Poet

The son of Martin Vassallo, Baskal was born in Ħaż-Żebbuġ. He joined the Dominican Order in 1578. He was already ordained priest in 1584.

His fellow friars alleged that he was not living his religious vocation. In 1584 Vassallo was prohibited from preaching and from every religious office. Two years later he was forgiven by the General of the Dominican Order.

Late in 1587,  the Inquisitor, Mgr Paolo Bellardito launched criminal proceedings against Vassallo, and he was found guilty, and banned from preaching and celebrating Mass from 1 January 1587.

After some months he was also exiled from Malta to Palermo for ten years. Padre Vassallo returned to Malta in 1596 and was sent to the Rabat Dominican convent. A year later was sent to the Birgu convent and again to the Rabat convent till 1602.  

Vassallo was one of the early poets, more or less contemporaneous with Gregorio Xerri*. He is known to have dedicated lascivious poems to several pretty boys from Mdina, both in Maltese and in Italian, around 1584; namely ‘cantilene’, ‘canzoni in lingua Maltese’, and ‘canzoni moresche’.

The Inquisition  ordered that these ‘canzoni’ to be destroyed, after Vassallo had admitted the charges of sodomy, but denied those of heresy. We still know the names of five of the pubescent muses; some of them closely related to important personalities from Mdina. Five of these poems were dedicated to Andreatta Castelletti, Giovanni Maria Cassia, Giacomo Leonardo Surdo, Giovanni Maria Zammit and Girolamo Attard. Had these paedophile verses from the cinque cento survived, they would have been the second batch of poems in Maltese after Pietro Caxaro’s renowned Cantilena.

This biography is part of the collection created by Michael Schiavone over a 30-year period. Read more about Schiavone and his initiative here.