Pope to bring digital copy of 16th century first Albanian book

“We have received the confirmation that the Pope will come to Albania along with the unique digital copy of Gjon Buzuku’s The Missal which will be added to the collection of the National Library,” said Prime Minister Rama.
TIRANA, Sept. 16 – Pope Francis’s visit to Albania will bring to Albania a digital copy of the 16th century first book written and published in Albanian, The Missal (Meshari), whose original version preserved at the Vatican Library was displayed in Albania for the first time in November 2012 as part as part of celebrations to mark the 100th anniversary of Albania’s independence.
The announcement came this week by Prime Minister Edi Rama visiting an exhibition of renowned Catholic writers and artists at the National Library.
“We have received the confirmation that the Pope will come to Albania along with the unique digital copy of Gjon Buzuku’s The Missal which will be added to the collection of the National Library,” said Prime Minister Rama, visiting the “Catholicism and culture” exhibition which has opened ahead of the Pope’s visit.
Known as Meshari (The Missal), the book was written by Gjon Buzuku, a northern Albanian Catholic cleric, who probably lived in or around Venice.
“Since the frontispiece and the first sixteen pages of the only copy of the book we possess, preserved in the Vatican Library, are missing, we unfortunately know neither its exact title nor its place of publication. In Albanian, it is known simply as the Meshari (The Missal), and was written in 1555. The scant information we do possess about the author comes from the colophon (postscript) of the missal which Buzuku wrote himself in Albanian, not unaware of the historic dimensions of his undertaking,” says Albanian studies specialist Robert Elsie.