LE SYMPOSIUM INTERNATIONAL LE LIVRE. LA ROUMANIE. L ...

250 John nandriŞ
this came into its own following the foundation among the Vlahs of odessa
of the Philike Hetairea, and during their overwhelmingly important role
in organizing the Greek War of Independence. this proclivity to publish
is of some interest in the light of the multiplicity of news-sheets which
appeared in romania after the downfall of ceauşescu. Both the Aromâni
and the romanians seem to share a partiality for the printed word, which
recurs among the American and German diaspora [eg., news-sheets such
as Frandza Vlaha or Zborlu Nostru]. the first printing presses outside
Istanbul were in Moschopolje 23 , the sophisticated Aromân “capital” in
the highlands of eastern Albania. the prosperity and even the incipient
nationhood which he saw flourishing in Moschopolje alarmed Ali pasha,
who sacked the town twice, in 1769 & 1788, provoking a diaspora of the
Vlahs throughout the Balkan peninsula.
the Vlahs may, in terms of the Greek census, have used Greek as their
“language of daily use”, but they mastered many other languages in their
capacity as traders. the paradox is that while they were so linguistically
gifted, their own latin language was for a long time not written down.
In Greece this was actively discouraged, and no support was offered for
schooling or for a Vlah orthodox priesthood. there was also politically
aggravated uncertainty about whether the orthography should be in latin or
Greek characters. A tendency to invent cumbersome accents and dipthongs
arose, which has put their language at an un-necessary disadvantage in the
world of information technology. Spelling was not standardised, making it
difficult to create or use a dictionary.
the Aromân brothers Markides puliu [Ar. puliu = a young bird, rom.
puiu.] who originated from Shiatishta, published in Vienna, but had to
leave habsburg territory when rigas was arrested in 1797. By that stage
printing had existed among the Vlahs for some time. there had been
several presses in the developing proto-urban centre of Vlah culture at
Moschopolje near Korcë, before its two-fold destruction by Ali pasha. A
whole history of printing is associated with the monasteries of Bucovina,
and there was a press at the monastery of Neamţ. it is hardly necessary to
recall the achievements in print of Dimitri Cantemir before and after 1700,
or of Andrei Şaguna whom we shall mention briefly below. it was the
printer Mihai Ştefan who produced the first liturgical book in Georgian in
Tiflis in 1710, under the adopted name of stefanişvili. The Manaki brothers
from Avdela near Grevena introduced cinematography to the Balkans two
23 peyFuS, Max Demeter, Die Druckerei von Moschopolis, 1731–1769. (Buchdruck
und heiligenverehrung im erzbistum Achrida. Wien - Köln 1989). [ = Wiener Archiv f.
Geschichte des Slawentums u. osteuropas. 13 ].