Antoinette Zarb of Valletta, on behalf of her sisters Josephine Willday, Candida Bugeja, and Marionne Oder, recently presented the University Library with a selection of papers belonging to her maternal grandfather, the late poet and lexicographer Vincenzo Mifsud Bonnici (1871-1929).

Best known for his Lil Kewkba Fegga, so well popularised in Gabra ta' Ward, Mifsud Bonnici was a prolific writer, some of whose works have appeared in Il-Habib, Il-Messaggier Malti tal-Qalb ta' Gesu', Kotba tal-Moghdija taz-Zmien, and Il-Malti.

The manuscripts, which have been donated to the University Library, include a draft Dammet il-Kliem u l-Ghajdut Malti, a collection of verse, and Nisel il-Kliem.

These new acquisitions, which were presented to the director of library services Anthony Mangion, will further enrich the already impressive cumulus of manuscripts belonging to Maltese men of letters preserved at the University of Malta Library.