Born: 22 January 1828, Romania
Died: 17 November 1888
Country most active: International
Also known as: Elena Ghica/Ghika, Duchess Helena Koltsova-Massalskaya
From Famous Women: An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women. Written by Joseph Adelman, published 1926 by Ellis M Lonow Company:
Dora d’Istria, pseudonym of Elina Ghika, a Rumanian author, born in Bucharest. She received a classical education, and had an extensive knowledge of modern languages and literature.
At the age of fifteen she commenced a translation of the Iliad, and not long afterward wrote several pieces for the theatre.
She married the Russian Prince Koltzoff-Massalsky.
Her first work, Monastic Life in the Eastern Church, alleges monasticism to be the principal obstacle to civilization in Eastern and Southern Europe.
In 1864 she published Women, by a Woman which was translated into Russian, Italian and English. Her studies on Albanian poetry gave rise to a nationalistic and literary movement among the Albanians.
The Greek Chamber of Deputies, in April, 1868, named her “high citizeness of Greece.”
The following is excerpted from “400 Outstanding Women of the World and the Costumology of Their Time” by Minna Moscherosch Schmidt, published in 1933.
Pen name of Elena Chica, daughter of Mihail Ghica, governor of one of the Roumanian provinces. She was born in Bucharest and died in Florence. She studied in Germany and Italy. At the age of twenty, she married the Russian prince Koltzoff-Massalsky and went to live in Russia for some time at the Imperial Court in St. Petersburg. Being a woman of liberal ideas, she had no sympathy for the autocratic regime in Russia. This, coupled with her declining health, due to the climate, forced her to go to Switzerland, where she lived in retreat. She spoke nine languages fluently. She travelled extensively in Europe as well as in America.
She travelled throughout Greece alone on horseback, searching for old monuments and inscriptions, and, due to her deep knowledge of Greek civilization, she was received as a member in the Institute of Athens. She was well known by Emperor Frederick William of Germany and by Garibaldi. Her published books number thirty. She wrote interesting studies on the folklore of the Roumanian people, of the Albanians, Serbians, Bulgarians and Greeks. These works have been translated in many languages. Her books are written only in the Italian, French and Greek languages. Among her books are the following: The Monastical Life in the Oriental Church; Roumaniav and Greek Orthodox Church; Selected Works of Roumanian Writers; The Greek Nationality According to Historians and also a study on women, entitled, Des Femmes Par Une Femme.
IW note: She was also a noted feminist, painter, scholar and mountaineer, becoming one of the early women to ascend Mont Blanc on 1 June 1860. She was proficient in Romanian, Italian, German, French, Latin, Ancient and Modern Greek, and Russian.