AMFILOHIE, Bishop of Hotin. — A Romanian humanist of the 18th century; the dates of his birth and death are uncertain. A mathematician, philosopher, and author of the first didactic manuals to appear in Moldavia, he was formerly a monk and prior of the monastery of Zagavia, near Hârlău, and was elected bishop around 1780. He traveled and studied extensively in Poland and Italy.
He left published an arithmetic, compiled from the *Elementi aritmetici* of Fr. Alessandro Conti of S. Matteo, a geography compiled from the first Roman edition of Büsching’s work of 1775, and a theological grammar following the model of the Russian Platon Levin, Archbishop of Moscow; and with the manuscript *Λόγον καὶ ἔργα* (*Words and Deeds*) he made a valuable contribution to the history of Moldavia. The erudition and powers of observation of the author are revealed in his anthropological study of the *palmo domnesc* (lordly palm) of the Moldavian nobles: the identity of the Moldavian palm with the Roman one of the time of Vespasian sheds interesting light on the problem of the Roman tradition among the Romanians. Likewise, in his arithmetic volume he offers a brilliant comparison between the system of numeration of the ancient Romans, conducted by means of notched sticks, and the identical system adopted by Romanian shepherds of Transylvania for counting livestock. He also composed a manuscript treatise on physics, cosmography, theology, and botany, dated 1796. His love and interest in Italy and its culture are evidenced by some pages where he speaks of Genoa, Venice, the Papal States and Rome, and the Kingdom of Naples, with particular attention to ecclesiastical administration.