Giovanni Pietro Francesco Agius Sultana, popularly known as De Soldanis, was born in Rabat, Gozo, on 31 October 1712. He studied languages, philosophy and theology at the Jesuit College in Valletta. At the age of 17 he was appointed canon of the collegiate church of Gozo by Bishop Paolo Alpheran de Bussan. De Soldanis subsequently pursued his studies abroad and graduated in law from the University of Padua.

His broad cultural interests were reflected in his regular and erudite correspondence with both Maltese as well as foreign men of letters. He was a member of four Italian academies. His unpublished and published works consist of various studies on the Maltese language and traditions, a history of his native Gozo, and a defence of the Maltese Pauline tradition against those claiming Meleda in the Adriatic to have been the location of St Paul’s shipwreck.

In 1750, while in Rome, he published Della Lingua Punica Presentamente Usata dai Maltesi, the first known grammar of the Maltese language, and Annone Cartaginese, an adaptation in Maltese of the fifth act of Plautus' comedy. His other important works include Damma tal Kliem Kartaginis mxerred fel fomm tal Maltin u Ghawcin and Aforismi e Proverbi Maltesi Raccolti e Spiegati in Lingua Italiana.

Following the setting up of the Biblioteca Tanseana in Valletta, on the initiative of Balì Louis Guerin de Tencin, the latter appointed De Soldanis as its first librarian in June 1763. In this capacity De Soldanis compiled the massive first catalogues of the collection which was eventually to develop in what is nowadays the National Library of Malta.

De Soldanis died on 30 January 1770.

About the facsimile edition

Della Lingua Punica presentemente usata da Maltesi & c., Malta 2007, pp. 199; (size 115mm by 187mm); ISBN: 978-99932-0-533-3 is at Lm 15 / EUR34.95. This is a facsimile of Della Lingua Punica presentemente usata da Maltesi &c. ovvero Nuovi documenti, li quali possono servire di lume all'antica lingua etrusca; stesi in due dissertazioni &c. – the first published Maltese grammar. It includes the Nuova scuola di grammatica per agevolmente apprendere la lingua Punica-Maltese (pp. 65-117, with separate title page) and a Maltese dictionary (pp. 118-197). It is the work of Gozitan Canon G.P.F. Agius De Soldanis who had it printed for him while he was in Rome, in 1750, by Generoso Salamoni. Another edition of this grammar was printed by Geronimo Roisecco, strangely enough, also in Rome in 1750.

The printing of this facsimile has been executed diligently on scans made on an original copy printed by Salamoni: a small 8vo. (12), 13-199 pp., hardbound with contemporary half-calf. The only wording printed on the cover – Della Ling Punic – appears on the upper half of the spine.

The printing and binding of this facsimile edition have been carried out with great care and love by Gutenberg Press. The book is enclosed in a satin coated, soft yellow-coloured dust jacket which gives it a dainty and elegant touch in handling.

Both copies of the original 1750 editions are very rare and, today, those who own a copy rightly treasure it. This facsimile offers lovers of the Maltese language, but above all students, teachers and scholars of Maltese, the possibility to own a high-quality copy which is a genuine facsimile of De Soldanis’s printed work, harking back to more than two-and-a-half centuries ago.

This edition is limited to 450 numbered copies and is on sale from leading bookshops in Malta and Gozo.