In his contribution entitled ‘The Christian presence in history’ (May 27), on the public lecture delivered by Jeremy Johns on May 20, Mgr Joseph Farrugia looks forward to a forum on the subject that would “include the participation of such academics as Stanley Fiorini and also Horatio Vella”.

Perhaps he should be reminded that an extremely well-attended debate on the subject between Fiorini and medieval historian Charles Dalli was held a few years ago at the Curia in Floriana. Both academics expounded their point of view but, at the end, it was clear to all who attended that Fiorini’s theory was fallacious.

May I, however, also place on record the great contribution that Fiorini made - and is still making - to the study of Malta’s medieval past.

After the debate, I remember asking Dalli to publish his talk in the Malta Historical Society’s journal Melita Historica, which I edited at the time. His answer was that he still had to polish up some more material before going into print. Unfortunately, this paper never materialised but, as editor, I did publish, in 2012, Godfrey Wettinger’s contribution on the subject, entitled ‘Malta in the high Middle Ages’ (Melita Historica, Volume XV No. 4, 2011, pp. 367-390).

Incidentally, apart from many quotations from medieval texts, this paper also mentions Empress Costanza’s ‘letter’ of 1198. Perhaps Mgr Farrugia does not have a copy of this paper.

In his letter, Mgr Farrugia continually - five times, actually - refers to “Jeremy Jones”. I would have expected him to refer to the eminent professor by his exact surname, Johns. It is an unfortunate lapsus on his part since I’m certain that he was not mixing him up with Indiana Jones of movie fame.