Maltese poems by well-known, 19th-century, Maltese poet Ġan Anton Vassallo has been published by the Malta University Press in a volume titled Il-Poeżiji.

The poems were collected for the first time by Prof. Oliver Friggieri, who has been studying Vassallo and collecting his poems for various years. The poet lived between 1817 and 1868, but many of his poems in Maltese had never to date been collected since his death.

The volume also includes a number of rare and forgotten images of Vassallo, depicted by contemporaries, as well as various other pictures related to the poet, including original documents and manuscripts.

Vassallo, lawyer and professor of literature at the University of Malta, was born and lived in Valletta and is buried in the Carmelite church, Valletta. Although mostly forgotten, he is commonly recognised as the most important Maltese poet of the 19th century and early 20th century.

A rare photo of poet Ġan Anton Vassallo.

He is mainly remembered for his poem Tifħira lil Malta, here included together with a different version.

Friggieri has not only collected all Vassallo’s poems in Maltese, but has also provided a highly-detailed, critical study of him as a poet and of his wide heritage of poetry, which Friggieri inserts within the much wider context of Italian literary culture, strongly prevalent in Malta through-out the 19th century.

The introduction by Friggieri includes a short biography of the poet, based on accounts given by two of his contem-poraries, Paolo Cesareo and Achille Ferres.

The volume includes narrative verse, lyrics, versified fables and satirical poems, all vividly portraying life in Valletta and other typical places of the island in the 19th century.

Il-Ġifen Tork, Vassallo’s longest narrative poem, is introduced by a long study and is profusely annotated. In launching this unique and important volume of more than 300 pages, the Malta University Press hopes to revive the figure of one of the distinguished members of the academic staff who gave a significant contribution towards the revival of Maltese literature.

Ġan Anton Vassallo – Il-Poeżiji is published by Midsea Books Ltd and printed at Gutenberg Press Ltd, Gudja. It is available from leading bookshops in Malta and Gozo, and online.