Marin Beçikemi was born in Shkodër, Albanian humanist, lecturer, writer and orator who developed his activity in exile. He was born in a family that had played a role in the history of the city. Together with many compatriots, he left his hometown in 1479, when Shkodra fell into the hands of the Ottomans. Marin Beçikemi grew up and was educated in Brescia, a city under the rule of Venice, where he received a serious training in classical languages. After 1494 he lived in Ragusa as a school rector; carried out diplomatic missions in the service of Venice, created a school of humanistic studies in that city, taught classical languages in Brescia, Padua, etc.; since 1517 he was called professor of rhetoric at the University of Padua. Marin Beçikemi raised entire generations of humanists; devoted a series of works, published in Venice, Rome, Paris, etc., to commenting on the analysis of the works of Cicero, Titus Livius, Pliny, Virgil, etc. Marin Beçikemi also created another literary genre, “Panegyrics“, boastful speeches dedicated to historical figures and events of the time. In the panegyric of 1503, Marin Beçikemi sets in motion all the tools of classical rhetorical art. At the same time, he gives an accurate picture of the history of half a century of the life of Shkodra and Northern Albania, culminating in the heroic defense of the city against two Ottoman sieges in 1474 and 1478. In it, one can feel the author’s pride for his homeland and his people, who revived in figures such as Skanderbeg and the defenders of Shkodra, the heroes of antiquity. He passed away in 1526. (In the photo: Marin Beçikemi by the painter Pjerin Sheldija.)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 1 , Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2008, page 199-200.
Graphic processing: AHCF
