Professor Alphonse Sammut : an appreciation

Abstract

All who knew him will be deeply saddened to hear of the death at 61 years of Father Alfons Sammut. No 'appreciation' can do justice to this dear, kind man, with his twinkling humour and his down-to-earth good sense. He combined in his person an altruistic devotion to his fellows and a love of truth, which manifested themselves in his daily life and work. Apart from an unstinting dedication to the University of Malta and to the Department which he beaded, Professor Sammut was also well-known internationally, a familiar figure on the the campuses of several Italian and English Universities, and regularly to be seen at work in the reading rooms of the Vatican, the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, the British Museum and the Bodleian. In his professional career as an Italianist, Professor Sammut was as unassuming as he was in other areas. Yet he was an authority in several fields of learning, his expertise ranging from a profound familiarity with the works of Dante to an appreciation of the exoticism of the Romantics (where, in particular, he showed a rare knowledge of and deep empathy for the work of Alessandro Manzoni). But in these areas he limited himself to public lectures and undergraduate tuition; he was a fine teacher, regarded with evident respect and affection by his pupils. By pure chance be met two of those pupils on the aircraft taking him away from his beloved Malta for what turned out to be the last time; there, typically, be was overheard politely and gently answering questions concerning the courses they were to follow during the next academic year.