Gjon BUZUKU
BIOGRAPHY
Gjon Buzuku, a northern Albanian Catholic cleric, who probably
lived in or around Venice, was the author of the first book written
and published in Albanian, a 188-page translation of the Catholic
missal. Since the frontispiece and the first sixteen pages of
the only copy of the book we possess, preserved in the Vatican
Library, are missing, we unfortunately know neither its exact
title nor its place of publication. In Albanian, it is known
simply as the Meshari (The Missal), and was written in
1555. The scant information we do possess about the author comes
from the colophon (postscript) of the missal which Buzuku wrote
himself in Albanian, not unaware of the historic dimensions of
his undertaking. |
Albanian Literature in Translation
Early
Authors (16th - 18th centuries)
