Fishta’s magazine celebrates 100th anniversary

TIRANA, Dec. 4 – Hylli i Drites, a monthly magazine founded and edited by Father Gjergj Fishta, one of Albania’s greatest and most influential poets, soon after Albania declared its independence in 1912 has been digitized on its 100th anniversary. Several copies of the periodical from its 1913-1944 edition were featured last Sunday in retrospective exhibition at the National Library which made possible its digitization.
Aurel Plasari, the director of the Library and the editor of the magazine in the 1993-1997 period, said “the collections of the magazine have been put on display and visitors can encounter not only renowned members of the Franciscan Order such as Gjergj Fishta but even other renowned authors and foreign Albanologists.”
In October 1913, almost a year after the declaration of Albanian independence in Vlora, Gjergj Fishta founded and began editing the Franciscan monthly periodical ‘Hylli i Drit쳧 (The day-star) which was devoted to literature, politics, folklore and history. With the exception of the turbulent years of the First World War and its aftermath, 1915-1920, and the early years of the regime of Ahmet Zogu, 1925-1929, this influential journal of high literary standing was published regularly until July 1944 and became as instrumental for the development of northern Albanian Gheg culture as Faik bey Konitza’s Brussels journal ‘Albania’ had been for the Tosk culture of the south.