Gioacchino Navarro (1748 – 1 January 1813) was a Maltese priest and poet who was the Conventual Chaplain of the Order of St. John. He studied both Latin and Greek, and he also spoke Italian, Maltese, English and Arabic. He was the librarian of the National Library of Malta for forty years, after succeeding Giovanni Pietro Francesco Agius de Soldanis in 1770.[1]
Navarro is mainly known for his It-Tliet Għanjiet bil-Malti (The Three Rhymes in Maltese), which are the earliest known printed poems in the Maltese language. These were first published in 1791 in the book Malte par un Voyageur Français by François-Emmanuel Guignard, comte de Saint-Priest.[1]
In Msida, Malta, there is a street named after this poet, called "Triq Gioacchino Navarro".[2]
References
- ^ a b Schiavone, Michael J. (2009). Dictionary of Maltese Biographies Vol. II G-Z. Pietà: Pubblikazzjonijiet Indipendenza. p. 1243. ISBN 9789993291329.
- ^ Attard, Francis A. (June 1994). The mAZe – A handy Guide to the Streets of Malta and Gozo. Birkirkara: Uptrend Publishing. p. 323.
Further reading
- Cassar, Mario (2007). "Il-Konti Saint-Priest, Gioacchino Navarro, u l-Ewwel Poeziji ppubblikati bil-Malti". Symposia Melitensia (in Maltese). 4: 53–65.