Octave George Lecca

Baron Octave George Lecca
Born	1881
Died	1969
Residence	12 Avenue des Eperons d’Or, Brussels
Occupation	historian literary
Society Membership membership ordinary fellow left 1933 last listed elected_AI 1927.06.28 societies Societe Royale Belge d'Anthropologie

Notes

House Notes

1927.05.24 proposed by A. Rutot, seconded by E.N. Fallaize, H.J.E. Peake

Notes From Elsewhere

Octav George Lecca (born 1881 , d. 1969,? ) Was a Romanian historian and writer , nephew of Constantin Lecca . Octav George Lecca was a doctor of philosophy and law, a cavalry officer ( World War I ), a magistrate , a conservative politician (close to Alexandru Marghiloman ). He married the English Baroness Vera Blackett. [1]
Octav-George Lecca (1881 - 1969) was the son of cavalry officer George Lecca (1842-1899) and his mother Eliza Habudeanu (the daughter of Nicolae Habudeanu and Alexandra Barbatescu). The real origin of Octav-George Lecca's family was quite modest, coming from Braşov merchant Dumitru Lecca (1780-1838). Octav-George Lecca was the primary cousin of Neagu Djuvara 's grandfather Djuvara Rose. The mother of Trandafir Djuvara, Maria Habudeanu was sister with O.-G.'s mother. Lecca, Eliza Habudeanu.
In 1899, Octav George Lecca published the first Romanian genealogical dictionary called the Boeresti Romanian Families. History and genealogy, which refers to over 200 families in all provinces of the country. In order to compose this first genetic synthesis of the Romanian boyar, Lecca consulted documents in private and public collections, such as those published in the Hurmuzaki collection, the chronicles of Moldavia and Wallachia, as well as historical works elaborated by Nicolae Bălcescu and Alexandru D. Xenopol . A documented critique of this work was published in 1899 by Nicholas Docan . He deals with errors in the genealogies of the boyar families in Moldova ( Filip-Lucian Iorga , op.cit.). Docan notes that: " Undocumented, with no indication of springs, with the cut-up genealogies, we do not know where Lecca's book appears as an uncritical, like a reckless work, which should be the motto of saying: Believe and not scrutinize holy scripture. " [2] The book is deficient due to the lack of good documentation and an accurate knowledge of springs. In 1911, Lecca printed a collection of genealogical spells, titled Genealogy of 100 houses in Wallachia and Moldavia. [3] Although genealogical inaccuracies are still present, this volume almost completely neglects the origins of mythologies, and the sources remain prominent documentary ancestors. However, the bibliography quoted by Lecca is brief and devoid of exact references. However, both works are completely overcome today and should be used with caution. Although Lecca's spokes can no longer be used today, however, for the time of their composition, and given the scarcity of sources, the author's merit should be recognized. [4]

Later, in 1937, in the Historical, Archaeological and Geographical Dictionary of Romania, even though in some of the articles on boyar families there are references to family traditions (for example, in the case of the Balş family, where the tradition of the Balsa family descendants is mentioned Balşici) from Montenegro and, as such, from Provencal seniors of Baux), most genealogical mythologies disappear. The Balş family established its legend of the Balšić dynasty ( Balšić ) dynasty, who reigned in the Zeta region of Albania in the fourteenth-fourteenth centuries. Apart from the great genealogical synthesis, one of Lecca's most important concerns in the field of Romanian family history is the Bessarabian dynasty, in respect of which he adopts the theories of BP Hasdeu related to the Dacian origin of this family. Later, in the Historical, Archaeological and Geographical Dictionary of Romania, O.-G. Lecca will abandon the theory of the Bessarabian Dacian ascension and will mention the possibility that the name of the earthly dynasty is of the Cumanian origin.
Octav-George Lecca also created a fantastic genealogy of his own family, claiming that:

"The old family is Italian; and if we ascended in earlier times, it may descend from the old Roman Patriarchal family, in which we certainly find historical, two members of it: Publius Porcius Lecca, at 192 BC, the Roman pretor, the senator and the author of an important law; and Marcus P. Lecca, a senator, partisan of Catilina's famous conjuration (1st century). The family is in Italy among the nobles, from far away; through the 10th or 11th centuries, any of its members emigrated to the Balkans and then to the Romanian countries after having taken part in the crusades. "
-Octav-George Lecca, the Romanian Boeresti Families. History and Genealogy (Authentic Spirits ) , Ed.Minerva, Bucharest, 1899, p.310
Lecca has found several members of his family in the Byzantine Empire, which he binds to aga Lecca, the boyar of Michael the Brave. Aga Lecca (aga = boyfriend rank, head of Agia, the equivalent of the head of police) considers him to be his direct ancestor, which is, apparently, a genealogical error. Further research has shown that Aga Lecca is, in fact, the collateral ancestor of the Racotta family. It is not known whether O.-G.Lecca really believed in his descendancy in Aga Lecca or whether this genealogical claim was just a strategy meant to facilitate integration among the Oltenian boyar families.

In the article dedicated to the Lecca family in the Historical, Archaeological and Geographical Dictionary of Romania, O.-G.Lecca no longer mentions the Roman origins of the family. The Lecca family, allegedly, remains only "of Corsican origin: the comrades of Cinarca and Lecca in the 12-16 centuries.

Many of the genealogies presented by O.-G. Lecca are inaccurate, not supported by documents, and some statements are totally fanciful. For example, about the origin of the Otetelizanu family, Lecca writes: "It is given as its trunk, from the 13th century, to 1250, when Count Otto de Lisch lived in Hungary. This senior descendant in the country, the manor town is called" Oteteliş " , after which the name of the family derives "(Octav-George Lecca, Romanian Boereşti Families ... op.cit.). An equally unlikely story is reported in the article dedicated to the Obeden family: "The origin of this family in Craiova seems to be Italian." In the golden book of the Knights of Malta, Obedino, the Crusaders, enrolled in the 13th century, , perpetuated in the Middle Ages, and one of their descendants may have lost their way to Wallachia and settled in the capital of Oltenia under different circumstances, made the family's cradle, the exact time but also the way they settled, it's problematic because of the lack of reliable evidence. "

Despite all the critical assessments, Octav-George Lecca's works remain in the editors' attention, as confirmed by the publication of Lecca's book " Families of Great and Small Bombers in Valahia ", September 2016, at the Paideia Publishing House , Bucharest.

Publications

External Publications

The Lecca family , Bucharest, 1897
The Romanian Boereşti Families. History and Genealogy, Authentic Spirits, Minerva Publishing House , Bucharest, 1899
The first Basarabi. Black Voda and the foundation of Wallachia . Type. "Literary Conversations", Bucharest, 1919
Y and -t-il encore des Bassaraba? Les pretendus et les vrais Bassarabes . Bucarest, 1898
Genealogy of 100 houses in Wallachia and Moldavia , Bucharest, 1911
Historical, archaeological and geographical dictionary of Romania , Publishing House "Universul" SA, Bucharest, 1937