page_title: Paharnic
section_title: Creating the office
hierarchical_section_title: Paharnic / History / Creating the office
caption_attribution_description: English: Treading the Winepress (alluding to both Isaiah 63 and Revelation 14), from a series of frescoes illustrating the Apocalypse, at Sucevița, Romania. See details in Ilie Melniciuc, "Saint John's Revelation in the Painting from Sucevița Monastery", European Journal of Science and Theology, Vol.10, Issue 1, 2014, pp. 279, 282.
context_page_description: The Paharnic was a historical Romanian rank, one of the non-hereditary positions ascribed to the boyar aristocracy in Moldavia and Wallachia. It was the local equivalent of a Cup-bearer or Cześnik, originally centered on pouring and obtaining wine for the court of Moldavian and Wallachian Princes. With time, it became a major administrative office and, in Wallachia, also had a lesser military function. The retinue of such boyars, usually called Păhărnicei, was in both countries also a private army.
  Dating back to ca. 1400, the Paharnici were at the forefront of political life in Wallachia over the following two centuries, often as a title associated with the Craiovești and Florescu boyars. Wallachian Paharnici were especially important during the 16th and 17th centuries, when they included figures such as Lupu Mehedințeanu, Șerban of Coiani, and Matei Basarab. They and other Paharnici established means of boyar protection against the social ascent of immigrant Greeks. Prince Constantin Brâncoveanu, himself a former Paharnic, gave a privileged position to the Păhărnicei, but put to death their controversial Paharnic, Staico Bucșanu.
context_section_description: Paharnici or similar were first mentioned in Wallachia under Mircea the Old (1386–1418) and in Moldavia under Alexander the Good (1400–1432). The Moldavian version of the office ranked it immediately after the Spatharios; in Wallachia, it was originally mentioned as below the Vistier, who was fourth or fifth in line in the Boyar Council: the Ban, Vornic, Logothete, and sometimes also the Spatharios, ranked above them. A social and functional differentiation cut across these boyar classes. According to such typologies, some boyar offices were administrative or "public" (Ban or Logothete), while others, including Ban and Spatharios, were purely military. Paharnici fell into a third category of offices, deemed "courtly" (de curte)—alongside Cluceri, Jitniceri, Medelniceri, Pitari, Postelnici, Slugeri, and Stolnici. 
  As summarized by historian Constantin Rezachevici, a Paharnic's function was "to fill up the first cup at the prince's table, and while in the country he supervised the princely vineyards and made sure that these were well kept". Biliarsky also notes that the Paharnic acted as a waiter and a wine taster, who made sure that the beverage was safe to drink, being thus "close to and very highly trusted by the ruler." From the beginning, these attributes alternated with the business of state: in October 1407, Paharnic Iliaș "Dumitrovscio" was present on the Moldavian delegation which swore fealty to the Kingdom of Poland, and consequently fought at Grunwald. A variation of the office, already present in 1540s Moldavia, was the Paharnic in service to the Princess-consort.
  Also in Moldavia, Paharnici had direct control over the Staroste of Cotnari, who produced the eponymous sweet wine variety, seen as the region's best, as well as over the wine regions of Dealu Morii, Hârlău, Huși, and Târgu Trotuș. After 1482, the Moldavian institution also appeared in the wine-rich Panciu, Putna County, which had been previously disputed between the two principalities. By 1700, the greater Paharnic was, ex officio, the head of Putna's administration, while his assistant only controlled the princely vineyards of Huși. Historian N. Stoicescu proposes that the Wallachian Paharnici may have also exercised some control over the winemakers of Dealurile Buzăului. This function remains unattested, but is suggested by the Paharnici being traditionally reliant on support from that area, on the Wallachian border with Putna. 
  In tandem, Paharnici in both principalities operated as tax farmers, receiving a small contribution from all other winemakers. This was presented to them personally on September 14 of each year. Moldavia's Paharnic collected only the wine tithe known as vinărici. For the Wallachians, the vinărici was set at 1,000 barrels of wine yearly, from the wineries of Argeș County (Ștefănești, Topoloveni) and Vâlcea County (Drăgășani). Here, another special tribute, also collected from private wine cellars, was generally known as păhărnicie, and was primarily lucrative in Bucharest. 18th-century sources inform that the Paharnic of Wallachia also collected the wine tax known as cămănărit, which had its origins in feudal aid (plocon).
caption: Wine press in Moldavia, ca. 1600. Fresco from Sucevița Monastery, illustrating the Book of Revelation as well as the Book of Isaiah
exif: {}