I have just finished going through M.A. Vassalli 1764-1829 – An Enlightened Maltese reformer by Frans Ciappara. The book was published earlier this year.

It is not my style to burn incense before a Maltese author to perfume his work.

Ciappara has written most copiously about this ‘father’ of the Maltese language and his ‘Malteseness’. The book is deeply researched and profusely scholarly annotated. It can enlighten contemporary readers not only about the man Vassalli but also throw important and revealing light on the last days of Malta of the Knights.

Any serious follower of the history of Malta, whether as a formal student or just a keen reader of Malta’s unvarnished historical past, would do well to invest in owning and reading this thought-provoking work. The book is not only about a Maltese patriot but also about ‘dispelling obscurantism’ in the moribund years of Malta under the Knights, “the armoured monks” of St John, the turbulent two years of French rule and influence (1798-1800) and the very early years of these islands passing under the ‘protection’ of Great Britain and the British Raj.