# Why did a shepherd walk to Rome? *Cârțișoara–Rome, 1849 – 1911* In 1867 a shepherd boy learned to read from another shepherd; for thirty years he carried Romanian books over the Făgăraș. In January 1896 he set off on foot for Rome – 43 days and 1,916 km of representative road – to sleep at Trajan's Column. Marius Comper · 18 September 2026 ## From Cârțișoara to Rome, by two roads In 1867 a shepherd boy took his forty sheep over the mountains and learned to read; for thirty years he carried books back the other way. In January 1896 he set off on foot for Rome, and in October 1899 he laid the Orientalists' wreath at Trajan's Column. Below, the shepherd in four chapters – the apprenticeship, the book sack, Rome and what remained. The roads on the map are representative, the dates are the sources' own. ## I. Apprenticeship *1849 – 1882 · 1849–1882, the making* - Born: 24 January 1849, Cârțișoara - Letters: 23 May 1867, with Ion Cotigă - Soldier: 1877 volunteer; discharged 8 May 1881 Gheorghe Cârțan was born in 1849 at Cârțișoara, in the Făgăraș country, into a family of shepherds; poverty kept him out of school, and at eleven he went up the mountain with the sheep. In 1864, still a boy, he crossed the imperial border illegally with his flock, to see the land where his free Romanian brothers lived. On 23 May 1867 he took his forty inherited sheep and crossed into Romania with Ion Cotigă, a Brașov intellectual turned shepherd by choice. Cotigă taught him some history and philosophy, then reading and writing – Plato and Socrates, Livy and Herodotus, and Trajan and Decebal, the forefathers of the Romanian people. Armies interrupted the lessons: in 1877 the Romanian Army took his 1,200 sheep and he volunteered for the Independence War without ever reaching the battlefield; then the imperial army drafted him to the 31st Infantry at Zemun and Bosnia-Herzegovina, where he learned German. Discharged on 8 May 1881, he returned to Transylvania in the spring of 1882 with 400 sheep – and lost them all to fines. > He learned to read while he walked the sheep out to pasture. > – Radio România Cultural, 7 August 2020 **Meanwhile** Across the mountains, Romania won its independence in the war of 1877–1878 – the war he volunteered for. ## II. The book sack *1882 – 1906 · 1882–1906, the smuggling* - Roads: Făgăraș passes, over 30 years - Seized: 4,000 volumes on 15 December 1905; 70,000 in all - Trial: indictment 893 of 25 March 1906 Back in Transylvania with no flock left, Cârțan made the book his trade: for over thirty years he carried Romanian books from the Old Kingdom over the mountains in his traista, on paths only he knew, for pupils, priests, teachers and peasants. Tradition speaks of more than 250,000 copies weighing over 20 tonnes; the English histories say 200,000. The empire answered with searches, confiscations and arrests: any writing that mentioned Romanian history was banned, and in May 1894 he was arrested and beaten at Cluj for attending the Memorandists' trial – a mere shepherd could not be there on his own initiative, the gendarmes reasoned. The documented floor stands: on 15 December 1905 the gendarmes seized 4,000 volumes in five languages, bringing the confiscated total to 70,000; the indictment of 25 March 1906 recommended heavy prison years, but the trial was stopped and the books – after a year-long trial of their own – were burned. > He is said to have carried, for over 30 years, over the mountains to Ardeal, more than 250,000 copies of books written in Romanian, weighing over 20 tonnes. > – Radio România Cultural, 7 August 2020 **Meanwhile** At Cluj, the Memorandum trial of May 1894 put the whole national movement in the dock. ## III. Rome *1896 · 1896, the walk* - Road: 1,916 km of representative road - Days: 20 days to Vienna, 23 days to Rome: 43 - Arrival: 15 February 1896, at the Column In January 1896, with