Sotir Kolea is an Albanian lexicographer, folklorist, publicist, activist of the National Movement and director of the National Library in 1928.  

Kolea was born in Berat, on September 4, 1872. He attended the Greek language high school in Manastir. In 1896, he worked as a teacher of the Albanian language in the Albanian community of Kavalla.

In 1911, he was elected secretary of the “Union” association in Egypt. He participated in the London mission together with Rasih bey Dino and Mehmet bey Konica. Together with Faik Konica, he organized the Congress of Trieste, in Austria-Hungary in the period February 27 – March 6, 1913.

In 1915, he directed the French-language newspaper “L’Albanie” in Lausanne, Switzerland.

On June 29, 1919, he addressed a memorandum to the Italian poet D’Annuncio, where he appeals to the conscience of the poet and artist to prevent the conquering thirst of Italy. He participated in the Peace Conference, but after realizing the great disagreements between the various Albanian political forces, he decided to dedicate himself to his private life. 

On December 20, 1927, with a letter, Mit’hat Frashëri was the first to announce the decision of the Council of Ministers, which appointed Sotir Kolean director of the National Library and Museum. In the years 1928-1945, he contributed to the development of national cultural values. The establishment of the National Museum, the establishment of scientific foundations and the enrichment of the fund of books and documents with special national values ​​of the National Library as director is to his credit. From the 4,000 that was the number of books in the National Library in January 1928 when he took office and until 1937, when he retired, Kolea increased the book fund with 14,000 new titles, published numerous annual periodicals on the library’s activities with relevant bibliographic descriptions of many works of interest for studies.

Kolea had special merits for collecting important documents with historical value, among which, the first presentation of the manuscript of Kosta Berati, the history of the origin of the national flag raised in Vlora on November 28, 1912, discovered and collected documents about Skenderbeg, bibliographic information about Shtjefë Gjeçov, Jani Vruhon, Jani Vreto, Fan Nolin, Shirokë, etc., funds that are today a national treasure thanks to his work. Kolea did a lot of research in foreign libraries for documents of historical and cultural value for Albania. Under his care, the National Museum became the center where old historical objects began to be collected, and he himself, one of the most determined fighters for their protection from foreign archaeologists, who received quite a few archaeological values ​​and discoveries in Butrint, Apollonia, Lezha, Shkodra and elsewhere. In 1937, Sotir Kolea retired and it was time to get the sense of work for the organization, processing, publication of all the research and studies started in his youth, so he settled in Elbasan, a city where a group of well-known language researchers lived, such as: Aleksandër Xhuvani, Simon Shuteriqi, Lef Nosi, Kristo Floqi, etc. On April 8, 1940, he was elected a member of the Institute of Albanian Studies headed by Ernest Koliqin, where prominent intellectuals such as P. Anton Harapi, Eqerem Çabej, etc. were gathered.

His greatest, most complete scholarly work remains the drafting of 5 dictionaries, the most important of which is the Albanian language, still unpublished, for which he worked from 1905 until the end of his life, using the method of comparison for each Albanian words with the largest dictionaries published in Greek and French. During 30 years, he worked on the drafting of the Albanian-French dictionary, one for orientalisms, which are not rare in the Albanian language.

From 1909 in Alexandria and until 1915 in Lausanne, Kolea compiled the Albanian-Greek dictionary, with 68,963 words, which is found as a manuscript, another for Albanian-Turkish, etc. A researcher with strong work discipline, he left the dictionary of botany, apart from manuscripts with studies on ethnography, the discovery of Butrint, the toponymy of Albania, etc. Kolea’s contribution has its own great weight in the development of Albanian scientific disciplines such as: lexicography, folkloristics, natural sciences, etc. All in numerous manuscripts, which are today in the State archive in the “Kolea” fund, one of the largest, which has been used by many researchers. In 1944, his work “A bunch of proverbs” was published in Tirana with the help of Lef Nosi. Sotir Kolea passed away on July 3, 1945.

/Klara Ruci/