Poet, Historian and Biographer

Son of Vincenzo and Maria Vassallo, Ġan Anton was born in Valletta. He studied under Mgr Pietro Paolo Psaila and the Maltese classical scholar Giuseppe Zammit Brighella from whom he got a thorough background in Italian and Latin. He also studied Arabic and Greek, and read law at the University of Malta, graduated Doctor of Laws on 6 July, 1842.

After a short spell in Eygpt, he returned to his native land and taught Italian at the Lyceum. In December 1863 he succeeded Prof. Lorenzo Pullicino in the chair of Italian literature at the UM. He retired shortly afterwards for health reasons.

His fame as a historian lies mainly with his publication Storia di Malta from the early beginnings to the Treaty of Amiens, published in 1854. Besides a historian, Vassallo was also a prolific biographer and wrote about fifty Maltese personalities who had distinguished themeselves in various fields.  As a writer of Maltese, Vassallo is best remembered for his epic poem Il-Ġifen Tork, which recounts the 1760 episode concerning the ‘Corona Ottomana’, This poem is made up of 37 sestets and was published in 1842.

Ġan Anton Vassallo edited the Il Filantropo Maltese between 10 July 1855 and 10 August 1860. This paper was mainly devoted to news, politics and the theatre, and strongly critical of thr local administration for its lack of regard towards the rights of thr Maltese.

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