CULIANU, IOAN PETRU (January 5, 1950–May 21, 1991), a scholar of Romanian origin, was born in Iaşi, Romania. He descended from ancestors who played an important role in the cultural milieu of this city, the ancient capital of the province of Moldavia. His grandfather, Neculai Culianu, was the dean of the University of Iaşi in the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century as well as a member of the influential cultural group Junimea (the Youthhood), founded in 1867 and directed by the literary critic Titu Maiorescu. Culianu's interest in the history of religions was precocious despite the political and ideological circumstances of his early scholarly career. In 1967 he left Iaşi for Bucharest, where he enrolled in the Faculty of Foreign Letters at the University of Bucharest. He studied Italian Renaissance thought under the guidance of Nina Façon and in 1971 delivered a thesis...