The Minister for Gozo attended the Gozo launch of the Maltese encyclopaedic dictionary – Damma – at the Cittadella Cultural Centre on Friday.
The Minister expressed his satisfaction that once again the Ministry for Gozo is joining prestigious organisations such as the University of Malta, the National Library and Heritage Malta, in honouring a great patriot or Gozo – De Soldanis.
Dr Refalo said that the publication of the encyclopaedic dictionary by De Soldanis, 250 years after his death, is surely an important milestone in the history of the Maltese language, which De Soldanis had done so much to promote.
Anton Refalo said that for many years this work of De Soldanis was almost forgotten because some sought to give more importance to other parts of his writings. "The initiatives taken in recent years by the Ministry for Gozo together with the Department of Maltese at the University of Malta, Heritage Malta and the National Library, helped to resurrect the knowledge and appreciation of the work of De Soldanis."
Minister Refalo had words of praise for Rosabelle Carabott who did the transcriptions and editing and revision, Joanne Trevisan also did transcriptions. Daniel Cilia was entrusted with the design and publication. .Dr Refalo also congratulated and thanked all those involved in this initiative to honour De Soldanis and our history.
`Damma' has been published for the first time since its inception, after 250 years. It was written by Gan Piet Frangisk Agius de Soldanis in 1766, taking him 17 years to conclude, however it never reached publication.
The manuscripts have been kept at the National Library. After two and a half centuries his work has finally been published for the first time.
The limited edition 'Damma' includes various historical cultural aspects, such as food, traditions, games, musical instruments, etnography and legends.
The publishers of 'Damma' are Malta Libraries, the Department of Maltese at the University of Malta, Heritage Malta, National Council for the Maltese Language and the Akkademja tal-Malti with the support of BPC International.
Photographs: MGOZ/George Scerri