Mark Bregu - Tribuna Shqiptare

NE KUADRIN E JUBILEUT TE MADH TE 100 VJETORIT TE SHPALLJES SE PAVARESISE
Tests and documents of
Albanian History
By Robert Elsie
Dr. ROBERT ELSIE
1474
George Merula:
The Siege of Shkodra
The Italian humanist and historian George Merula
(1430-1494), also known as Georgius Merula
Alexandrinus or Giorgio Merlano di Negro, was born in
Alessandria in northern Italy. He studied in Milan
under Francesco Filelfo in 1444-1446 and later in
Rome, Padua and Mantua. From 1465-1482, he was
professor of rhetoric in Venice. Invited back to Lombardy
by Ludovico il Moro of the powerful Sforza dynasty, he
taught in Padua (1483-1485) and finally at the
Accademia in Milan (1485-1494). Aside from his
editions and commentaries of many Roman authors,
Merula is the author of a moving description of the
Turkish siege of Shkodra (Bellum Scodrense), composed
in Latin in September 1474. The fortress of Shkodra
finally fell to the Ottoman Turks in January 1479.
George Merula of Alessandria conveys his
greetings to Jacob Merula and Francesco
Gambarini.
I assume you are all waiting anxiously to find
out what the savage and mighty enemy of
Christianity (1) has been preparing to do against
us, in particular if we take account of what he
accomplished this summer. Had he attained his
objectives, he would easily have committed the
greatest massacre planned for many years.
Initially, he intended to attack Italy and to
plunge the country into strife, just as our
forefathers had suffered severely, who, like
beasts, spent centuries hiding in the most isolated
recesses of the mountains and in the depths of
caves (2). In fact, the Turk initially beat the King
of Persia, (3) soundly defeating a good portion of
his army by the favourable position he had taken
and by means of the military equipment he had.
The Persian cavalry, trounced and scattered by
the attack and all the commotion, abandoned the
battlefield and fled. Then he decided to attack
that part of Macedonia which is situated along
the Adriatic coast, and turned his attention to the
region now called Albania. Had he taken that
country, all the coastline including Dalmatia and
Liburnia (4) would have fallen immediately under
his sway, and, using the workforce there, at very
little expense, he would have built a great naval
fleet. Then, using his fleet to protect the Adriatic,
he would have taken Apulia and Calabria since
the distance across the sea from one side to the
other is not great, and would thus have secured
himself a means of penetrating further into Italy.
He was waiting for a favourable moment to let
his whole army feed on enemy land.
It was thus at the very time when the harvest
was drawing near on the fields of Epidamnus
(Durrës) and the other coastal regions, that he
summoned his general, whom the Turks in their
language call the Pasha of Roumelia, to his
headquarters in Moesia, in order to muster an
army. This man, having gathered there over one
hundred thousand soldiers, and with no one
knowing what he intended to do, i.e. whether he
intended to attack Pannonia or to cross over to
Asia, he pretended to return to Thrace and
Adrianople but, after marching for two
continuous days, he turned back, traversing in
one night the road he had been travelling along.
About the middle of May, sending sixty
cavalrymen as an advanced guard, he suddenly,
without warning, attacked and routed the
Macedonians. Then, having taken prisoner all the
scouts on the road before word could spread of
his unexpected victory, he advanced and set up
camp near Shkodra, which was once a Roman
city.
Shkodra, situated on the border with
Dalmatia and Macedonia, is a well-fortified city,
virtually on all four sites, both from its natural
position and because of its constructed
fortifications. Around the fortress are high cliffs
and from up top, one can observe all the
plainsbelow. On one side there is a more gradual
slope which leads one up to the fortress. The
waters of the Buna River flow by, right past the
bottom of the hill. Along this river, the waters of
a lake, of recent formation, flow into the sea. The
river is slightly larger than our Tanaro (5). Do
not be surprised that I claim the lake is of recent
origin, since it is not mentioned by the Greek
writers Strabo and Ptolemy, nor by the Roman
authors Pomponius Mela and Pliny. When they
30
mention the region, they refer only to the Drin
River. This river flows past Lissus, now called
Lezha, which separated Dalmatia from
Macedonia. We may assume that, had the lake
existed in ancient times, the said, well-known
geographers would not have been silent about it.
And indeed, islands and boulders from it have
found their way into the sea, and other rivers and
springs erupt from the earth there, new ones
every day, so that one is led to the conclusion
that the lake in question was formed a long
time after the above-mentioned writers. It has a
circumference of one hundred thousand paces
and is no smaller than Lake Como and Lake
Garda, two well-known lakes of our Cisalpine
Gaul.
The local people call the town Shkodra in
their language and the language of their
forefathers, whereas the Italians have now given
it a new foreign name, Scutari. The ruler of this
town was Antonio Loredano (Antonius
Lauretanus), a man who would have been the
pride of his grandfather Petrus, and who was a
worthy son of Jacob. It is to him that go the
honour and glory of saving the town, or better
said, of defending Christianity. In addition, he
paid honour to his lineage because he managed
to do something quite extraordinary by defeating
such a savage enemy.
When he learned that such a huge army was
about to attack in the land of Moesia, Antonio
Loredano, worried for himself and for his town
and knowing the strategic importance of Shkodra
for the Turks, gave orders that all grain, wherever
it could be found, be gathered and stored within
the walls. On the day before the arrival of the
barbarians, he summoned and gathered around
him in the fortress some of the young men of the
countryside who had come down from the
mountains. He then gave orders that water be
carried up to the town by means of beasts of
burden, as much as would be needed for a long
siege.
Këto dokumenta jepën
anglisht sipas redaktimit
tyne prej Dr. Robert
Elsie, që i ka përkthye
nga origjinalet përkatëse.
Na falni që nuk kemi
pasë mundësi t‟i
kthejmë shqip.