Essays on Mikiel Anton Vassalli

Abstract

The University of Malta is this year celebrating the foundation of Collegium Melitense four centuries ago (1592-1992). Fittingly enough the Department of Maltese is marking the event by highlighting its tie~ with the national language of the island. A special edition of the Journal of Maltese Studies is dedicated to Mikiel Anton Vassalli (1764-1829), first to teach Maltese at the University. Vassalli is now widely acknowledged as the Father of the Maltese Language, a thinker, a reformer, as well as a rebel and an academic whose foresight envisaged the awakening of a nationalistic conscience underpinned by the full'recognition of the mother tongue. Interest in Vassalli, throughout the years, heightened at various levels. He was to capture the attention of politicians as well as scholars and personalities in the field of literature. Not only was Vassalli deeply researched as an outstanding figure, thinker and academic, but became variously the subject of novels, short stories, poems and plays. He proved a controversial figure to politicians who viewed him from several and different standpoints. Print, radio and TV journalists made him increasingly popular. This special edition encapsulates his many aspects. Historians delved deeply into his life and times, others researched his political and cultural activities, and threw light on his basic thoughts, his vision of a future modem and sovereign state. The objective Of this volume is to provide specialists, the public in general, and subscribers to the Journal of Maltese Studies at home and abroad a complete collection of all that is essentially noteworthy about Vassalli. With the exception of a few works, most material in this edition has already been published. I hope the publication of this material gathered in one edition will make it easier to appreciate the length and breath of the scientific research on Vassalli carried out to date. Much more,of course, needs to be done in the future.