Old Albanian literature in a challenge of conception and restudy

By: Evalda Paci

The study of old Albanian literature is an object of discussion that also requires a certain difference in directions and views, among which we should first mention the adaptation of arguments related to it, at school levels, mainly pre-university, necessary to prepare other study approaches that take a concrete trend in the branches in which this literature, in terms of periods and works, is studied as part of an organized program.

A literature like the old Albanian one contains authors, works and documents, which have long been included in discussions and processes due to the necessity of chronological accuracy, dialect affiliation, the texts in which they could be part, the authorial will in special cases etc.

The authors of the works of this literature turn out to be the object of concrete evidence in many registers and documents of the time in which they lived, with the exception of the author of Meshari, for whom it is still hypothesized regarding the surname and the corresponding origin. The discovery of a locality in which he must have performed the services and functions of the priest would constitute a more than satisfactory solution, in the conditions in which more concrete data is already known and about other prelates of the close periods, engaged also in similar enterprises of publication and preparation of works important for the culture and history of the press.

The knowledge and availability of data on authors and works is not always complete and in relation to the same issues in other parts of Europe, a fact that is conditioned by other circumstances, related to the possibility of correct identification of indices. that under certain conditions may not have been stored in the correct completeness. A certain culture, which has to do with the printed book and its presentation to the reader, was cultivated in a special way in the centuries in which they saw the light of publication and works of old Albanian literature, and such a fact is reflected in their various passages, precisely with the tendency to express and recognize the models already existing in Europe and in places closer in geographical terms.

Centuries of fundamental reforms in the history of the church and in human philosophical thought were significantly reflected in the culture of reading and studying the fundamental arguments in these fields, even more so in relation to Christian theology and in its in-depth knowledge in various environments. cultural.

The treatment of the texts of this literature at pre-university levels remains a necessity to be considered, even as regards the parts that represent typical models of the construction of introductions, paragraphs that present the author's work with the work and others similar, that carry the characteristics of a period in which special writing and textual features are encountered, comparable to other works of the time, in nearby geographical areas. Models of the compilation of a concluding text, issues of distinguishing elements that are characteristic of the period in question, but also mark the characteristics of a specialized language related to the work, can become the object of a more simplified analysis, but always with importance for an education with literary and writing values ​​of a more distant time for today's generations.

We must take into account the special care that presupposes the treatment of classical authors in high schools and high schools in European countries, in particular in countries where an early connection with Latinity and classical culture in general is maintained, the latter being fundamental in the earliest programs of the first schools on the continent.

The very issue of the transmission of the texts of the most important authors of Greek and Latin classicism included a separate tradition of publications, reproductions, studies and re-treatments that became the object of disciplines such as paleography, history of writing, philology of old and medieval texts.

The bringing back of such texts by the hands of copyists, in later stages of the development of the culture of writing, constitutes a special chapter of knowledge on such a tradition, which survived in the wake of many changes that came naturally and somehow facilitated the approximation of individual and society with the book as a notion and further, with the interior of many manuals that constitute for us a symbological range on classical literature, the disciplines of natural sciences, customary codes and corpora that continued to be recovered from generation to generation, continuing to evoke cultural and lifestyle features in early societies, which were transmitted and thanks to this technology that was concretized sometimes by means of handwriting techniques, sometimes by means of tools and methods that made it possible for letter characters to be typed and printed in complex processes ever more elaborate.

Europeanity maintains strong links with such programs, in which the history of antiquity, but also other disciplines that evoke it, have found from the beginning a space and natural breathing, which is reflected even today in monumental complexes and the library and special funds, in which culture is transmitted naturally and freely.

Having the same attention for the earliest works of written documentation of our language and literature constitutes an objective that is not separated even from the methodology of the latter's implementation.

Acquaintance with the texts of this literature comes first in other times, in other circumstances of cultivating the use of books and contact with the earliest written monuments of Albanian and related literature, but also with other perspectives regarding the realization for publication of their poems, all of special study and scientific interest, moreover, evidence of a special culture that fortunately was reflected in our years.

A clear attention to these sources of the earlyness of the written tradition in our language stands out at the beginning of the given century, while the tradition itself had a clear continuity of consolidation from work to work, from century to century.

It is the very formats of the texts and manuals, in which this literature is included and treated in a special way, that offer methodological models of conception and a complex view that does not lose its value even today, in the conditions of the availability of the most advanced publications. complete works that represent the history of Albanian writing and the earliest monuments of its testimony.

The access to these texts came in particular for the needs of the study, but also for a necessary awareness of the first decades of the last century, precisely for the years that preceded or coincided with the declaration of independence in our country.

Temporary announcements and magazines of the time regarding the written monuments of old Albanian and their evidence in the libraries and archives of the time are documented precisely in such a period, in which the consolidation of the Albanian state was felt as a necessity and a need for renewal of the life and culture of the nation.

There are also parts from these works, as well as the data that were available on the existence of their special specimens in conjunction with the cultural climate of the time, in which the approach to a culture of national memory, which is precisely represented, takes on an importance of its own. with publications of centuries of importance and for the very developments in Europe.

An accurate and constantly up-to-date record would help such a panorama, which is worth noting along with the importance of paying attention to the earliest written evidence in our language. , object of interest for foreign researchers for the relevant subsystems and other constitutive features that made it possible to expand approaches and comparisons with other idioms and languages ​​of the same geocultural area.

The commitment of the prelates of the Arbëresh territories had an important role in orienting a concrete attention to texts, fragments, but also works that attracted the interest of researchers who meanwhile were equally well acquainted with a heritage cultivated in previous centuries, from authors who to this day represent church literature in these countries, together with a series of features and elements that approach literature, but also a culture of writing that constitutes a uniqueness that is divided into special profiles such as Matranga, Variboba, Santori, etc. .

It took a lot of contributions, but also a lot of trials to give this literature a meritorious profile, rich in characteristics, achievements, influences, authors, efforts to concretize through it a substrate that contained and elements of a wealth that had been carried early by a people who sought their destiny and beyond the shores of their lands.

The recovery of the most important trials of the first decades of the last century, in which a tendency to make known as much as possible the value of this literature and the works that represented it, proves above all that the researchers of the time they were clear that the memory of such a period, which recognized similar developments in our years and those of Arbëresh, but not completely the same in terms of progress and of the land itself that supported such compilations, would further constitute a important premise to return to it for a number of reasons, above all academic, but also for the need to find connections between the contributions of the 16th centuries and beyond and the efforts to preserve a national identity that distinguishes and unites us even today of this day.

The complex view on the initiation of such traditions will definitely find connections with other developments that were reflected in Europe and the Balkans, while in the process of tracking the contents of the works of Arberian written literature, often carrying features that were found before and in the oral culture of the respective populations, a whole heritage can be found, that the very circumstances of preservation and transmission make it an object of interest for many disciplines of knowledge.

The consideration of this heritage in conjunction with the processes that have been carried out for years, over the centuries, related to the earliest written evidence available in our language, constitutes a necessary premise in the case of returning attention to the earliest stages of Albanian written literature. .