Todhri alphabet

[1] It is a complex writing system of fifty-two characters which was used sporadically for written communication in and around Elbasan from the late eighteenth century on.

The earliest dated text in Todhri's alphabet is Radhua Hesapesh (daybook) of a local merchant partnership known as Jakov Popa i Vogël dhe Shokët (Jakov Popa Junior and Friends).

An even older text written in the Todhri alphabet was discovered recently in a family notebook in Elbasan, dated 1 January 1780.

[3] The Todhri alphabet was rediscovered in Elbasan by Johann Georg von Hahn (1811–1869) who published it in 1854 his work Albanesische Studien in Jena.

Leopold Geitler (1847–1885) and Slovenian scholar Rajko Nahtigal (1877–1958) subsequently studied the alphabet, concluding that it was derived primarily from the Roman cursive.

The alphabet of Theodhor Haxhifilipi as shown in Albanesische Studien by Johann Georg von Hahn in 1854. The alphabet was cut into type by the Austrian punchcutter Alois Auer as early as 1851.