« Histoire de l’Albanie » de l’abbé Jean-Claude Faveyrial

Abbot in the Lazarist Order, Jean-Claude Faveyrial left a manuscript sketch of the history of the Albanians from antiquity to the last decades of the 19th century. He wrote it, most likely, in the period 1884–1889. The interest of knowing this writing, edited in 2001 by Robert Elsie, lies in the attempt to provide a chronological sequence of general Balkan events in which to find the few certain facts known about the Aromanians and Albanians. He mainly exploits the notes of Western travellers, Hammer’s history of the Ottoman Empire and the book of Aravantinos. The wealth of facts gathered would require establishing the sources (which are most often missing) or verifying the existing references. As the edited text shows, it would seem that the author was further from the final version than Robert Elsie assumed. The work retains its importance as a testimony of an intellectual deeply involved in the realities of the second half of the 19th century.