Mikiel Fsadni

Mikiel Fsadni (15 April 1916 – 18 April 2013) was a Maltese Dominican friar and historian. He is best known for the discovery of Il-Kantilena, the oldest known text in the Maltese language.

Biography Fsadni was the son of Joseph Fsadni and Giovanna née Cassano, and he was born in Birgu on 15 April 1916. He was also interested in photography.

In 1966, while doing some research about Dominican friars at the Notarial Archives, he and Godfrey Wettinger (who was researching about slavery) discovered a 15th-century poem known as Il-Kantilena, which turned out to be the oldest known surviving text in Maltese. Fsadni and Wettinger subsequently collaborated on studying the text, its author Pietru Caxaro and its copyist Brandano Caxaro.

He died on 18 April 2013, three days after his 97th birthday, at the Villa Messina care home in Rabat. At the time of his death, he was the oldest member of the Dominican Order in Malta.