Lekë Matrënga

Lekë Matrënga (Italian Luca Matranga , * 1567 in Piana degli Albanesi in Sicily ; † 1619 ibid) was a Catholic clergyman of Albanian origin. With the publication of a short catechism in Albanian in 1592, Matrënga achieved great importance for the Albanian literary and linguistic history , because his work is the first printed version in the Tuscan dialect .

Lekë Matrënga attended the Greek College in Rome from 1582 to 1587 , where at that time most of the Catholic priests received their training in the Byzantine rite . In 1591 he was ordained a priest . Ten years later he is employed as a pastor in Piana degli Albanesi. He died as an archpriest in his hometown.

Matrënga translated a catechism of the Spanish Jesuit Jacobus Ledesma into the Italian-Albanian dialect of the Arbëresh and had the work printed in Rome in 1592 under the title E mbsuame e krështerë (German Christian teaching). The copy in the Vatican Library was lost in the middle of the 20th century, but has been preserved through photocopies and has been scientifically evaluated several times. Matteo Mandalà found another copy in the Roman Biblioteca Angelica and published it in 2004 as part of an extensive study of this work. Numerous deviations from the lost copy show that the book was set at least twice. The Vatican Library still has three manuscripts of Matrënga's catechism.

literature

• Joachim Matzinger: The old Albanian text Mbsuame e Krështerë (Dottrina Cristiana) by Lekë Matrënga from 1592. An introduction to Albanian linguistics. (= Jena Indo-European text processing. 3). Dettelbach 2006, ISBN 3-89754-117-3 .
• Peter Bartl: Matranga, Llukë . In: Biographical Lexicon on the History of Southeast Europe . Volume 3. Munich 1979, p. 115 f.
• Matteo Mandalà: Luca Matranga - E mbsuame e krështerë. Caltanissetta 2004.
• Fadil Sulejmani: E mbsuame e krështerë e Lekë Matrëngës. Prishtina 1979.
• Matteo Sciambra: La "Dottrina christiana" albanese di Luca Matranga. Riproduzione, trascrizione e commento del Codice Barberini latino 3454. (= Studi e testi. Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. 240). Città del Vaticano 1964.