Marino Becichemo orMarin Beçikemi (c. 1468 – 1526) was anAlbanian scholar and orator who was a prominenthumanist in the cities ofBrescia and laterPadua in theRepublic of Venice in the early 16th century. He maintained a humanist school and was a professor in theUniversity of Padua. He wrote commentaries about classical Latin literature and was well known for his orations in the region of Venice.
Beçikemi came from an Albanian family inScutari (Shkodër), then part of theVenetian possessions in Albania.[1][2][3] He was probably born in 1468.[4] Many of the biographical details about his family come from several orations and letters he wrote including apanegyric which he wrote in 1503 and directed to the Venetian senate as a laudation for the resettlement of 2,000 Albanian refugees from Shkodra in Italy after the fall of the city to the Ottomans. His grandfather Pietro was, together with Stefano Ionina, an Albanian ambassador serving in Venice.[4] His grandfather and his brother's grandfather had died in the defense of Drisht againstStefan Balšić (1429)[5] His father, Marino, was a secretary of theRepublic of Venice at theOttoman court for about thirty years.[4] The only information about his mother comes fromApostolo Zeno who writes that she was Bianca Pagnano, daughter of Guglielmo Pagnano who hailed from aMilanese merchant family active in Venetian Dalmatia. Beçikemi's father, his brothers, his uncle Stefan and many other relatives fought in thesiege of Shkodra in 1478–79.[6] In 1477, he had been sent to nearbyDulcigno just before the beginning of the siege. In total, 26 members out of 30 of his family died in the siege of Shkodra – including his father.[7][6] Beçikemi, who was eleven at the time, was sent toBrescia to study. The events of the siege of Shkodra were of great significance to Beçikemi who often recalled them and referred to his community even many years after they had settled in Italy asnoi miseri profughi albanesi ("we, the miserable Albanian refugees") and called himselfinfelice profugo (an unhappy refugee).[8]
In Brescia, Beçikemi studiedLatin andAncient Greek.[4] In 1484, at only 17 years of age, he held a speech in the city in honour of mayorMarco Antonio Morosini.[4] At that time, he returned to Dulcigno where he married Caterina, the daughter of the local nobleman Pasquale Dabri whose mother belonged to theBruti family.[1] From this point onwards began Beçikemi academic career. Between 1492 and 1496 he taught at the grammar school of theRepublic of Ragusa.[9] His commentary on classical Latin authorsCastigationes et observationes in Virgilium , Ovidium , Ciceronem , Servium et Priscianum was published during this time, in 1495, and was dedicated to the Ragusan Senate. In Ragusa he befriended humanist and poetIvan Gučetić (1451–1502). He was since October 1496 the secretary of VenetianpatricianMelchiorre Trevisan, when the latter wasprovvedittore of the Venetian fleet based in the lands ofFerdinand II of Naples, and laterprovvedittore generale in the areas which passed from theDuchy of Milan to Venice in 1499. In Brescia, Beçikemi tutored the son ofGirolamo Donato (1495–1497).[4]
In 1500, Beçikemi received Venetian citizenship and opened his personal humanist school. In 1501, he lectured in the university of Brescia and in 1503 he became chairman of the city's municipal school. In Brescia, his first works in Latin were published, such asObservationum collectanea in primum Historiae naturali librum (1504–1506).[4] In 1503 he published a panegyric to the Venetian Senate concerning the relief of the refugees after the siege of Shkodra. He wrote commentaries onCicero,Pliny the Elder and otherclassical philosophers. At theUniversity of Padua he taught rhetoric.
In 1962 Beçikemi's panegyric of 1503 was translated into Albanian and English and included withMarin Barleti's work,The Siege of Shkodra.[10]
