Anselmo Lorecchio (1843–1924), Arbëresh publicist, passed away in Rome. He stood out as an activist in the cultural and political movement of the Arbëresh people in Italy. He was born in Puheri (Pallagorio), Catanzaro (Italy) province. 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 Koriliano-Kalabro, 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 establishing comprehensive Italian-Albanian relations. He became known as the director of the biweekly newspaper “La nazione albanese” (1897-1924) (“The 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 Lorecchio 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 become”) and “Historia e jetës dhe bëmave të Skënderbeut” (“The history of the life and deeds of Skanderbeg”). He is the author of biographies of well-known figures from the world of Arbëresh. Anselmo Lorecchio supported the idea of the pelasgian origin of the Albanians. On March 2, 1922, Anselmo Lorecchio, at the proposal of Fan Noli, was appointed representative of the Albanian state near the Holy See. The newspaper “La nazione albanese” was also closed with his death. 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://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anselmo_Lorecchio
Graphic processing: AHCF