professor Urechia's moral and financial support and letters of recommendation, he set off on foot for Rome, carrying in his traista a fistful of home soil and wheat grains for the Roman forefathers. His road ran through Timișoara, Szeged, Budapest, Vienna, Salzburg, Innsbruck and Genoa – 1,916 km on the representative line drawn here. He walked 20 days to Vienna and 23 more to Rome: 43 days in all, arriving on 15 February. He went first to Trajan's Column, scattered the Romanian soil and wheat at its base as an offering, then lay down at the Column's feet and slept until morning. Morning brought a crowd: seeing the folk costume, someone exclaimed that a Dacian had come down off the Column, the Roman press wrote him up, and Duiliu Zamfirescu – Romania's minister in Italy – lodged him and introduced him to professors, journalists, artists, deputies and senators. After a month in Rome he travelled homeward; on 18 March 1896 he was in Bucharest again, professor Urechia's guest. > A Dacian came down off the Column: long hair, shirt and cap, leggings and peasant sandals. > – The Rome press, February 1896 **Meanwhile** At Leipzig, Cichorius began publishing the Column's photographic corpus in 1896 – the plates shown here. ## IV. The trace *1896 – 1911 · 1896–1911, the envoy* - Paris: August 1896: Picot and the French students - Wreath: October 1899: the Orientalists' laurel - Grave: 7 August 1911, Sinaia Rome made him famous and the road kept him: in August 1896 he went to Paris via Vienna, where Emil Picot – professor at the School of Oriental Languages – presented the Romanian shepherd to French students; Belgium, Jerusalem and Rome again followed. In October 1899 Rome hosted the 12th congress of the Orientalists, over 700 delegates from 40 countries, with a Romanian party led by professor Urechia; senator Angelo Gubernatis proposed that Cârțan himself, in his shepherd's folk costume, lay the congress's laurel wreath at Trajan's Column. He spent his last years between Ardeal and Romania, still hounded: the Putna gathering of 2 July 1904, a winter-1910 avalanche that buried him for three days, and in July 1911 the house of Mrs. Lahovari at Poiana Țapului, where a doctor saw his days were numbered. He died on 7 August 1911 and sleeps at Sinaia in shepherd's dress, under a stone cross: here lies Badea Cârțan, dreaming of the unity of his people. > Here lies Badea Cârțan dreaming of the unity of his people. > – The stone cross at Sinaia **Meanwhile** Transylvania was still seven years from its 1918 union with Romania when he died at Sinaia. ## Pack the sack, then walk it Four decisions about the sack, the road, the night and the price. Choose, then check against the sources. 1. **The sack.** January 1896: what goes in the traista for the Rome road? *Soil and wheat: an offering for the Roman forefathers, scattered at the Column's base.* 2. **The days.** Cârțișoara to Rome, on foot, in the winter of 1896: *20 to Vienna and 23 to Rome: 43 days in all – the English histories say 45.* 3. **The night.** The evening of 15 February 1896, at Trajan's Column: *The offering and the sleep; the wreath came only in October 1899, from the Orientalists' congress.* 4. **The price.** What did the book roads cost him? *4,000 volumes seized on 15 December 1905, 70,000 in all – burned after a year-long trial of their own.