Jani Vreto (14 January 1822 – 9 July 1900) was an Albanian writer, printer, publisher and important figure of the Albanian National Awakening. He was responsible for setting up and overseeing the work of the first Albanian printing house in Bucharest in 1886.

Life

Jani Vreto was born in Postenan, a village near Leskovik, southern

Albania Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...

on 14 January 1822. He went to the local school where he took his first lessons from ''Nikolla Ikonomi'', who would teach him both

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

and Albanian. Some years before the establishment of the

League of Prizren The League of Prizren (), officially the League for the Defense of the Rights of the Albanian Nation (), was an Albanian political organization that was officially founded on June 10, 1878 in the old town of Prizren in the Kosovo Vilayet of th ...

during the

Great Eastern Crisis The Great Eastern Crisis of 1875–1878 began in the Ottoman Empire's Rumelia, administrative territories in the Balkan Peninsula in 1875, with the outbreak of several uprisings and wars that resulted in the intervention of international powers, ...

, Vreto met with six other Albanian intellectuals regarding the alphabet question and he supported the use of the

Greek alphabet The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BC. It was derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and is the earliest known alphabetic script to systematically write vowels as wel ...

to write Albanian due to the

Pelasgian The name Pelasgians (, ) was used by Classical Greece, Classical Greek writers to refer either to the predecessors of the Greeks, or to all the inhabitants of Greece before the Greeks#Origins, emergence of the Greeks. In general, "Pelasgian" h ...

theory. Vreto became a member of the Central Committee for Defending Albanian Rights (founded 1877) which was a group of Albanian intelligentsia based in Istanbul advocating for the territorial integrity and unity of Albanian inhabited areas in the Ottoman Empire. The Committee for Defending Albanian Rights appointed Vreto along with Sami Frashëri, Vaso Pasha and Hasan Tahsini to create an Albanian alphabet. During discussions about the Albanian alphabet Frashëri and Vreto wanted the inclusion of a

character on the premise that Albanians and Greeks have the same ancestors, the

Pelasgians The name Pelasgians (, ) was used by Classical Greek writers to refer either to the predecessors of the Greeks, or to all the inhabitants of Greece before the emergence of the Greeks. In general, "Pelasgian" has come to mean more broadly all ...

. By 19 March 1879 the group approved Frashëri's 36 letter alphabet consisting mostly of Latin characters. In 1878, he represented the Albanian population of the Ottoman Empire alongside

Abdyl Frashëri Abdyl Dume bey Frashëri (, or ''Abdullah Hüsni''; 1 June 1839 – 23 October 1892) was an Ottoman Albanian civil servant, politician during the First Constitutional Era of the Ottoman Empire, and one of the first Albanian political ideologues ...

at the

Congress of Berlin At the Congress of Berlin (13 June – 13 July 1878), the major European powers revised the territorial and political terms imposed by the Russian Empire on the Ottoman Empire by the Treaty of San Stefano (March 1878), which had ended the Rus ...

. In 1879 he became one of the founders of Society for the Publication of Albanian Letters, (), an organization responsible for publishing Albanian textbooks and opening Albanian schools. Vreto transferred its headquarters from

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

after the organization was banned by the Ottoman authorities. As a member of this society Vreto set up and operated the Albanian printing house of Bucharest playing an important role in the advancement of the Albanian movement. At the same time he was excommunicated by the Orthodox metropolitan of

Gjirokastër Gjirokastër (, sq-definite, Gjirokastra) is a List of cities and towns in Albania, city in Southern Albania, southern Albania and the seat of Gjirokastër County and Gjirokastër Municipality. It is located in a valley between the Gjerë moun ...

, who accused him of having committed heresy by "creating an Albanian question". Many of the works of Naim Frashëri, national poet of Albania were published by this organization. In 1882, Vreto left Bucharest for

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

to develop nationalist content among the Albanian diaspora.

Works

Jani Vreto's most known work is an epic poem titled ''Histori e Skënderbeut'' (), dedicated to national hero of Albania

Skanderbeg Gjergj Kastrioti (17 January 1468), commonly known as Skanderbeg, was an Albanians, Albanian Albanian nobility, feudal lord and military commander who led Skanderbeg's rebellion, a rebellion against the Ottoman Empire in what is today Albania, ...

. In 1888 he edited and published the poem ''Erveheja'' of Muhamet Kyçyku transliterating it into

Latin script The Latin script, also known as the Roman script, is a writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae in Magna Graecia. The Gree ...

completely removing all Turkish or

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

words Kyçyku had used. Part of Vreto's own work was published in Spiro Dine's work ''Valët e Detit'' (), a collection of Albanian history and literature.

Recognition

On 13 January 2012 the President of

, Bamir Topi decorate Jani Vreto after death Honor of Nation Order of

. There is a statue of him in the town of Leskovik.

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vreto, Jani 1822 births 1900 deaths People from Kolonjë Eastern Orthodox Christians from Albania Writers from the Ottoman Empire Albanian people from the Ottoman Empire Activists of the Albanian National Awakening

Life

Works

Recognition

See also

Sources