It happened this month : Gian Francesco Abela (1582-1655) - father of Maltese historiography

Abstract

May 4, 1655, marked the date of the demise of Gian Francesco Abela, one of the greatest personalities to leave their mark on Maltese historiography and the first native Maltese-born to write the history of our islands. In 1955, the third centenary anniversary of Abela’s death was fittingly commemorated by the Malta Historical Society – founded in 1950 and still going strong – through a series of activities, among which was a solemn commemoration held at the Manoel Theatre, Valletta, where three papers about Abela and his work were read out. These papers, together with six other studies, were published by the Department of Information in 1961 in collaboration with the said Society. Two of these nine studies had previously been published in the October-December 1955 issue of Scientia.