Hungarian Cultural Studies

“After he obtained a doctorate at the University of Vienna in 1903, Nopcsa visited Ottoman Albania for the first time. He returned to Albania a few years later and established a household in Shkodra until 1914. During his residence in Albania, he became an expert on Albanian culture, and actively agitated for an independent Albania both in speeches and by smuggling in weapons; he even offered himself as a candidate to the Albanian throne in 1913. Elsie counts 'at least 54 works related specifically to Albania' out of the 191 works 'primarily in the fields of palaeontology, geology, and Albanian studies' that Nopcsa published throughout his career (Elsie includes a very useful bibliography of Nopcsa’s published writings following the memoirs). It soon becomes clear even to the casual reader that the academically and politically marginalized Nopcsa, by this time deprived of his title and income as Transylvania became part of Romania after World War I, intended to solidify his image with this work not only as an expert on Albania but also as a hyper-masculine master of conflict resolution"