By Paul Tedeschini
Memorie.al / Anyone who writes something is doing an extremely valuable job and making a great contribution to continuously filling the gaps in “Albanian History and Culture,” in every aspect. It would be excessive to begin writing here about the 2400-year-old city of Shkodra, beside the Lake, the Rozafa Castle, Mount Tarabosh, the Buna River, and the Drin River, which was the capital of Illyria, the residence of the Illyrian kings, of Gentius, Teuta, Bardhyl, Glaucus, Cleitus, Agron, etc.
It would be excessive to begin writing that Shkodra, even during the Turkish occupation, was the center of the most important vilayet in all Albanian territories, with the port on the Buna River, which flows into the Adriatic Sea, a port that was very important for the southwestern Balkans.
And naturally, in this great, developed center, there must have been a more developed medicine than in all other territories inhabited by the Albanian population. And it is precisely for this reason that Docent Dr. Kërçiku, a candidate of medical sciences, who graduated in Vienna and with a truly European culture, wrote the scientific monument book:
“The Development of Healthcare in Shkodra, during the 18th-20th centuries (A Contribution to the General History of Medicine in Albania),” of 300 pages, published in Tirana in 1962, which begins as follows: “To the qualified doctor; ‘With golden hands’, the most prominent doctor born in the city of Shkodra, Frederik Shiroka (1907-1955), who selflessly put his knowledge at the service of the people, making a valuable contribution to the development of healthcare, during the construction of socialism in our country, the author dedicates it to his comrade in studies and work.”
In this book by Dr. Kërçiku, 103 statistical tables are presented, extracted with great patience and professionalism from various registers, especially from the registers of the Catholic Church of Shkodra, on the registration of the Catholic population, on births, registrations, and deaths, where the causes of death are also noted.
“Because for the Muslim population, there were no official registers and data,” says the author, “then conclusions were drawn by analogy, also for all the inhabitants of Shkodra and the surrounding area with the highlands.”
This book has 74 rare photographs of medical institutions, of foreign and local doctors, of foreign and local pharmacists, foreign and local dentists, and of medical staff in general. It also contains 103 statistical tables, according to years, diseases, causes of diseases, ages of the sick, etc., as well as 46 graphs based on these statistics.
It also has the name list of 120 Albanian civil and military doctors who served in Shkodra, as well as the years during which they served, the name list of 75 Turkish civil and military doctors with service in Shkodra, as well as the years of service, the name list of 44 Italian, civil, and military doctors, as well as the years of service.
The name list of 20 Austrian and German doctors, as well as the years of service, the name list of 26 civil and military doctors of various nationalities and the years of service, the name list of 94 Albanian pharmacists and the years of service, the name list of 29 Turkish pharmacists and their years of service, the name lists of 9 Italian, Austrian, German, and other nationality pharmacists and the years of service.
It also has the name list of 111 Catholic priests who were parish priests and made the registrations in the “Liber Defuntorum – of deaths” and in the “Liber Baptisatorum – of baptisms,” in the city of Shkodra, in the surrounding villages, as well as in the highlands. It also has two Appendices; on the “Plague of Shkodra,” in the year 1904 and that of 1905.
It has the English summary of the book’s content, ten pages of bibliography, the index of places and persons, according to the corresponding pages, the index of issues according to the pages, it has the overview of the clichés, as well as of course the table of contents, which is divided into six chapters:
Chapter one: A brief description of the geographical, political, and social situation of the city and the region (Geographical environment, historical overview, Shkodra in the 17th-20th centuries).
Chapter two: The demographic movement of the city’s Catholic population (On the population of the city during the 17th-19th centuries, data on the demographic movement of the Catholic population in Shkodra, in the years 1757-1947: marriages, births, deaths, infant mortality, deaths of children 1-4 years old, accidental deaths, demographic vitality).
Chapter three: Epidemic diseases in the city and district of Shkodra (The spread of epidemic diseases in Shkodra – a general overview, The method of burial and the spread of infectious diseases, plague-pestis, smallpox-variola, cholera, dysentery),
Chapter four: On other acute and chronic infectious diseases (Measles-morbilli, whooping cough-pertussis, scarlet fever-scarlatina, diphtheria, typhoid fever-typhus abdominalis, dysentery, typhus fever-typhus exanthematicus, tuberculosis, leprosy, malaria),
Chapter five: Data on the history of medicine in Shkodra (General overview, folk medicine in the villages and city of Shkodra, the doctors of Shkodra, the pharmacists of Shkodra, dentists, midwives).
Chapter six: Healthcare institutions in the city of Shkodra (Local Civil Hospital, ambulatory service, baths in the city of Shkodra).
Chapter five: begins with; The general overview, continues with Folk Medicine and then with the foreign doctors who served temporarily in Shkodra, as early as the 13th century, and up to the first doctor with permanent residence in Shkodra, Doctor Emidio Tedeschini (1730-1800) from the Kingdom of Naples, who is mentioned in many documents.
The first contact with this doctor is his letter dated November 23, addressed to the Venetian Trade Office, as well as in the Catholic Church’s Book of Baptisms, where on January 27, 1766, he is listed in the registers of the Catholic Church in Shkodra as a baptismal godfather.
Later, this doctor was transferred to Durrës, where he was appointed Consul of Venice. His sons, the pharmacists Gjuzepe Tedeschini (1782-1858) and Francesco Tedeschini (1785-1868), later became General Consuls of Austria-Hungary, for the entire Albanian territory, under Turkey.
The pharmacist Francesco Tedeschini created a marital connection with the traditional pharmacist family Ashiku, in Shkodra. It is said that after Dr. Emidio Tedeschini, there was some Albanian doctor who graduated in Italy with permanent residence in Shkodra, but the first Albanian doctor with permanent residence in Shkodra, who is known for certain and with documents, is the doctor Kol Mark Suma (1768-1828), also nicknamed “Kol Heqimi” or “Nicolo Medico,” who graduated as a doctor in Venice.
He was married in 1792 to the sister of the pharmacist, Dr. Francesco Tedeschini, but left no heirs. On Dr. Kol Suma-Heqimi, his brother, Dr. Simon Suma (pharmacist), and his descendants, as one of the oldest families of Shkodra, from which the doctor, Dr. Terezina Suma, and the pharmacist, Ana Suma-Tedeschini (with a diploma in Albania and Italy), the well-known cardiologist Dr. Terezina Suma (Medicinae doctor) wrote a very interesting book of 130 pages with photocopies of documents and rare photographs, in 2003. About the doctor, Kol Suma-Heqimi, I will write another time. Memorie.al
