by Moris Vorpsi
Abstract
A 1308 anonymous treatise titled Description of Eastern Europe, discovered by Olgierd Górka, provides valuable and accurate information about Arbëria (Albania) and neighboring regions.
The author, likely a Catholic monk living in the Balkans, described Arbëria as a region, province, and kingdom without a king, divided among independent local princes. He emphasized that Albanians had a distinct language, different from Latin, Greek, and Slavic. The treatise reflects direct knowledge of the region and confirms the political fragmentation and autonomy of Albanian rulers at the time. It documents an important period when local Albanian leaders governed independently and formed early principalities.
Geographical, historical, and even “royal” Arbëria will be found accurately recorded in one of the most original treatises of the early 14th century. It refers to the treatise which was likely titled Description of Eastern Europe. Its original has been lost and the author is unknown—he is anonymous.
The Polish scholar Olgierd Górka, who discovered and published it, believed the author was a Dominican or Franciscan monk who had lived for a long time in the Balkans. The text clearly reveals not only his Catholicism, but also his sympathy for France and the French, as an admirer and advisor of Charles de Valois, brother of Philip IV of France, a renowned military leader and claimant to the imperial throne of Constantinople.
Górka dated the treatise to the spring of 1308 and noted that, in addition to personal knowledge, the Anonymous author used various French sources.
In the treatise, he described in sequence, providing both geographical and historical information, the “Empire of Constantinople,” Arbëria (Albania), Serbia, Bulgaria, Ruthenia, Hungary, Poland, and Bohemia. Many of his observations about the peoples of the region, based on direct knowledge, are of rare value. After analyzing the treatise in a 49-page study, Górka concluded that it contained no “substantive errors.”
According to him, the Anonymous author did not invent anything, but told only truths that deserve to be trusted. One example is his observation about the Albanian language:
“They Albanians have a language different from Latin, Greek, and Slavic, and therefore they do not understand other nations at all.”
The Anonymous author described Arbëria first as a region (regio) and a province (provincia). He then treated it as a kingdom, part of which, together with Durrës, was possessed at the time by the Prince of Taranto.
However, regarding political Arbëria as a whole, he made an important clarification:
“The said Kingdom of Albania (Albanie regnum) now has no king, and the territory is divided among local princes, who govern themselves and are not subject to anyone.”
Thus, the Anonymous author recorded the historical moment of the rise of several Albanian lords, who would soon claim, if not the “Kingdom of Arbëria,” at least independent principalities within it.
