Through an online publication, the Center for the Arbëreshi Studies and Publications introduces us to the interesting story of a prominent Albanian, who after leaving the Albania in 1478 managed to become a university dean.

He is Marin Beçikemi-Shkodrani, who 529 years ago, was the dean of the schools of Ragusa.

Marin Beçikemi was born in Shkodër in 1468. At the age of 10, when Shkodra fell under Ottoman rule, his parents were captured and he and his relatives moved to Brescia, at that time part of the Republic of Venice. After completing his studies in Brescia, in 1492 the Senate of the Republic of Ragusa, recognizing his rare skills and knowledge in languages, literature and classical rhetoric, invited him to become a professor, and on October 22, 1494, elected him Dean of the schools of Ragusa.

There, Beçikemi (according to the document ‘Marinum Becichi de Scutaro pro Rectore et magistro scholarum’ became famous as an erudite professor and humanist thinker during the years 1492-1496; 1504-1505, and in the years 1508-1510.

During his stay in this city, and precisely in 1495, he dedicated the first known work to the Prince and Senate of Ragusa, entitled: “Castigationes et observations in Virgilium, Ovidium, Ciceronem, Servium et Priscianum”.  He wrote commentaries on Cicero, Pliny, and other classical philosophers. A few years later, he became professor of rhetoric at the University of Padua.

/a.p./