Gjon Buzuku's Meshari (first book printed in Albanian)
Meshari de Gjon Buzuku (primer libro impreso en albanés)
- Date
- 1555 · confidence high
- Place
- Venice, Veneto, Italy
- Credited to
- Gjon Buzuku, Albanian Catholic priest
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A missal in the Geg dialect with liturgical and biblical texts, dated 1555. It is the oldest surviving printed book in Albanian.
A single incomplete copy survives in the Vatican Library. The place of printing is not recorded; Venice is the most likely but is debated, and it is not known which Albanian locality Buzuku came from.
What it led to
- Albanian literary prose and a Latin alphabet adapted with its own signs
- a reference for 16th-century Albanian