154 - Hyacinthe Hecquard: Histoire et Description de la Haute Albanie ou Geugarie. Paris, 1858

Hyacinthe Hecquard: Histoire et Description de la Haute Albanie ou Geugarie. Paris, 1858 First edition, in 8vo, contemporary fine leather over boards, a very nice binding, text clean and bright, very light scattered spotting in very few pages, 546p., overall in very good plus condition The French diplomat and explorer Hyacinthe Hecquard (1814-1866) toured extensively in Albania in mid 19th century,his account is considered the most authoritative contemporary work on Northern Albania. He was appointed as the French Consul in Scutari (Shkodra) in 1854. Unlike the coastal observers, Hecquard traveled deep into the forbidden High Albania to negotiate with the mountain tribes. His focus was on the Ghegs,the Northern Albanians. He was one of the first Westerners to document the internal social structures of the Albanian tribes and their daily life, Hecquard’s 500-page work is famous for its early, detailed accounts of the Kanun,the customary law of the mountains. He provides a clinical but empathetic analysis of the revenge system, noting how it maintained a brutal kind of social order in a land without a central government. He describes the daily heroism of the Albanian women,he notes their influence in the home and their role in encouraging, or shaming, men during tribal warfare. Hecquard was a pioneer in ethnomusicology, collecting and translating the lyrics of Albanian wedding songs into French. He preserved the oral traditions of a culture that was almost entirely illiterate at the time.