| Demetrio Franco | |
| Birth Date: | 1443 |
| Birth Place: | Drivasto |
| Death Place: | Trevi |
| Nationality: | Albanian |
| Other Names: | Dhimitër Frëngu |
| Occupation: | scholar, soldier and Catholic priest |
| Years Active: | 1443–1480 - ...? |
| Known For: | author of the biography of Skanderbeg |
| Notable Works: | Gli illustri e glorioisi gesti et vittoriose imprese contra Turchi del S. Don Giorgio Castriotto detto Scanderbeg, principe di Epiro, also with the title : Comentario de le cose de' Turchi, et del S. Georgio Scanderbeg, principe d' Epyro |
Demetrio Franco (sq|Dhimitër Frëngu; 1443–1525) was an Albanian historian. He was a close accomplice of Skanderbeg, later publishing works on his life.
Franco was born in Drivasto in 1443 to a Catholic family. Through his mother he was a cousin of Pal Engjëlli, the Archbishop of Durrës and a close collaborator of Scanderbeg.[1] In 1466 he accompanied Skanderbeg in Rome as a scribe.[2] In 1479 after Shkodër was conquered by the Ottoman Empire he migrated to Italy, where he served as vicar until his death in Trevi in 1525.[3]
Franco himself accompanied Skanderbeg to Italy in the winter of 1466–1467. Following his death in 1468, Franco moved to Tivar, and then to Venice. In April 1480, he published a biography of Skanderbeg in Latin at the printing house of German Erhard Ratdolf.
His most notable piece work is considered to be Gli illustri e gloriosi gesti e vittoriose imprese fatte contro i Turchi dal Signor Don Georgio Castriotto detto Scanderbeg, principe d' Epiro, along with the aforementioned biography of Skanderbeg.
Paris 1709.
Liège, 1854.