Heritage Malta is marking the centenary of the death of Manwel Magri SJ (1851- 1907) through various activities, including public lectures and an exhibition. The first lecture, Manwel Magri – l-Ewwel Folklorista Malti (Manwel Magri – The First Maltese Folklorist), will be delivered by Dr Gorg Mifsud Chircop at Heritage Malta’s head office in Merchants Street, Valletta on Tuesday at 6.30pm. The lecture will be conducted in Maltese.

Manwel Magri stands out as an assiduous researcher of Maltese folklore in spite of his numerous other commitments as a Jesuit, missionary, archaeologist and librarian. His precise ethnographical methods exceeded those of his other contemporaries in 19th Century Malta where the collection and interpretation of Maltese folklore was still amateur.

Although modern scholars disagreed with Magri’s subjective interpretation that all Maltese folklore had Semitic origins, his exemplary efforts in the research, discovery and analysis of Maltese folklore should remain an inspiration to all those who work in this field, Heritage Malta said.

During his lecture, Dr Mifsud Chircop will analyse one of the fables as recorded by Magri.

Dr Mifsud Chircop is a senior lecturer at the University of Malta. He has taken active part in several international conferences and has worked on, published and edited several studies and documentaries on different aspects of Maltese folklore. These include Il-Praspar Miktuba ta’ Dun Xand Cortis (Malta,1991), Manwel Magri, Hrejjef Missirijietna (Malta, 1994), Il-Folklor Malti (2 vol, Malta, 2003) and First International Conference of the SIEF Working Group on The Ritual Year. Malta, March 20-24, 2005. Proceedings (Malta, 2006).

Admission to the lecture is free and the public is invited to attend.