Marin Barleti
| Marin Barleti Marinus Barletius |
|
|---|---|
| Born | c. 1450-1460 Scutari, Republic of Venice (modern Shkodër, Albania) |
| Died | c. 1512/1513 (age 52–63) Padua, Republic of Venice (modern Padua, Italy) |
| Institutions | Church of St. Stephan |
| Known for | Author of Historia de vita et gestis Scanderbegi Epirotarum principis |
Marin Barleti (Latin: Marinus Barletius, Italian: Marino Barlezio; c. 1450–60 – c. 1512–13) was a historian and Catholic priest from Shkodra. He is considered the first Albanian historian because of his 1504 eyewitness account of the 1478 siege of Shkodra. Barleti is better known for his second work, a biography on Skanderbeg, translated into many languages in the 16th to the 20th centuries. Some scholars assert he was an ethnic Italian, while most Albanian scholars believe he was Albanian.
Barleti was born and raised in Scutari (modern Shkodra, Albania), then part of the Republic of Venice. Many western scholars believe that Barleti was an Italian settler from Italy, while most Albanian scholars today claim he was an ethnic Albanian. In 1474, the Ottoman Empire besieged Shkodra and Barleti participated in the successful defense of the town, both in the first siege in 1474 and the second in 1478. Both Barleti's parents were killed in the sieges. When Venice ceded Shkodra to the Ottomans in 1479, Barleti escaped to Italy where he would become a scholar of history, classical literature and the Latin language.
Soon after Barleti arrived in Venice, he was given a stall at the Rialto meat market as a temporary means of financial aid. In 1494 became a priest after his theological studies in Venice and Padova, and soon was appointed to serve at St. Stephen's Church in Piovene.
Barleti's first work was The Siege of Shkodra (Latin: De obsidione Scodrensi, Venice, 1504). It was published several times in Latin and translated into Italian, Polish, French, Albanian, and English. Barleti wrote this work as an eyewitness. Of this work, acclaimed Albanian author Ismail Kadare wrote that "if one were to search for a literary creation wholly worthy of the expression 'monumental work,' it would be hard to find a better example than The Siege of Shkodra."
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