Pjetër Bogdani | |
|---|---|
 Pjetër Bogdani on a 1989 Albania stamp | |
| Born | c. 1627 |
| Died | 6 December 1689(1689-12-06) (aged 61–62) |
| Nationality | Ottoman-Albanian |
| Other names | Pietro Bogdano |
| Occupation(s) | Catholic priest, writer, poet |
| Known for | Author of the first prose work of substance originally written in Albanian |
| Relatives | Andrea Bogdani (uncle) Gjergj Bogdani (nephew) Llukë Bogdani (cousin) |
| Family | Bogdani |
Pjetër Bogdani (Italian:Pietro Bogdano; 1627[4] – 6 December 1689) was the most original writer ofOld Albanianliterature during theRenaissance. He was author of theCuneus Prophetarum (The Band of the Prophets), 1685, the first prose work of substance written originally in (Gheg)Albanian (i.e. not a translation). He organized a resistance against the Ottomans and a pro-Austrian movement in Kosovo in 1689 that included Muslim and Christian Albanians.
He was born in the village of Gur in the area ofHas, nearPrizren in 1627.[5] Its exact location is unknown,[6] butRobert Elsie has proposed two modern day villages ofGjonaj and Breg Drini in Prizren area.[7]
Bogdani was educated in the traditions of theCatholic Church.[8] His uncleAndrea Bogdani (c. 1600–1683) wasArchbishop of Skopje and author of aLatin-Albaniangrammar, now lost.[1] Bogdani is said to have received his initial schooling from theFranciscans atChiprovtsi in modern northwesternBulgaria and then studied at the Illyrian College of Loreto nearAncona, as had his predecessorsPjetër Budi andFrang Bardhi.[1] From 1651 to 1654 he served as a parish priest inPult and from 1654 to 1656 studied at theCollege of the Propaganda Fide inRome where he graduated as a doctor ofphilosophy andtheology.[1] In 1656, he was namedBishop of Shkodra, a post he held for twenty-one years, and was also appointed Administrator of theArchdiocese of Antivari (Bar) until 1671.[1]
During the most troubled years of theOttoman - Austrian war, 1664–1669, he took refuge in the villages of Barbullush and Rjoll near Shkodra. A cave near Rjoll, in which he took refuge, still bears his name. Eventually, he was captured by the Ottomans and imprisoned in the fort of Shkodër. The bishop of Durrës,Shtjëfen Gaspëri later reported to thePropaganda Fide that he was rescued by the brothers Pepë and Nikollë Kastori. In 1677, he succeeded his uncle as Archbishop of Skopje and Administrator of Roman Catholic parishes in the Kingdom of Serbia.[7] TheGashi andKrasniqja tribes were in frequent conflicts with one another until 1680, when Pjetër Bogdani managed to reconcile 24blood feuds between the two tribes.[9] His religious zeal and patriotic fervour kept him at odds with Ottoman forces, and in the atmosphere of war and confusion which reigned, he was obliged to flee toRagusa, from where he continued on toVenice andPadua, taking his manuscripts with him. In Padua he was cordially received by CardinalGregorio Barbarigo,Bishop of Padua at that time, whom he had served in Rome. CardinalBarbarigo was responsible for the church affairs in the East and as such he had a keen interest in the cultures of theLevant, including Albania. The cardinal had also founded a printing press in Padua, theTipografia del Seminario, which served the needs of oriental languages and had fonts forHebrew,Arabic andArmenian. Barbarigo was thus well disposed, willing and able to assist Bogdani in the latter's historic undertaking.
After arranging for the publication of theCuneus Prophetarum, Bogdani returned to theBalkans in March 1686 and spent the next years promoting resistance to the armies of theOttoman Empire, in particular inKosovo. He and hisvicarToma Raspasani played a leading role in the pro-Austrian movement in Kosovo during theGreat Turkish War.[10] He contributed a force of 6,000 Albanian soldiers to the Austrian army which had arrived inPristina and accompanied it to capturePrizren. There, however, he and much of his army were met by another equally formidable adversary, the plague. Bogdani returned to Pristina but succumbed to the disease there in 6 December 1689.[11] His nephew, Gjergj Bogdani, reported in 1698 that his uncle's remains were later exhumed byTurkish andTatar soldiers and fed to the dogs in the middle of the square in Pristina.[12]
It was inPadua in 1685 that theCuneus Prophetarum, his vast treatise on theology, was published in Albanian and Italian with the assistance of Cardinal Barbarigo. Bogdani had finished the Albanian version ten years earlier but was refused permission to publish it by the Propaganda Fide which ordered that the manuscript be translated first, no doubt to facilitate the work of the censor. The full title of the published version is:
"Cvnevs prophetarvm de Christo salvatore mvndi et eivs evangelica veritate, italice et epirotice contexta, et in duas partes diuisa a Petro Bogdano Macedone, Sacr. Congr. de Prop. Fide alvmno, Philosophiae & Sacrae Theologiae Doctore, olim Episcopo Scodrensi & Administratore Antibarensi, nunc vero Archiepiscopo Scvporvm ac totivs regni Serviae Administratore"(The Band of the Prophets Concerning Christ, Saviour of the World and his Gospel Truth, edited in Italian and Epirotic and divided into two parts by Pjetër Bogdani of Macedonia, student of the Holy Congregation of the Propaganda Fide, doctor of philosophy and holy theology, formerly Bishop of Shkodra and Administrator of Antivari and now Archbishop of Skopje and Administrator of all the Kingdom of Serbia.)
