On April 13, 1882 , in Livorno, Italy, Dhimitër Kamarda (it. Demetrio Camarda), Arbëresh linguist and philologist, clergyman, passed away. He was born in Hora e Arbëreshëve in Sicily and studied to become a priest in Rome. After being ordained in the byzantine rite in 1844, he lived in Naples and in his native village until 1848, when he was expelled from the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies by the Bourbon authorities, on the charge that he had collaborated with the liberals. In the beginning, he went to Rome and then to the benedictine monastery of Cesena. In 1852, he was appointed a teacher at the secondary school in Livorno, where he spent the rest of his life as a parish priest. Dhimitër Kamarda was among the cultural leaders of Arbëresh in the nineteenth century, whose publications in the Albanian language and literature inspired not only Albanians in Italy, but also gave rise to the Renaissance movement in the homeland. Kamarda is mentioned for his work “Saggio di grammatologia comparata sulla lingua albanese”, Livorno, 1864 (“Comparative grammatology essay on the Albanian language”), one of the first works of Albanian diachronic philology, where he tried to prove the affinity of the Albanian language with Greek. This work was followed by “Appendice al saggio di grammatologia comparata”, Prato, 1866 (“Appendix to the essay on comparative grammatology”), a collection of Arbëresh folk songs. Kamarda also wrote a grammar of the Albanian language and published a book of Albanian poetry dedicated to Dora d’Istria, with the title “A Dora d’Istria, gli Albanesi”, Livorno, 1870 (“To Dora d’Istria, the Albanians”), which contained poems by Preng Doçi, Zef Jubani, Thimi Mitko, Jeronim de Rada, Françesk Anton Santori, Zef Serembe, etc. (In the photo: Dhimitër Kamarda)
Text: Robert Elsie, History of Albanian literature, “Dukagjini”, Pejë, 2001, pages 142-143.
Photo: © Xhoxhi L., personal archive
Graphic processing: AHCF
