Year V, January – June 2020, 1-2

Flows and migrations of Albanian clergymen to Venice in the 15^th century. The unknown role played by bodies for the Church renovation and political strategies

Keywords:  Adriatic area, the 14th and the 15th centuries, Venice, Albanian presbyters, Marinus Barletius.

Studying the presence of Albanian clergymen amongst the ranks of the Venetian clergy during the 15^th century has led to unknown before and rather specific results. In the beginning, the exchange of clergymen between the two Adriatic coasts was direct and inspired by projects of ecclesiastical renovation set in the urban background of the turmoil caused by the Western Schism.
In addition, author Nadin thinks that the period of the intense migrations triggered by the progress of the Ottoman conquest in Europe must also be interpreted as part of shrewd plans devised by well-organised structures of Venetian politics.

The Albanians in Istria from, 15^th – 18^th centuries.

Keywords: History of Istria, medieval Albanian migrations, social and economic aspects of Albanian migration.

Albanian emigration was a historic phenomenon which extended over a long period, and of which different countries of the inter-Adriatic area were the final destination. Besides different regions in present-day Italy, Istria as well constituted a destination. The Albanians arrived there at the end of the 15^th century. According to documents from archives, the Istrian settlement displays the connotations of similar migrations – though the latter were much more complex – across the Italian peninsula. Documents reflect the common organisational skills of various groups of migrants.

Albanian migrations towards Romagna, Marche and Abruzzo between the 14th and the 16th centuries.

Keywords: Albanian migration, Marche, ethnic and linguistic colonies, Alain Ducellier, integration.

After the prolonged plague epidemics of the second half of the 14th century, a continuous migration flow started from the Balkan peninsula, and Albania too, towards Italy. In its beginning, the Italian regions targeted were Puglia, Abruzzo, Marche and Romagna. Later on, other flows would head for the Ionian coast of Italy and Sicily.
After having analysed the features and the peculiarities of the Albanian migrations, this paper focuses on the integration of the newly-arrived. At the end, special attention is devoted to the strategies of adaptation favouring the integration of the Albanian migrants in the Italian society in the 15th and the 16th centuries.

Features of the Albanian dialect of Istria in the manuscripts of Pietro Stancovich (1771-1851)

Keywords: Multilingual Istria, Albanian Ghegh in Istria, Pietro Stancovich, parable of the prodigal son in Albanian.

Manuscripts of Istrian-born scholar Pietro Stancovich (1771-1851) are treasured in the library of the University of Pola. The few linguistic records of the Albanian spoken in Istria that the scholar noted down have been analysed in order to highlight the characteristics of such Albanian dialect. Still alive around the 1850s, the Albanian community in Parenzo (Cro. Poreč), Istria was well-known.
From the analysis of the phonetic system of the evangelical parable of the Prodigal Son written in Istrian Albanian, and from the analysis of the lexemes recorded comparatively with those in other languages (in a dictionary which remained incomplete), we might track back the origin of this Albanian community to Hoti, generally speaking Malësia e Madhe, on the border between Albania and present-day Montenegro.

Keywords: Italian language, Venetian dialects, Ionian Isles, Foscolo, diglossia, bilingualism, Corfu, Austro-Hungarian empire, Slavic Balkan area, Albania, Tommaseo, Solomòs.

Not surprisingly, in the 18th century the area of the Adriatic Sea was still an area of important  encounters and where ideas were exchanged. More than a geographical area, the Adriatic Sea and the countries lulled by its waves are to be considered as a sort of situation rather than a mere area of  planet Earth. Such encounters generated in time a sort of cultural koiné in this area.
In his essay, Prof. Banfi centres around the pre-Romantic and Romantic debate in Italy about the  Italian language. As such debate formed part of the Adriatic identity, it influenced the rise and the  development of the ideas and the ideology of languages in the would-be Balkan states, especially of the Southern Slavs, Greece and Albania. Prof. Banfi clears up that such influence does not contemplate  nationalism in the present-day meaning of this word but only in a more general national awakening of  each of the countries bordering on the Adriatic Sea.

Albanian and Slavic symbiosis through the lens of the Balkan contact linguistics

Keywords: Albanian dialects, Montenegrin dialects, Albanian-Slavic
Symbiosis, Albanian-Slavic language contact, Balkan Sprachbund

The paper deals with the mechanisms and outcomes of the language contacts between the local dialects of Albanian and Slavic in the framework of some major theoretical issues of Balkan contact linguistics. The zones of ongoing contact in East Albania (Gollobordë area) and South Montenegro (Mrkovići area) uncover special mutual contact-induced changes in all structural levels of Albanian and South Slavic dialects. Contact induced change variation through time and space reveals the general paths of language convergence in the Balkans and the restrictions that apply to that convergence.

