The formula e pagëzimit ( en,

baptismal Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost inv ...

formula) is the oldest written document with a writing in Albanian which has been found. The document is “Codex Ashburnham” dated November 8, 1462, and it contains various notes on Albania written in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

by Archbishop

Pal Engjëlli Pal Ëngjëlli ( la, Paulus Angelus; 1416 – 1470) was an Albanian Roman Catholic cardinal, clergyman, scholar, and Archbishop of Durrës who in 1462 wrote the first known sentence retrieved so far in Albanian. Pal Ëngjëlli is reported to h ...

. The sentence in Old Albanian is: In modern Albanian it is: ''Unë të pagëzoj në emër të Atit, të Birit, e të Shpirtit të Shenjtë''. In English it is: "I baptize thee in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit". The document is held in the

Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana The Laurentian Library (Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana or BML) is a historic library in Florence, Italy, containing more than 11,000 manuscripts and 4,500 early printed books. Built in a cloister of the Medicean Basilica di San Lorenzo di Firenze ...

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, where it was discovered in 1915 by

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania ** Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditiona ...

scholar Nicolae Iorga. Albanian scripts were produced earlier than Formula e pagëzimit, we know of their existence by earlier references, for example a French monk noted in 1332, that "although the Albanians have another language totally different from Latin, ''they still use Latin letters in all their books.''Demiraj, Shaban. "Albanian". In Ramat and Ramat (2006), ''The Indo-European Languages''. Page 480

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Formula e pagezimit Albanian language Albanian literature