The formula e pagëzimit () is the oldest written document with a writing in
Albanian which has been found. The document is “Codex Ashburnham” dated November 8, 1462, and it contains various notes on Albania written in
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
by Archbishop
Pal Engjëlli.
The sentence in Old Albanian is:
In modern Albanian it is: ''Unë të pagëzoj në emër të Atit, të Birit, e të Shpirtit të Shenjtë''. In English it is: "I baptize thee in
the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit".
The document is held in the
Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana,
Florence
Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025.
Florence ...
,
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
, where it was discovered in 1915 by
Romanian scholar
Nicolae Iorga.
Albanian scripts were produced earlier than Formula e pagëzimit, we know of their existence by earlier references, for example a French monk noted in 1332, that "although the Albanians have another language totally different from Latin, ''they still use Latin letters in all their books.''
[Demiraj, Shaban. "Albanian". In Ramat and Ramat (2006), ''The Indo-European Languages''. Page 480]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Formula e pagezimit
Albanian language
Albanian literature