The first to collect Albanian folk material were European scholars of the mid 19th century, followed particularly by philologists and linguists concerned with recording a little known
Indo-European language. By highlighting the long traditions, national affirmation was sought. According to
Spiro Dine, by 1866 Mitko was providing
Demetrio Camarda with material for his collection. In 1874, he finished his own collection of 505 folk songs, and 39 tales and old sayings. Mitko preserved the wealth of Albanian folk literature by classifying the content based on genre. In 1878 it was published in
Alexandria under the Greek title
Albanike melissa, with the Albanian
Bëlietta shqipëtare placed as subtitle. Mitko also prepared an additional collection of folk literature, the
Little Bee that never got published. A copy of
Albanian Bee is said to have been publicly burned by Greek nationalists in
Athens. By the time the work was published, the Western European
Romantic Movement was in decline, and interest in folklore was waning.
Albanian Bee gained new popularity after it was published in the modern Albanian alphabet by
Gjergj Pekmezi in 1934. ==See also==