Anselmo Lorecchio, Arbër publicist, was born in Pallagario in Calabria. He stood out as an activist of the cultural and political movement of Arbëresh people in Italy. After finishing his higher studies in jurisprudence in Naples, he worked as the provincial secretary of Catanzaro. He participated in the Arbëresh Linguistic Congress in Corigliano Calabro, in 1895, where he was elected secretary of the Albanian National Society that was founded there. In 1897 he presided over the Linguistic Congress in Lungro of Calabria. He is the author of a series of articles and several studies on the Albanian national issue, where he expressed his opinion on the establishment of comprehensive Italian-Albanian relations. He became known as the director of the biweekly newspaper “La nazione albanese” (1897-1924) (“Albanian nation”), which gave a wide echo to the Albanian National Movement. Although he published articles on the autonomy and independence of Albania in that newspaper, he generally supported Rome’s policy of strengthening Italian political and economic influence in Albania. Anselmo Lorekio was the initiator of the Italian translation and publication of Sami Frashëri’s work ““Shqipëria ç’ka qenë, ç’është dhe çdo të bëhetë” (“Albania, what it was, what it is and what it will be”)and Marin Barleti’s “Historisë së jetës dhe bëmave të Skënderbeut” (“To Skanderbeg’s life and deeds”). He is the author of biographies of well-known figures from the world of Arbëreshë. Anselmo Lorekio supported the idea of the Pelasgian origin of the Albanians. On March 2, 1922, Anselmo Lorekio, at Fan Noli’s proposal, was appointed representative of the Albanian state near the Holy See. He passed away in Rome, in 1924. With his death, the newspaper “La nazione albanese” was also closed. The entire collection of 27 volumes of that newspaper is preserved in the National Library in Tirana. (In the photo: Anselmo Lorecchio)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 2 , Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2008, page 1536-1537.
Photo: © https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anselmo_Lorecchio
Graphic processing: AHCF
