Pietru Caxaro
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Pietru Caxaro or Caxaru, also known in English as Peter Caxaro, was a Maltese notary, orator, politician, philosopher, and poet. He wrote the poem Cantilena, the earliest known text in the Maltese lan
Pietru Caxaro's Cantilena, the earliest known Maltese language writing
Caxaro's tomb memorial at St. Dominic's Church, Rabat, Malta
An aerial view of Mdina and its fortifications, captured in 2014; Mark Montebello suggests that the fallen house in the Cantilena may be a symbol of the partial collapse of Mdina's walls in 1454
Petrarch, an Italian poet and leading proponent of humanism; Montebello discerns a humanistic outlook in the Cantilena
Oliver Friggieri
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Oliver Friggieri was a Maltese poet, novelist, literary critic, and philosopher. He led the establishment of literary history and criticism in Maltese while teaching at the University of Malta, studyi
Pietru Caxaro
…who felt the urge to express themselves in their nation's tongue." The verses in the Cantilena appear to contain eleven syllables each. According to Oliver Friggieri, they evoke Spanish mosarabic verse. Frans Sammut suggests that the Cantilena was a zajal, an Arabic term for a song which Spanish and Sicilian Jews…
Oliver Friggieri
Oliver Friggieri statue in Floriana
A bus shelter in Malta with text from Friggieri's poem "Jekk"
Oliver Friggieri's coffin was at the Floriana Parish Church, before the state funeral mass in Mdina