In Tirana, Theofan Popa, an epigraphist and scholar of medieval art, passed away. He was born in Elbasan in 1913. He studied at the theological seminary in Manastir (1926–1936) and then pursued two years of higher education in Athens, also in theology. He authored numerous scholarly articles on medieval cultural monuments, particularly focusing on painters like Onufri, Kostandin Shpataraku, etc. He published the books: “Piktorët mesjetarë shqiptarë” (“Albanian Medieval Painters”) (1961), “Ikona dhe miniatura mesjetare” (“Icons and Miniatures of the Middle Ages”) (1974), equipped with necessary illustrations and dense texts, of significant scientific research value. His major work “Mbishkrime të kishave në Shqipëri” (“Inscriptions of Churches in Albania”) (1998) holds multifaceted documentary importance and represents the synthesis of his decades-long activities in finding, collecting, processing, and arranging church inscriptions in Albania. In 2006, another work of his was published, “Miniatura dhe piktura mesjetare në Shqipëri, shekujt VI–XIV” (“Miniatures and Medieval Paintings in Albania, 6th–14th Centuries”). (In the photo: Theofan Popa)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 3 , Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2009, page 2065.
Photo: © https://adsh.al/s/elbasani/item/12012
Graphic processing: AHCF
