[1] He was educated by the Franciscans in Bosnia (under control of Austria-Hungary) and moved to Ottoman Albania in 1896, having become a priest, and spent the years between 1905 and 1920 among the Albanian highland tribes, collecting oral literature, tribal law, archaeology and folklore.

[2] He was shot on 14 October 1929, in the village of Zym near Gjakovë (at the time part of Yugoslavia) while serving as the local priest and teacher by a Serbian nationalist.

[5][6][7] "Traces of Gjeçovi" (Albanian: Gjurmë të Gjeçovit), is a yearly event held in his birthplace Janjevo since 2000, to memorialize and promote his work and legacy.

Although researchers of history and customs of Albania usually refer to Gjeçovi's text of the Kanun as the only existing version which is uncontested and written by Lekë Dukagjini, it was actually incorrect.

[9] The customary laws were not static in period between 15th and 20th century and one of the main reasons for Gjeçovi's work on the Kanun was to adapt it to correspond with the changes in the society of Albania.