Giuseppe Crispi, Hellenist, professor at the University of Palermo (1813), bishop (1836), passed away. He was born in the Arberesh illage of Palac Adriani (Sicily), in 1781. He dealt with the origins of the Albanians and our language, connecting them with the Pelasgians and the ancient Macedonians. He was the first in the 19th century to write about Gjon Buzuku’s “Meshari“ (“Missal”), from which he published a fragment, according to Gjon Kazazi’s letter, which gives the news of its discovery, in 1740, to Gjergj Guzzetta (Giorgio Guzzetta). He refers to the Albanian language “Albanese–Epirota“, together with the other Sicilian Arbëresh, Gjon Skiro (Giovanni Schiro’), who also wrote about the Pelasgian origins of the Albanian people. Zef Krispi began work on a large Albanian-Italian dictionary, but it was not completed. His most mentioned work is “Memorie storiche di talune costumanze appartenenti alle colonie greco-albanesi di Sicilia” (1853). Since 1831, he had published a “Memory” on the Albanian language, where he defended the same Pelasgian thesis. He gave Albanian folk songs from Sicily to the Italian folklorist L. Vigo, who published them in 1857. (In the photo: Giuseppe Crispi)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 2, Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2008, page 1348.
Graphic processing: AHCF
