‘Doctoratul de la Oxford al lui N. Iorga’, by Andrei Pippidi and Cristina Neagu, Analele Universitatii din Bucuresti, LIX, 2010, 1-14. (original) (raw)

N. Iorga's Oxford doctorate No other Romanian scholar has been awarded more honorary doctorates than N. Iorga. This article explores in detail the impact the Oxford doctorate had on him. Starting from documents recently disclosed in the Hoover Institute from Stanford (California) and Oxford University Archives, it brings to light Iorga's own thoughts and reactions at the news, while, at the same time, discussing the event within the wider context in which it happened. The article reconstructs the storyline focusing on a few days in the spring of 1930. It begins with 21 March, the date when, while still on board of Aquitania on his return trip from the United States, Iorga sent two telegrammes: one to Nicolae Titulesco (then Romania's minister in the UK), and the second to the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford. Both telegrams were sent in gratitude at receiving the news about the honorary doctorate conferred on 3 May. The full picture around this solemnity staged, as always, at the Sheldonian Theatre, emerges from a variety of documents, such as the text of the oration delivered in Latin by JIG Pointer at the ceremony, Iorga's own detailed notes in the diary, his autobiography published soon after in 1934 and various articles.