Detailed study on 'earliest extended prose in Maltese'

Among the many manuscripts handed over to the national library by Ignazio Saverio Mifsud is a volume of sermons and panegyrics in Maltese and Italian.

Most of these were delivered in churches between 1739 and 1746 and are considered to be the earliest extended prose in Maltese we know of to date. They are of great relevance, especially to the study of the Maltese language and its history.

In a recently-published study on these sermons and panegyrics, entitled Il-Priedki Bil-Malti Ta' Ignazio Saverio Mifsud, Joe Zammit Ciantar gives a comprehensive account of Mifsud's life, some of which is being made public for the first time, his sermons and a critical analysis of the language used. They are presented in different chapters, with an introduction and notes and comments about the language, phraseology, idioms, figurative speech, syntactic structures and extra-textual references in footnotes.

There are also two appendices with information about saints and people cited in the homilies and the churches where they were presented as well as a glossary with a choice of interesting vocabulary used by Mifsud and a comprehensive bibliography.

Dr Zammit Ciantar said the work was considered to be of great help to anyone researching the linguistic, historical, literary and rhetorical aspects of the use of Maltese in the 18th century.

Copies are limited to 400 and are numbered and signed by the author.