History scholar Godfrey Wettinger: “The university was his life. He set the bar for professional historians.”

Eminent scholar Godfrey Wettinger died a happy man yesterday after an Oxford professor confirmed his conclusion that there was no continuity of Christianity on Gozo following its conquest by the Arabs.

Historian Charles Dalli, who visited Prof. Wettinger, 85, in hospital on Thursday, described him as being “thrilled” with the news that he had been right. “I found him sitting in the armchair, with a bunch of Oxford papers by his side, proudly showing them to everyone. He was so happy.”

A famous anonymous Greek poem, published in 2010 by Joe Busuttil, Stanley Fiorini and Horatio Vella, had sparked a debate on Christianity in Gozo. Oxford professor Jeremy Johns, who delivered a lecture in Malta on Wednesday about his studies on the poem, visited Prof. Wettinger in hospital this week to tell him that his interpretation had been vindicated by his (Prof. Johns’) latest research.

Prof. Fiorini had argued in favour of an unbroken Christian continuity in Malta during Arab rule.

“Prof. Wettinger inspired enthusiasm,” Mr Dalli said. “He encouraged his students to ask questions and to leave no stone unturned. His love for Maltese history was his life.”

Prof. Wetting took with him to the grave the closely guarded secret of whether it was Fr Mikiel Fsadni or himself who first discovered the oldest Maltese poem.

The late Fr Fsadni has been credited, along with Prof. Wettinger, with discovering Pietru Caxaru’s Il-Kantilena, the oldest literary text in the Maltese language, also nominated for inclusion in Unesco’s International Memory of the World Register.

The two famously had a pact not to reveal how they had first stumbled across the poem.

Prof. Wettinger, who was a bachelor and whose siblings live in Australia, was granted the rare privilege of being a Senior Fellow at the University of Malta, where he had lectured since 1972.

Faculty of Arts dean and head of the history department Dominic Fenech said that even though Prof. Wettinger had stopped lecturing about seven years ago, he would still visit the university frequently to socialise and keep in touch. “The university was his life. He set the bar for professional historians.”

Prof. Fenech lauded him as Malta’s first true medieval historian, who earned the respect of many esteemed scholars around the world. He cleansed Maltese history of a number of myths that distorted the reality, he added. His seminal works include The Jews of Malta in the Late Middle Ages, Slavery in the Maltese Islands, Place-names of the Maltese Islands and The Arabs in Malta.

English language professor Daniel Massa recalled how he had worked with Prof. Wettinger for over 40 years. “I recall our sparring across faculty board meetings but more particularly during coffee breaks in the senior common room. Often, with a naughty glint in his eye, he handed around cuttings on controversial historical, political or religious subjects, expecting adversarial comments, answers to which he would have rehearsed the night before.

“His brilliant wit and acerbic asides elicited admiration. He will be sorely missed by all of us who knew him as a friend.”

Researcher Olvin Vella pointed out that Prof. Wettinger also greatly contributed to the history of the Maltese language, demonstrating that it drew elements from the Sicilian idiom before the Knights took over Malta.

He recalled that the Maltese Department and the Institute of Linguistics had worked hard on the publication of Kliem Malti Qadim, which assembled the 100 Maltese words Prof. Wettinger had isolated while poring over old documents written in Latin and Sicilian.

“When I presented him with a copy of the hardback book, he turned to me and said: ‘I thought you were going to wait for me to die and publish it in your name’!”