[1][2] 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.
[5] Mitko also had contacts with the European poets Gustav Mayer, Urban Jarnik and Girolamo de Rada.
[4] Mitko preserved the wealth of Albanian folk literature by classifying the content based on genre.
[5] In 1878 it was published in Alexandria under the Greek title Albanike melissa, with the Albanian Bëlietta shqipëtare placed as subtitle.
[1] By the time the work was published, the Western European Romantic Movement was in decline, and interest in folklore was waning.