Introducing the 500/200 Albanian Protestant Commemorative Book Series
The 500/200 Commemorative Series is published to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation in Europe (1517), the 200th anniversary of the Protestant movement among the Albanians (marked by the letter of Robert Pinkerton to the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1816, urging the society to engage in the translation of the New Testament into Albanian), the 150th anniversary of the publication of the Albanian Gospels in the Gheg dialect (1866, a work published under the leadership of Alexander Thomson and the British and Foreign Bible Society), the 125th anniversary of the opening of the Albanian language school for girls in 1891 in Kortcha, the 125th anniversary of the founding of the Albanian Evangelical Brotherhood in Kortcha (established in 1892 for the propagation of the Gospel and the development of Albanian literature within Albania), the 100th anniversary of Paraskevi Kyrias’ Albanian-English periodical Yll’i Mëngjezit (Morning Star, 1917), and the 20th anniversary of the death of Edwin Jacques, evangelical missionary in Albania from 1932–40 and author of The Albanians: an Ethnic History from Pre-historic Times to the Present.
The 500/200 Commemorative Series will include the following titles in English and Albanian:
- Albania and the Albanians in the Annual Reports of the British and Foreign Bible Society, 1805–1955
- Albania and the Albanians in the Annual Reports of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, 1820–1924
- Travels in Albania, Selected Writings from British Authoresses, 1717–1878
- Krestomaci: vjersha, këngë, dialogë, përralla (1902 and 1907, Gerasim and George Kyrias)
- Udhëtari nga kjo botë në tjetrën (John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, written in 1678 and translated by George Kyrias in 1894)
- Historia e Shenjtës Shkronjë dhe Katër Katekizma (a Bible story book for children, 1870)
- Mësime të vyera të folura në mësonjëtoret shqipe të çupave në Korçë (a book about the Gospel used to teach Albanian in girls’ schools, 1896)