Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of GraphSearch.
Concept
Pietru Caxaro
Summary
Pietru "Peter" Caxaro (c. 1400 1485) was a Maltese philosopher and poet. He is so far Malta's first known philosopher, fragments of whose works are extant. His philosophical views and positions qualify him as an honourable adherent of the mediaeval humanist movement. His contribution skilfully stands as a mature reflection of the social and cultural revival of his time.
Caxaro's cultural preparation and his humanistic character, together with his philosophy, entirely reflect the peculiar force, functions and needs of a Mediterranean people whose golden age had still to come, but whose mental constitution and mode of expression were readily set. The discovery of the man and his philosophy is immeasurably relevant to further recognition of the wise tenure of an ancient civilization.
No portrait of Caxaro has been found.
Peter Caxaro was born of a noble Mdina family in Malta. The date of his birth is unknown, and it is doubtful that it had ever been recorded at all. He was likely born around the beginning of the 15th century.
His father's name was Leo, and his mother's Zuna. It might be possible that the family was of Jewish descent and had been forced to convert to Christianity. It is known that one of Caxaro's brothers, Nicholas, was killed in 1473 following a brawl with people from Siġġiewi, Malta, because of a girl he was secretly seeing.
Caxaro's first studies were undertaken in Malta. Later, he went to Palermo, Sicily, to pursue them further. At the time, Palermo was a flourishing city imbued with the spirit of Renaissance humanism. There, Caxaro completed his studies and became a notary in 1438. A couple of months after his graduation, he was appointed judge at the courts of Gozo for the years 1440-1441. In 1441, he also sat as judge in the courts of Malta, and the similarly in 1475. He was judge at the civil courts in 1460-1461, 1470–1471 and 1481–1482, and judge at the ecclesiastical courts in 1473 and 1480-1481.
Caxaro was also jurat at the Town Council of Mdina in 1452-1453, 1458–1459, 1461–1462, 1469–1470, 1474–1475 and 1482-1483.
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.