Girolamo de Rada

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Girolamo de Rada (before 1903)

Girolamo de Rada (known in Albania as Jeronim de Rada ; born November 19, 1814 , † 1903 ) was an Albanian-Italian ( Arbëresh ) writer.

Life

Plaque on the house where Girolamo De Rada was born

De Rada was born the son of a dad of the Italo-Albanian Church in Macchia Albanese, a fraction of San Demetrio Corone ( Calabria ). He attended the Collegio Italo-Albanese di Sant'Adriano (Italo-Albanian boarding school Sant'Adriano) in San Demetrio Corone and then studied law in Naples from 1834 at the request of his father . His interest in literature and Albanian folklore arose early on, so he collected songs and poems from the Arbëresh .

In 1836 de Rada published his first major work from his own pen. It was about the Këngët e Milosaos ("The Songs of Milosao"), in which de Rada tells the love story of a certain Milosao, who is said to have been the son of a prince of Shkodra in the 15th century , with Rina, daughter of a shepherd. For this poem he was inspired by Albanian folk poetry. Soon after, de Rada had to interrupt his law studies because of a cholera epidemic that broke out in Naples and he returned to Calabria.

In his publications that followed soon, he again used legendary material from medieval Albanian history. In 1839 the first version of the Canti storici albanesi di Serafina Thopia, moglie del principe Nicola Ducagino ("Historical Albanian songs of Serafina Thopia, wife of Prince Nikola Dukagjin") and Skënderbeu i pafat ("The unfortunate Skanderbeg ") appeared.

Edition of Fiamuri i Arbërit dated January 20, 1886

During this time, de Rada came into conflict several times with the Bourbon authorities of the Kingdom of Naples, because he would have expressed sympathy with the liberal Italian national movement Risorgimento in his works . Indeed, he felt spiritually connected to Italian liberalism. In 1846 de Rada published I Numidi ("The Numidians"), an Italian-language historical tragedy, which he also reworked into a stage play 50 years later. In the revolutionary year of 1848, the writer founded the newspaper L'Albanese d'Italia , a bilingual Italian-Albanian publication, and the first newspaper ever to print articles in Albanian ( Fiamuri i Arbërit ).

Jeronim De Rada Monument in Tirana

By using historical material from Albania from the pre-Ottoman period, de Rada became one of the intellectual pioneers of the Albanian independence movement in the early 20th century. Not least because of this, the Albanians have always considered him one of their most important writers. But the author himself never visited Albania.

Works

  • Poetry albanesi del secolo XV. Canti di Milosao, figlio del despota di Scutari (Albanian Këngët e Milosao , 1836).
  • Canti storici albanesi di Serafina Thopia, moglie del principe Nicola Ducagino (Naples 1839);
  • I Numidi (ibid. 1846).
  • Opera Omnia di Girolamo De Rada. 3 vols. 2006. ISBN 88-498-1476-3 (modern Alb.-Italian edition).

literature

  • Thomas Kacza: Jeronim de Rada (1814-1903) . Berlin 1989 (Biblioteca Nazionale di Cosenza / CSA0014973).
  • Jup Kastrati: Studime Studime për De Radën. Botohet me rastin e 100 vjetorit të vdekjes së De Radës . New York 2003.
  • Martin Camaj: De Rada, Jeronim , in: Biographical Lexicon for the History of Southeast Europe . Vol. 1. Munich 1974, pp. 389-391

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Secular clergyman in the Eastern Church
personal data
SURNAME Rada, Girolamo de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rada, Jeronim de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Albanian-Italian writer
DATE OF BIRTH November 19, 1814
DATE OF DEATH 1903