‘Fsadni hid Caxaro’s Cantilena from Wettinger for three months’

Dominican priest Mark Montebello has revealed that Dominican priest Michael Fsadni and historian Godfrey Wettinger had agreed to forever declare that they both discovered Peter Caxaro’s famous Cantilena on September 22, 1966 – the earliest known document bearing the Maltese language in a poem of the 1480s.

But Montebello said that it was the Fsadni who made the spectacular discovery at the Notarial Archives, months before choosing to collaborate with Wettinger to decipher the contents of the document.

“Both Fsadni and Wettinger disclosed to me, independently of each other, that, at one point or other prior to coming out with the discovery, there had been an explicit verbal accord between them that they shall forever tell everyone that the Cantilena had been discovered by both of them together,” Montebello, a historian of the life of 20th century intellectual Manwel Dimech, said.

“And that is how they went to their grave,” Montebello wrote in The Sunday Times weeks after Wettinger passed away, at the age of 85.

The Cantilena

Fsadni passed away at 97 in April 2013.

In 1966, Fsadni and Wettinger were separately researching their respective interests in Maltese history: Fsadni concerning the Dominicans; Wettinger, slavery.

Fsadni made his discovery on 22 September, 1966 while examining the original deeds of Notary Brandan de Caxario. He did not tell Wettinger of his find, only announcing to other members of the Dominican community of his “big discovery”.

“Fsadni once inadvertently told me that he had spent three whole months returning to the Notarial Archives trying to decipher the Cantilena, while all along keeping the discovery to himself. Though he had furtively copied the poem as best he could, being no philologist he had to admit that in no way could he get to the bottom of it alone. He had to share his trophy and Wettinger was there for the asking,” Montebello said.

The ‘accomplices’ helped each other out in deciphering the Cantilena. “Fsadni was no historian, and both he and Wettinger wanted the Cantilena to command respect from the start. Wettinger’s name was essential for this to happen,” Montebello noted.

The pair went to ridiculous lengths to keep their research a secret, “demanding to consult volumes from all over the archives so as not to draw attention to the fact that one particular volume was being requested too often.”

“They kept their secret for almost two whole years. Even when they came up against a brick wall on particular words in the poem, and had to consult people like Ġużè Aquilina, Ninu Cremona, Erin Serracino Inglott, Karm Sant, Peter Paul Zerafa, Prospero Grech and others, they never told any of them what their queries were all about,” Montebello said.

Fsadni and Wettinger revealed the treasure of the Cantilena to the public at a press conference held on 29 October 1968, at St Albert the Great College, in Valletta.

“It was Michael Fsadni alone who made the Cantilena’s discovery in 1966… I do not believe that this disclosure should diminish Wettinger’s contribution in the matter by a iota, since it was partly with his outstanding scholarship which unravelled the Cantilena’s puzzles and brought so beautiful a composition to light,” Montebello said.