpublished, it was later preserved by the Bălcescu Memorial Museum. With Demetriade, he became a regular contributor to Săvescu's own literary magazine, launched in 1893 as
Liga Literară. Florescu was also a regular at
Grigore Tocilescu's scientific journal,
Revista pentru Istorie, Arheologie și Filologie. Tocilescu, his cousin thrice removed, allowed him to publish his notes on Bălcescu's complex mediation between the Hungarians and Romanians of Transylvania. His own hard-line stance on the Transylvanian issue, expressed during the
Transylvanian Memorandum incident of 1892, alienated him further from both dominant parties. By November 1893, he was editing a newspaper called
Irredenta Română ("The Romanian Irredenta"), his contribution there derided by the National Liberal
Dimitrie Sturdza. Sturdza argued that Florescu's goal of annexing Transylvania to the Romanian kingdom was unrealistic; he also declared that such radicalism was only serving Romania's enemies, with Florescu and his colleagues "either sold out or very incompetent and stupid." Joining the nonpartisan
Cultural League for the Unity of All Romanians, Florescu was a direct contributor to its irredentist propaganda, working alongside the Italian sympathizer
Roberto Fava. He also helped the young nationalist liberal,
Take Ionescu, polishing his letters of protest against Austria-Hungary, written in French. As Ionescu recalled decades later: "Bonifaciu was a veritable savant, but had endured the unrepentant bohemian. He only worked when we pressed him to, with us looking over his shoulder." During this stage of his life, Florescu became close friends with Georges Bibesco, French-speaking son of
Prince Gheorghe Bibescu (whom his father and uncles had deposed in 1848). He translated Bibesco's defensive biography of his father, which ran at over 1200 pages in the printed edition of 1893–1894. As he noted in a dedication to Bibesco, he considered him a friend through their shared
Francophilia, but nonetheless a political adversary. Bibesco then enlisted Florescu's services in clearing Prince Gheorghe of the allegations that he intended to concede all of Wallachia's mining industry to Russian venture capitalists. Florescu also worked with Theodor Assan and A. Dobrovici on a history of the United Principalities, published as
Unirea Română ("The Romanian Unification"), and translated Bibesco's tract on the history of Wallachia and Moldavia under
Regulamentul Organic. According to historian Lucian Nastasă, his "permanent failure" to obtain academic credentials had an explanation "as plain as they get: his attitude was openly and actively anti-
Junimist." Reflecting back on the period in 1939, Iorga himself noted: "Shame that in this literary world of ours, guided by groups and interests, that poor man never heard a good word for that consuming labor of his and for his true talent, inherited from his father."
Final activities Florescu gathered his
Literatorul pieces as
Aquarele și poeziĭ în proză ("Watercolors and Prose Poems"), with contributions by Demetriade and a C. Drăgulinescu, and with samples from Murger. His work for 1894 additionally included the first volume of a French–Romanian dictionary (comprising 6 volumes in all), followed in 1895 by an overview of
French lyrical poetry "between the 10th and 20th centuries". In his final years, Florescu made one more attempt at founding a review—the 1894 weekly
Dacia Viitoare ("Future
Dacia")—and contributed an overview of the
Horea–Cloșca rebellion to the Symbolist journal
Revista Orientală. Together with I. S. Spartali, he translated one of
Gustave Flaubert's lesser known works,
Le Candidat, which was published by
România Literară in 1897. According to Arghezi, Florescu was mainly focused on setting up his own printing press, and bought himself samples of
movable type; beset by financial troubles, he would then sell his letters by the pound, asking: "'Would anyone like to buy the letter A or the letter P?' They all laughed at him." His late experiments in
wisdom poetry appeared in the Transylvanian
Vatra. For a while director of a new magazine,
Țara Literară ("The Literary Country"), Livescu saw him as one of the great critics in the field, equal to Ionescu-Gion and
Grigore Ventura. In 1896, his and Demetriade's informal literary circle at Fialcovsky was joined by the anarchist and art promoter
Alexandru Bogdan-Pitești. By then, Florescu had published over 200 books, comprising his own works alongside translations, Luxița Florescu died in October of that year, aged 83, and Bonifaciu only two months later, on December 18. Demetriade unexpectedly dropped by on a visit just after his friend's death, recalling: "he had woken up more joyful than ever. Always one to enjoy a pun, he asked his wife, whose name was Rose, to hand him a rose that had been left in some glass. Just after Madam Florescu handed him that flower, the soul of this man, always a poet, went out with the perfume of the rose." A brief obituary in
Literatorul credited him as someone "illustrious but unhappy", who "stood up to the intellectual degeneracy into which our country was continuously pushed." He was buried in the family crypt at
Țigănești Monastery, next to his mother, with a funeral ceremony attended by the Bucharest aristocracy and the Saint Sava students. The grave has since been lost during extensive repair work on the monastery grounds. ==Literary work==