Ludovik Mifsud Tommasi

Ludovik Mifsud Tommasi (1796-1879), also known as Ludovico Mifsud Tommasi, was a Maltese priest and educator, and also author of short poems and short prayers.^[1][2] He was from Cospicua, in southeastern Malta.^[3] One of the major works of Mifsud Tommasi, L-Inni Imkaddsa (The Holy Hymns), a bilingual Latin-Maltese book, shows that his work focused on traditional aspects with the story concentrated with religious scenes. The book includes four of the five hymns of Thomas Aquinas.^[4] Other important works are Stabat Mater Dolorosa; Christe Sanctorum decus Angelorum; and Magnae Deus Potentiae.

Mifsud Tommasi was a proponent of using the Latin alphabet instead of the Arabic script for Maltese.^[5] This was a fraught issue at the time over how to incorporate sounds in Maltese, that could not be differentiated in the Latin alphabet; Mifsud Tommasi proposed representing the voiceless pharyngeal fricative with an h, although the eventually accepted form was ħ.