* ## Seven plates of the shepherd Seven images, in story order: the portrait, the ridge, the caricature, Rome, the Column, the Forum, the bust. ### Plate c.1899: The shepherd at fifty - Gheorghe Cârțan in 1899, three years after Rome. - The opinci and căciulă he wore to the Column. - The face the Roman press had printed in February 1896. ### Plate 2010: The wall - The Făgăraș ridge, photographed in 2010. - Thirty years of book roads ran over these passes. - His paths were his own: only he knew them. ### Plate 1909: The trade in hot air - Ion Theodorescu-Sion in Furnica, 28 May 1909. - The peasant in opinci faces two hatted officials. - Bucharest laughed with him: fame had reached the satirical press. ### Plate 1896: Two days after the arrival - At the Column's base, 17 February 1896. - The folk costume that made a policeman see a Dacian. - The photograph the gendarmes seized on 10 June 1896. ### Plate 1896: What he had walked to see - Cichorius plate I: the Column, graphics of 1896. - The Dacian Wars spiral up the shaft in stone. - Leipzig printed what Cârțișoara's shepherd came to read. ### Plate sec. XIX: Rome as he found it - The Forum, photographed by Achille Mauri before 1895. - Nineteen centuries of stone around a sleeping shepherd. - He stayed a month; the stones stayed with him. ### Plate 2012: Kept in stone - The bust, photographed in 2012. - Cârțișoara's museum opened in 1968, in the family house. - Books he collected, saved from burning, sleep there too. Images via Wikimedia Commons (public domain, CC0 or CC BY-SA with attribution). Dates are the plates' own. ## The shepherd in six numbers Each number below comes from the cited sources. Years are the road's own column, 1849–1911. - **1,849** – the shepherd is born - **1,867** – he learns his letters - **1,896** – the Rome walk - **43** – days on foot - **70,000** – volumes confiscated - **1,911** – rest at Sinaia ## Three things people get wrong ### An uneducated shepherd No: illiterate into his teens, then self-taught – he learned to read pasturing sheep, studied history with Ion Cotigă, and was received by Urechia, Tocilescu, Iorga, Zamfirescu and Gubernatis; in Paris, Emil Picot presented him to French students. He even wrote verse. ### He laid the wreath in 1896 No: in February 1896 he scattered home soil and wheat at the Column and slept at its base. The laurel wreath came in October 1899, laid by him on behalf of the Orientalists' congress – Gubernatis's proposal. ### A quarter-million books, exactly No source counts them exactly: tradition says over 250,000 copies and 20 tonnes, the English histories say 200,000, and the Romanian history says hundreds. What is documented is the floor – 70,000 volumes confiscated, then burned. ## Sources and method The story follows the Radio România Cultural portrait against the English and Romanian histories; the walk's dates are the 20 days to Vienna and 23 to Rome, the wreath is October 1899. All eight images are public domain, CC0 or CC BY-SA with attribution, via Wikimedia Commons. Book totals are quoted with attribution everywhere they appear: tradition's 250,000 copies and 20 tonnes, the English 200,000, the documented 70,000 confiscated. The birth day is 24 January with the 19 January variant noted; the walk is 43 days with the English 45 noted. Day dates follow the sources; city names follow the era. Distances are recomputed from the representative polylines on the page – the Rome road measures 1,916 km great-circle, and no page claims his footsteps. The Column's own story continues in the sister page “Columna lui Traian” on this domain. ### Apprenticeship - [Gheorghe Cârțan, a self-taught shepherd from Oprea-Cârțișoara, born 24 January 1849; he learned to read while pasturing sheep](https://www.radioromaniacultural.ro/sectiuni-articole/istorie-filozofie-psihologie/portret-badea-cartan-cel-mai-citit-dintre-taranii-romani-un-militant-pentru-reintregirea-neamului-id7641.html) - [The 19 January 1849 birth, the 1864 illegal crossing, the 40 sheep and Ion Cotigă on 23 May 1867](https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badea_C%C3%A2r%C8%9Ban) - [Volunteer in 1877, service until 1881; the Austro-Hungarian army, 31st Regiment at Zemm, Bosnia-Herzegovina, discharged 8 May 1881; 400 sheep in spring 1882](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badea_C%C3%A2r%C8%9Ban) ### The book sack - [Over 30 years of books carried over