Edon Muhaxheri 'revives' first Albanian alphabet of Naum Veqilharxhi

Edon Muhaxheri 'revives' first Albanian alphabet of Naum Veqilharxhi

 Edon Muhaxheri is a student who years ago won a scholarship for Fulbright program, while hi opened the exhibition as part of his graduation in Maryland Institute College of Art.

He devoted this exhibition to Naum Veqilharxhi, the inventor of Albanian Renaissance and author of the first Albanian ABC.

"I have a special passion for Albanian culture. During research for my thesis I wanted to connect my work with Automaton and culture. I challenged my self with one of the most complicated Automaton, the one who writes" Muhaxheri shows some details for KultPlus.

The school where he operates with Albanian project is the oldest school of art in America. His studies are focused on the design and construction of mechanical toys known as Automatone. These mechanical toys have been present more than 400 years ago, while the peak of their development has been achieved in 1700-1800 by European watchmaker.

He shows that during the investigation, noted that Naum Veqilharxhi has designed a special alphabet, and after consulting with various linguists, Edoni realized that this alphabet had lost. With a simple online search, he says he found incomplete view of a different alphabet from the Latin, Greek or Arabic.

He found later a copy of the original first edition of 1844.

"I was amazed by the creativity of Naum Veqilharxhi. I was shocked by the fact that nobody talks about this national treasure. I started work on identifying the Albanian original letters and their use in the typographical elements."

Edon Muhaxheri 'revives' first Albanian alphabet of Naum Veqilharxhi

His story is remarkable, a passionate young man who wants who is dedicated to decipher something of the Albanian past.

"Then I digitised the writing Naum and I created modern font families, in a way that Vithkuqi (as Naumi calls his alphabet, according to the village he comes from) can be used for recreation today" Edoni Says.

He says he understands that this script today can not be introduced in the Albanian language but nevertheless undoubtedly represents a part of the Albanian cultural heritage, and should lighten or used further at least only in the world of design, perhaps in national symbols.

Edon Muhaxheri 'revives' first Albanian alphabet of Naum Veqilharxhi

He plans to publish the book next month bringing thus a brief history of the events that led to the attempt to create an original Albanian alphabet.

"There I've described the journey of the Greek, Roman, Slavic letters and the establishment of the Albanian alphabet. The study reaffirms through historical acts that Illyrians and Albanians are the same people who at various times were called differently from the surrounding nations. In the meantime the work about Automatone who writes are in the final phase" Muhaxheri says.

A larger version of the exhibition will be opened in Washington at the end of the month, in order to attract even more attention of world art galleries about Albanian culture./Oculus News

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