In 1555, 470 years ago, the printed word in Albanian began its journey with “Meshari” (The Mess Liturgy Book) by Gjon Buzuku, where he wrote: “I, Gjoni, son of Bdek Buzuku, seeing that our language did not have anything holy written, for the love of Our World, wanted to try, as much as I could, to illuminate the minds of those who understand….” This was in the year 1555, twenty days of March, starting in the first month, and finishing in the same year.

“Meshari” (The Mess Liturgy Book) is considered the oldest literary work in Albanian, published and preserved to this day.

The book consisted of 110 pages, but the surviving copy is incomplete, missing the first 16 pages, including the cover and the main page.

Buzuku was a Catholic priest, the parish priest of a church in Northern Albania, not far from the place of publication, and one of the most important figures in the development of the Albanian language. With his work, he consolidated an important tradition of writing in the Albanian language using the Latin alphabet.

It was the Franciscan Father Justin Rrota who, in 1929, brought to Albania three photographed reproductions of the earliest book published in Albanian from the Apostolic Library of the Vatican.

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