the mountains, 250,000 copies and 20 tonnes by tradition; any writing on Romanian history was banned in the empire](https://www.radioromaniacultural.ro/sectiuni-articole/istorie-filozofie-psihologie/portret-badea-cartan-cel-mai-citit-dintre-taranii-romani-un-militant-pentru-reintregirea-neamului-id7641.html) - [The 200,000 books carried through the Făgăraș Mountains for pupils, priests, teachers and peasants; the two arrests](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badea_C%C3%A2r%C8%9Ban) - [The May 1894 Memorandists' trial at Cluj; 4,000 volumes seized 15 December 1905, 70,000 in all; indictment 893 of 25 March 1906; the books burned after the year-long trial](https://www.radioromaniacultural.ro/sectiuni-articole/istorie-filozofie-psihologie/portret-badea-cartan-cel-mai-citit-dintre-taranii-romani-un-militant-pentru-reintregirea-neamului-id7641.html) ### Rome - [The January 1896 departure with Urechia's support; Timișoara–Szeged–Budapest–Vienna–Salzburg–Innsbruck–Genoa; the 15 February arrival in Rome](https://www.radioromaniacultural.ro/sectiuni-articole/istorie-filozofie-psihologie/portret-badea-cartan-cel-mai-citit-dintre-taranii-romani-un-militant-pentru-reintregirea-neamului-id7641.html) - [20 days on foot to Vienna, 23 to Rome; the night at Trajan's Column; “A Dacian came down off the Column: long hair, shirt and cap, leggings and peasant sandals”](https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badea_C%C3%A2r%C8%9Ban) - [The Rome photograph dated 17 February 1896, two days after the arrival](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gheorghe_Cartan_at_Rome.jpg) - [Duiliu Zamfirescu, support and lodging, “an envoy of the Romanian people”; a month in Rome; 18 March 1896 in Bucharest; the 10 June 1896 arrest](https://www.radioromaniacultural.ro/sectiuni-articole/istorie-filozofie-psihologie/portret-badea-cartan-cel-mai-citit-dintre-taranii-romani-un-militant-pentru-reintregirea-neamului-id7641.html) ### The trace - [Paris, August 1896: Emil Picot presents him to French students; Belgium, Jerusalem, Rome again](https://www.radioromaniacultural.ro/sectiuni-articole/istorie-filozofie-psihologie/portret-badea-cartan-cel-mai-citit-dintre-taranii-romani-un-militant-pentru-reintregirea-neamului-id7641.html) - [The 12th Orientalists' congress: 700 delegates from 40 countries; Gubernatis proposes the laurel wreath Cârțan lays at the Column](https://www.radioromaniacultural.ro/sectiuni-articole/istorie-filozofie-psihologie/portret-badea-cartan-cel-mai-citit-dintre-taranii-romani-un-militant-pentru-reintregirea-neamului-id7641.html) - [The Rome congress, October 1899: Gubernatis president of the organising committee](http://idp.bbaw.de/downloads/Orientalists.pdf) - [The 2 July 1904 Putna celebrations, 400 years after Stephen the Great; the winter 1910 avalanche; the 7 August 1911 death at Sinaia; the stone cross](https://www.radioromaniacultural.ro/sectiuni-articole/istorie-filozofie-psihologie/portret-badea-cartan-cel-mai-citit-dintre-taranii-romani-un-militant-pentru-reintregirea-neamului-id7641.html) ### Game - [Radio Romania Cultural and Wikipedia (EN/RO): the data in the game cards](https://www.radioromaniacultural.ro/sectiuni-articole/istorie-filozofie-psihologie/portret-badea-cartan-cel-mai-citit-dintre-taranii-romani-un-militant-pentru-reintregirea-neamului-id7641.html) ### The seven plates - [The 1899 portrait, the Făgăraș ridge, the 1909 Furnica caricature, the 1896 Rome photograph, the Cichorius plates, Mauri's Forum, the bust, via Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Badea_C%C3%A2r%C8%9Ban) ### Map - [Natural Earth, 1:50m countries, lakes, rivers and geographic regions (public domain); routes are representative](https://www.naturalearthdata.com/) --- Text, map and illustrations by [Marius Comper](https://mariuscomper.uk/en/) · https://mariuscomper.uk/badea-cartan/en/