TheCuneus Prophetarum was printed in theLatin alphabet as used in Italian, with the addition of the sameCyrillic characters employed by Pjetër Budi and Frang Bardhi. Bogdani seems therefore to have had access to their works. During his studies at the College of the Propaganda Fide, he is known to have requested Albanian books from the college printer: "five copies of the Christian Doctrine and five Albanian dictionaries," most certainly the works of Budi and Bardhi. In a report to the Propaganda Fide in 1665, he also mentions a certainEuangelii in Albanese (Gospels in Albanian) of which he had heard, a possible reference toBuzuku's missal of 1555.
TheCuneus Prophetarum was published in two parallel columns, one in Albanian and one in Italian, and is divided into two volumes, each with four sections (scala). The first volume, which is preceded by dedications and eulogies in Latin, Albanian,Serbian and Italian, and includes two eight-line poems in Albanian, one by his cousin Luca Bogdani and one by Luca Summa, deals primarily with themes from theOld Testament: i) HowGod createdman, ii) Theprophets and theirmetaphors concerning the coming of theMessiah, iii) The lives of the prophets and theirprophecies, iv) The songs of the ten Sibyls. The second volume, entitledDe vita Jesu Christi salvatoris mundi (On the life ofJesusChrist, saviour of the world), is devoted mostly to theNew Testament: i) The life of Jesus Christ, ii) The miracles of Jesus Christ, iii) The suffering and death of Jesus Christ, iv) The resurrection and second coming of Christ. This section includes a translation from theBook of Daniel, 9. 24–26, in eight languages: Latin, Greek, Armenian,Syriac, Hebrew, Arabic, Italian and Albanian, and is followed by a chapter on the life of theAntichrist, by indices in Italian and Albanian and by a three-page appendix on theAntichità della Casa Bogdana (Antiquity of the House of the Bogdanis).
The work was reprinted twice under the titleL'infallibile verità della cattolica fede, Venice 1691 and 1702 (The infallible truth of the Catholic faith).
TheCuneus Prophetarum is considered to be the masterpiece of earlyAlbanian literature and is the first work in Albanian of full artistic and literary quality. In scope, it covers philosophy, theology andscience (with digressions ongeography,astronomy,physics andhistory). With its poetry and literary prose, it touches on questions of aesthetic and literary theory. It is a humanist work of theBaroque Age steeped in the philosophical traditions ofPlato,Aristotle,St Augustine, andSt Thomas Aquinas. Bogdani's fundamental philosophical aim is a knowledge of God, an unravelling of the problem of existence, for which he strives with reason and intellect.
Bogdani's talents are certainly most evident in his prose. In his work we encounter for the first time what may be considered an Albanian literary language. As such, he may justly bear the title of father of Albanian prose. His modest religious poetry is, nonetheless, not devoid of interest. The corpus of his verse are the Songs of the Ten Sibyls (the Cumaean, Libyan, Delphic, Persian, Erythraean, Samian, Cumanian, Hellespontic, Phrygian, and Tiburtine), which are imbued with the Baroque penchant for religious themes and Biblical allusions.[13]
In October of 1689 aHabsburg general namedJohann Norbert Piccolomini had penetrated deep inside the Ottoman territory with his army, reachingPrishtina. It would become the chief town of his short lived campaign. It is during this initiative that many local figures joined the Habsburgs to form an overall revolt against the Ottoman Empire.[14] Reports from the time consider Bogdani as a key local figure of this movement.[15] In some media he is even mentioned as the ‘Archbishop of Albania’, a position that did not exist at the time.[16] The campaign was, however, short lived. In the early days of November 1689 when Piccolomini died after a plague infection, Bogdani stood by him inPrizren. As a bishop he even administered the religious sacraments. There he would get infected himself. A few weeks later, in early December, he was transferred to Prishtina, where some German doctors had improvised a hospital. Succumbing to the disease, he died in the early morning of the 6th of December. By him stood several Habsburg generals, and an unnamed Albanian prelate. In a testament written just a few days before he seems to have been prepared for his faith:
This is my last will, for this testament, so that it can be implemented as best as possible after my death. And the auditor and other officials who stand in the quarters here in the said city [Pristina], were ordered to be summoned; I myself have asked them to sign and seal this will after me with their hand and seal. This was done in the city of Pristina and on the above day. Pjeter Bogdani Archbishop of Skopje, hand himself.[17]
He was buried in the main mosque of Prishtina, then turned church, on the right side of the altar. As was witnessed by his nephew, only a few weeks later, when the city would fall again in the hands of the Ottomans, his body was removed by the tartar soldiers and fed to the dogs in the main market of the city.[18][14]
TheNational Library of Kosovo in Prishtina is named after Pjetër Bogdani. He is depicted on theobverse of the Albanian 1000lekë banknote issued since 1996.[19]
Born in Gur i Hasit near Prizren about 1630, Bogdani was educated in the traditions of the Catholic Church, to which he devoted all his energy.
He further notes the villages Gur, Shegjeç and Zogaj, whose exact location is not known, but which most probably lie in the vicinity of Gjakova and Prizren in the Has region.
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