De Soldanis : approaches to a biography

Abstract

The subject of my lecture today is a Gozitan ecclesiastic whose multi-faceted activity as historian, grammarian, lexicographer, controversialist and librarian marks him out as an outstanding eighteenth century man of letters. Many of you here this evening will be familiar with the basic facts concerning Giovanni Pietro Francesco Agius de Soldanis, which one can briefly summarise here. Born at Rabat, in Gozo, on 31 October 1712, he studied Latin and other languages in Malta, and was appointed Canon of the Collegiate Church of Gozo at the early age of seventeen, when he was not yet ordained priest. He studied Philosophy and Theology at the Jesuits’ College in Valletta. De Soldanis also studied Law, graduating from the University of Padua, in Italy.