An appeal of the people of Albania, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro to the Spanish king Philip III for military help (1612-1614).

Keywords: Albania, Bosnia, Giovanni Renesi, Spanish King Philip III, Msgr Pietro Giorgio Odeschalchi.

In 1612 the bishop of Vigevano, Lombardy forwarded to the Spanish court in Madrid an appeal for military support he had received through the Albanian captain Giovanni Renesi from the people of Albania, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro for an uprising against the Turkish Ottomans. Such appeal was a continuation of the embassies which had been already sent to several Christian princes in the first decade of the 17th century. Patriarch Jovan II of Peć and the voïvode Grdan of Nikšić were apparently the main masterminds behind this plan.

The history of the Albanian Catholic Church in the notes of Msgr Karl Pooten. Prelates and important ecclesiastic provinces.

Keywords: Church history, history of writing, ecclesiastical hierarchy, philology of handwritten texts, early Albanian texts, Msgr Karl Pooten.

This paper focuses on the contribution of Msgr Karl Pooten to the identification of the dioceses and to the administrative subdivision of the Albanian Catholic Church. Such notes represent a chronological slice of the history of the Albanian church. They touch on very important events in the life of the local church including synods, councils and the pastoral and intellectual activity of different prelates.  Cited by Msgr Pooten, prelates such as Pjetër Budi, Frang Bardhi or Pjetër Bogdani marked the history of the Albanian Catholic church after the death of Gjergj Kastrioti Scanderbeg.
Another outstanding prelate that Msgr Pooten focused on in his notes was Msgr Vincent Zmajević. Apostolic visitor to Albania and supervisor of the Council of Albania (1703), the figure of Zmajević is one of the most cited in the notes of Msgr Pooten along with additional information about his origin, the family he was born into etc.
Author Paci maintains that the notes by Pooten deserve to be studied more in-depth because of their wealth of information about names of places and the register of the language used.

Italian general Alberto Pariani (1876-1955) and his personal archive regarding Albanian history

Keywords: Gen. Alberto Pariani, Fascism, Venice Archive State, Second World War.

Alberto Pariani (1876-1955) was a high-ranking Italian military officer who fought both in the First and the Second World Wars. After the First World War he was assigned different tasks to Albania including that of the re-organisation of the army of the small Balkan country.
From 1936 to 1939 he marshalled the Headquarters of the Italian Army and was Deputy War Minister. One of the main collaborators of Benito Mussolini, he carried out a deep reform in the Italian Army. After being discharged on the verge of the outbreak of the Second World War, Pariani was called back into duty by Mussolini in the spring of 1943 and appointed Viceroy to Albania.
Because of having joined the Italian Social Republic, he was convicted in the aftermath for collaboration with the Fascists but then acquitted.  Soon after that, he devoted himself to the local politics of Malcesine in the province of Verona. Pariani led this township from 1952 until his death. In 1971 his personal archive was handed over to the State Archive of Venice as a bequest. Enriched by notes reflecting personal considerations on historical events, his diaries mirror the activity of this important figure in the Italian Army

The works of Shime Deshpali – remembrance and memory of a diaspora

Keywords: Arbanas, Shime Deshpali, Albanian Awakening, Albanian Literature.

Diasporas constitute an invaluable literary and cultural mulch of the Albanian literature. In the case of the Arbëresh in Italy, for instance, their legacy provided the necessary ground for the beginning of the Albanian Awakening. However, the Arbanas in Zara constitute a different facet of the same phenomena. Though dating back to as far as about 300 years ago, the literary works created in this milieu only appeared in the second half of the 20th century.
Musician, poet and writer Shime Deshpali from the Arbanas, along with playwright Josip Rela best represent such diaspora in the Albanian literature by bringing alive the spoken Albanian of Arbanas mirrored from the detailed research in the spiritual and psychological condition of the Albanian community in Zara.
An educated musician, Deshpali’s poetry and his prose as well lead towards an inner musicality. It manifests a unique and unparalleled potential of the Albanian language thanks to the subdialect of Arbanas. So Deshpali’s works stand out among other works in the Albanian literature in virtue of their permeating musical undertones of the fragile Arbanas subdialect asserting the collective memory of this diaspora.

