I refer to the article by Therese Bonnici entitled “Document promoting M.A. Vassalli’s unpublished dictionary discovered” (TMIS, 24 May). While I would like to thank Therese and The Malta Independent on Sunday for giving me the opportunity to discuss this discovery, I would like to make the following changes:

1.    The dictionary was to include translations from French to Maltese rather than from French to English.

2.    The article mentions that “the parish priest used to hand out a paper you used to trade for communion every year”. This is the communion ticket or bulletin.

3.    My view is that Vassalli was possibly a deist, believing in God but not in the Church. The article erroneously uses the term “idealist”.

4.    With reference to Vassalli’s marriage certificate, I would like to clarify that while we know that he was married in France, the evidence as to whether his wife was already a Protestant at the time of their marriage is inconclusive.

5.    The manuscript referred to in the last paragraph and which I hope will be discovered one day, is that of the new “Lexicon”.

Prof. Frans Ciappara

The International Institute for Baroque Studies

University of Malta