Gioacchino Navarro

Gioacchino Navarro (1748 – 1 January 1813) was a Maltese cleric, archaeologist, linguist and librarian. He is historically significant as the author of the earliest printed poems in the Maltese language, which appeared in François-Emmanuel de Guignard, comte de Saint-Priest's book Malte par un Voyageur Français.

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.

Biography

Navarro was born in 1748 and served as the conventual chaplain of the Order of Saint John in Malta. Renowned for his expertise in Ancient Greek and Latin inscriptions, he was also fluent in Italian, Arabic and English. In 1770 he succeeded Agius de Soldanis as the second Maltese librarian at the National Library of Malta,