V. A. Urechia was a Moldavian, later Romanian historian, Romantic author of historical fiction and plays, academic and politician. The author of Romanian history syntheses, a noted bibliographer, heraldist, ethnographer and folklorist, he founded and managed a private school, later holding teaching positions at the University of Iași and University of Bucharest. Urechia was also one of the founding members of the Romanian Academy and, as frequent traveler to Spain and fluent speaker of Spanish, a corresponding member of the Royal Spanish Academy. He was the father of satirist Alceu Urechia.

Ronetti Roman was an Austrian-born Romanian playwright and poet. Likely a native of Galicia, he settled permanently in Romania in the mid-1870s. Across the ensuing three decades, he made a name for himself as a polemical journalist, also writing poetry and satire, and concerning himself with the status of the country's Jews. His chief literary contribution was the 1900 play Manasse, which explores the intergenerational conflict between older, devout, tradition-bound Jews and their more secular, modern, assimilated descendants. While very successful with audiences, the play also drew fire from nationalist circles that took to the streets to block its staging on two separate occasions.