ABSTRACT
Although the earliest Maltese writers were the product of an Islamic culture and used Arabic as the medium of their literary production,3 Maltese literature has, until quite recently, generally followed the prevalent cultural and literary trends of the nearby Italian peninsula. Dante’s tongue played a very important part in Maltese linguistic history. As Latin started losing its multisecular importance, Italian became the regular language of Maltese culture, and remained so until the early twentieth century.4
