Jak Mark Suma (known in Italian as Giacomo Suma) was an Albanian diplomat. He was the vice consul of Venice and then Austria and a dragoman between them and the Ottoman Empire. He was the last vice consul of Venice in Shkodra in the 600-year presence of the maritime republic in the city.[1] He was the son of Kolë Suma, one the first native doctors in the region. He came from a branch of the Albanian Suma family, a notable urban family of Shkodra since the Middle Ages.[2] In 1778, Mahmud Pasha proposed to elect Suma as the vice consul of Shkodër.[3] In his time as vice-consul of Venice he faced the increasing competition by the trade of Dulcigno to Venetian interests in Shkodër.[4] Suma was personally responsible for transportation of products from Shkodër to Venice and would travel with the cargo to oversee the journey.[5]
HIs father was named Mark Jak Summa and he was a merchant.[6] He also had two siblings, Andrean and Kolë Mark Summen who was a Doctor of Bushatlli.[6]
References
^"Pashalleku i Shkodres nen qeverisjen e Ibrahim pashe Bushatlliut (1797-1809)". Shqiperia (in Albanian). No. Translation: Former Venetian, now Austrian deputy consul, Jak Mark Suma, continued in his post until the Kampo Formios treaty. So did Ibrahim Pasha with the Republic of Ragusa. 2001. Retrieved 14 November 2019.