Scanderbeg in the Pleasant Talk of Slavic People and the immense contribute of Fr Andrija Kačić-Miošić to the epic literature of the Southern Slavs

Keywords: Razgovor Ugodni, Kačić-Miošić, Barletius, Scanderbeg, Castriota, Filip Lastrić Oćevac, Albanian literature, Albanian stradioten, Zadar.

Published first in 1756 and re-edited in 1759, Razgovor ugodni slovinskoga naroda remains to this day the most important work by Fr Andrija Kačić-Miošić. The title introduces the theme of folk songs and tales. However, in the second edition of this collection, among others, a large number of songs is devoted to Gjergj Kastrioti – Scanderbeg, a real historical figure.
Widely celebrated in the Venetian, Italian and Spanish territories, the figure of Scanderbeg became now very popular in the literature of the Southern Slavs as well – a debt largely owed to Kačić-Miošić.
The lecture attempts to focus on the reasons why Kačić-Miošić chose to bring Scanderbeg’s deeds alive. It also explores the events and the data that possibly rekindled and maintained high the interest of the Croatian poet in this prince and the resistance of the Albanians against the Ottomans.

Three manuscripts in Greek from the 18^th century residing in the AQSH (Central State Archive in Tirana) as indicators of European Enlightenment  in the Ottoman East

Keywords: Greek Manuscripts, Central State Archive of Tirana, Enlightenment, Teodor Anastas Kavaljoti, Jorgo Sugdhuri, Anastas Papavasilopuli.

Studying manuscripts in Greek from the 18th century at the Central State Archive in Tirana can be highly beneficial to understanding the dynamics of the development of several intricate cultural movements in the Balkan peninsula during the Ottoman rule.
This lecture focuses on three authors from that time. The first is Teodor Anastas Kavaljoti, author of Physics (Φυσική πραγματεία) and Metaphysics (Μεταφυσική), both forming part of the Codex Beratinus. The diffusion of Kavaljoti’s codices in Romania, Albania and Greece demonstrate the popularity of the New Academy of Voskopoja.
Not less important is Introduction to Logic (Εἰσαγωγὴ Λογικῆς) by Jorgo Sugdhuri. Published in Vienna (1792), this work is incomplete in the Codex Beratinus. The ubication of copies of this book speak loudly about the diffusion and the importance it enjoyed.
After this work, in the Codex Beratinus follows the General Compendium of the Application of Logic by Anastas Papavasilopuli (Σύνοψις γενικὴ τῆς λογικῆς ἕλξεως). The purpose of this book sprang from the conviction that the diffusion of knowledge along with philosophical thoughts would have a bearing on the life of the individual and of the community. Transposing such ideas into the Ottoman territories did in fact influence the formation of the nations in the Balkan region after the long Sultanic isolation from the rest of Europe.
The lecture highlights the most salient features of each of the abovementioned works.

Keywords: Classical Byzantine Music, Arbëresh, Father Lorenzo Tardo, Abbey of Grottaferrata, Ison.

Arbëresh, or Italo-Albanians, are the Albanian-speaking population in parts of southern Italy, the descendants of the 15^th century refugees from the Balkans. Maintaining their native culture and language, they now populate about 50 villages in Southern Italy. The oral tradition of the Arbëresh liturgical chants it can be said that it is based on the classical Byzantine, medieval style of chant, without “heterogeneous influxes”, as Father Lorenzo Tardo of the Abbey of Grottaferrata puts it, or other Ottoman expressive devices and musical effects such as “lamenting trills, guttural pulsations, nasal paraphoniae and nostalgic dirges” (Tardo 1938, 100). The Arbëresh possess a considerable patrimony of this repertoire, which even today is still transmitted orally. At the present time the liturgy is sung in Albanian and Italian as well as the traditional Greek. In order to make the understanding of the text of the liturgy easier, in 1968 it was decreed that the use of the Albanian language should be substituted (although not totally) for the Greek language.

Albanian Customary Law in scientific research, literary fiction and media portrayal

Keywords: Albanian Customary Law, Kanun of Leke Dukagjini, sworn virgins, national stereotypes.

The Code of Albanian Customary Laws has drawn the attention of foreign and Albanian scholars for the past one hundred years. Inspired by different interests, scholars have approached this subject in different ways using various studying methods. Such studies range from the ethno-cultural and anthropological approaches of Positivist descent to the politically correct Gender Studies of the present day. At the same time, literature, cinema, and theatre have highlighted specific features of the Albanian Customary Law revealing a taste for the exotic. The most salient are undoubtedly the vendetta and the sworn virgins, upon which novel plots and films have been based. The author analyses in this paper the effects of such approaches and tries to measure the distance between the aesthetical representation of these phenomena and their anthropological aura.