essays on de soldanis

ESSAYS ON DE SOLDANIS
a close friend to whom he later dedicated his Della Lingua
Punica (1750), was kept informed of progress reached in
the matter. On 30 July he wrote from Paris stating that it
was his considered view that the history of Gozo should
be addressed as of right to the Grand Master. He himself
would decline such an offer, which more befittingly should
be made to his superior, the Grand Master. 15 De Soldanis,
however, thought otherwise and on 10 June 1746, as we
know, he addressed his work to his life-long benefactor
Bishop Alpheran de Bussan.
It also emerges from Dericard’s letter of 30 July 1742
that de Soldanis had been urged to undertake this work by
both the Balì Stadl and Count G. A. Ciantar. De Soldanis
appears to have gone out of his way to sing Ciantar’s praise
in this work. The occasion presented itself when de Soldanis
mentioned that he had asked Ciantar’s opinion about some
coins or medals discovered in Gozo. The mutual respect
existing between them comes out very clearly from the text
in the manuscript (p. 100), which is here reproduced:
onde conoscendo in Malta il sovraccennato Signor Conte Ciantar,
Gentiluomo nostro eruditissimo, in quest’anno (1746) stesso
per la sua rara virtù da S.M. Cristianissima aggregato Socio
dell’Accademia Reale delle Iscrizioni e Belle Lettere di Parigi, le ho
trasmesso alcune di queste monete, il quale con la solita sua bontà
dopo qualche tempo si è compiaciuto onorarmi colla risposta,
il primo marzo 1746, la quale per essere piena di erudizione a
gloria delle due nostre isole, degna della sua penna ho creduto far
piacere a li antiquari, ed a Letterati riportarla intera colla moneta
seguente gozitana...
Ciantar’s reply to de Soldanis reads as follows:
Per appagare in qualche parte il vostro genio erudito, mio
reverentissimo Signor Canonico, io ben volentieri vi comunico
15 NLM Libr. 146 iii, f. 198v.
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