Gjon Buzuku (15 March 1499 – 9 October 1577) was an Albanian

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

priest who wrote the first known printed book in Albanian. Gjon Buzuku according to the elders wrote the Missal in the village of Brisk Posht in the Shestan - Krajë region, close to Northern Albania (Krajë is located on the shores of Shkodra Lake), then

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

. There are claims that he was the

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...

of two

diocese In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associa ...

s in north Albania or that he was a

monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...

. From March 20, 1554, to January 5, 1555, he wrote a translation of the Catholic missal into the

Gheg Gheg (also spelled Geg; Gheg Albanian: ''gegnishtja'', Standard sq, gegërishtja) is one of the two major varieties of Albanian, the other being Tosk. The geographic dividing line between the two varieties is the Shkumbin River, which winds ...

dialect of Albanian. He published it as a book of 220 pages. The Apostolic Library in the

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holds the only known copy of the book. It is missing the frontispiece and the first 16 sheets, which explains why the title and year of publication of the work are not known. The book was discovered in 1740 by Gjon Nikollë Kazazi, the

archbishop of Skopje The Roman Catholic Diocese of Skopje (Lat:''Dioecesis Scopiensis''), is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic church in North Macedonia. From the 4th century to 1656, when it was renamed to Archdiocese of Skopje, it was known as the ...

. In other libraries there are three photocopies from the original, one of them in

Tirana Tirana ( , ; aln, Tirona) is the capital and largest city of Albania. It is located in the centre of the country, enclosed by mountains and hills with Dajti rising to the east and a slight valley to the northwest overlooking the Adriatic Sea ...

. In 1996, the librarians were not able to locate the book, which had been used in 1984 for the last time. Eqrem Çabej wrote a monograph on the book in 1968. The dialect used in ''Mëshari'' was one of the main subjects of Selman Riza's works. The place the book was printed is thought to be either

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or Shkodër. The book contains the liturgies of the main holidays. There are also texts of prayers and rituals and

catechetical Catechesis (; from Greek: , "instruction by word of mouth", generally "instruction") is basic Christian religious education of children and adults, often from a catechism book. It started as education of converts to Christianity, but as the re ...

texts. Every page contains two columns. The initials are decorated. The grammar and the vocabulary are more archaic than in the Gheg text from the 17th century. The text is very valuable from the viewpoint of the history of language. The vocabulary is quite rich. The archaic text is easily read due to the circumstance that it is mainly a translation of known texts, in particular the

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. Most of the Gospels of Matthew, Luke and

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Secon ...

were translated in the book. It also contains passages from the

Psalm The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived f ...

s, the Book of Isaiah, the Book of Jeremiah, the Letters to the Corinthians, and many illustrations. The

orthography An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation. Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and ...

is peculiar. The

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with some additional letters is used. The consequent character of orthography and grammar seems to indicate an earlier tradition of writing. In Albanian, the book is known as '' Meshari'' (''The Missal''). All we know about the author is from the book's colophon written by Buzuku himself in Albanian. The language used is a pre-runner to the official Gheg dialect of Albanian. However, it is clear that the Gheg dialect was used. Even today one can hear words and expressions from older Malësians that sound as if jumping from the pages of the missal.

Sources

External links

The colophon in English

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buzuku, Gjon Latin–Albanian translators 16th-century Albanian Roman Catholic priests Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown People from Bar, Montenegro 1499 births