Gjon Buzuku

Gjon Buzuku was an Albanian Catholic priest. He lived in the 16th century, his exact life data are unknown. Buzuku became famous by the translation of the Roman Missal in the Gheg dialect, a dialect of the Albanian language. The Meshari (English Missal ) is the first book printed in Albanian.

Life and work

Gjon Buzuku came from northern Albania. He probably lived a long time in Venice or the surrounding area of this city. They say he was a monk and later bishop of the northern Albanian dioceses, but this can not be safely detected. The little that is known about Buzuku is taken from the written by himself colophon on the last page of Meshari.

From March 20th 1554 to January 5, 1555, he worked on the translation of the Roman Missal, which he had then print. The pressure contains 188 pages. Even in scope, it is the most important Old Albanian language monument. The only known copy of the book is in the possession of the Vatican Library. The title page and the first 16 pages are lost, which is why the exact title and year of pressure are not known. This edition was issued to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the independence of Albania in November 2012 in the National Library in Tirana.

The Meshari contains the liturgical texts for the Catholic holidays, excerpts from the Bible, various prayers and rituals and catechetical texts some. The initials are adorned, moreover, numerous other illustrations are included. Buzuku used the Latin alphabet, which he increased by a few additional letters to represent the sounds of the Albanian language. The Missal is gegischen dialect of Malësia e Madhe, a region northeast of Shkodra, drafted.

Since it is the translations known contents in the texts of the book, it is particularly well suited for linguistic analysis. It has been found that Buzuku had used a rich vocabulary and its translation is characterized by a fairly uniform orthography, which points to a skilled writer.

Was rediscovered the oldest Albanian Missal in 1740 by Archbishop Gjon Nikolle Kazazi of Skopje - Petrovec. After the Second World War, the book Buzukus was repeatedly examined linguistically of Albanian studies.