On April 16, 1724 (or 1725), Jul Variboba (1724–1788), an Arbëresh poet, was born in Mbuzat (Italian: San Giorgio Albanese) in the province of Cosenza. At the age of 12, he entered the Korsini College in the Arbëresh village of San Benedeto Ulano, which he completed successfully. In 1749 he was ordained a priest and served for a while in the church of his hometown. Due to disagreements with his fellow villagers, because he liked the Latin (catholic) rite over the byzantine (orthodox) one, he was forced to leave the village. In 1761 he emigrated to Rome, where he served as a priest until he died. In Rome, he published his work “Gjella e Shën Mëris Virgjër” (“The Life of St. Mary the Virgin”) (1762). It contains a long epic-lyrical poem with over 4,700 lines, divided into two parts, and several lyrical verses that, in terms of subject matter, complement the poem. The poem is preceded by two very original short proses, which serve as a preface. Despite the religious subject, it departs quite a bit from the church tradition in the presentation of biblical figures, depicting them as ordinary people. Some of the poems of the work also contain verses of dances and poems similar to those of Arbëresh folk poetry. For the original way of treating the biblical subject, for the lyricism and for the mastery of the use of artistic tools, Jul Variboba’s poem is the most popular artistic work of the 18th century Arbëresh literature and the only one that saw the light of publication during that century. Variboba’s language is burdened with excessive use of Italianisms, often unnecessary. (In the photo: Jul Variboba)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 3 , Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2009, page 2855-2856.
Photo: © https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jul_Variboba
Graphic processing: AHCF
