Napoleon Tagliaferro

Prof. Napoleon Tagliaferro ISO
Born	1843
Died	1915
Residence	82 Strada Teatro, Malta
Occupation	mathematician
Society Membership membership ordinary fellow left 1915 deceased elected_AI 1911

Notes

House Notes

death noted in the report of the council for 1916

Notes From Elsewhere

Director of Public Instruction

Amongst Maltese academics of the nineteenth century, we encounter the brilliant Maltese mathematician Napoleon Tagliaferro (based initially at the Sorbonne) whose research led to some important publications on transcendental numbers and presented various papers at international conferences (e.g. Paris, 1878). Tagliaferro contributed to several branches of learning including Mathematics, Archaeology, Natural Sciences and the Maltese Language. He was eventually appointed rector of the University of Malta in 1896 and one of his early achievements was to divide the Faculty of Arts, till then known as the Faculty of Literature and Science, into two separate areas of study - arts and sciences. The formal split into three distinct faculties, ‘Arts’, ‘Science’, ‘Engineering and Architecture’ came during the next rectorship of Edoardo Magro (1904-1920). The first Faculty of Science board meeting was held on Friday the 17th September 1915 and attended by Prof. W.F. Nixon (Maths), Prof. R.V. Galea (L.S.A.) and Prof. Sir Themisocles Zammit (Chemistry, see left). The first two undergraduate degrees (B.Sc.) were conferred by the university in 1916. The international standing of Professor Themistocles Zammit (rector between 1920-1926) helped to consolidate the achievements of the Faculty of Science.

“Gentlemen,
“There are impressions that, once fixed in the mind, can never be cancelled: they live in us, with us, and from time to time, return unhindered to the forefront of our mind. Such, I believe, is the memory of the day when Napoleone Tagliaferro was buried at the Addolorata Cemetery in Marsa, destined to become for me.
“There was around us then a profound silence; the air and the earth shone with a magnificent light. The rough earth being thrown by the grave diggers fell with a crash on the vulnerable coffin; the noise seemed to wake the cypress trees; my entire body shivered and trembled. “Sic transit Gloria mundi” whispered an illustrious citizen standing beside me. I remained silent; but I kept repeating to myself with growing intensity ‘Pie Jesu Domine, dona ei requiem’.
“Noble lineage is a phrase devoid of meaning. One is neither born noble nor ignoble. Nobility is a virtue that is acquired slowly like the learning process, through work, through struggle; it is useful and generous actions, fed by love, carriers of goodwill for our brethren, which distinguish a man and put him a cut above the rest: blood has nothing to do with it. Napoleone Tagliaferro had this kind of nobility. Born at Vittoriosa of poor and modest parents, it did not take him long to realise the two highest ideals of human life: God and country.
“Few loved their place of birth like he did. What he loved about his country were not the fields of abundant wheat, nor the beaches nor our marvellous harbours... He loved all this, gentlemen, but not only this, because the world that he loved with a great intensity was not the one that he could see around him with his own eyes, but rather, it was a nation that was passionate, proud, tumultuous, intrepid and ardent; which travelled the seas with broad bleached sails, fought its battles, then returned victorious and glorious to defend itself, to battle, win, crush, annihilate and force the Turks to flee.
“He loved the heroic times of our nation when every citizen was a soldier, every soldier a civil knight; but besides this, and beyond all this, not unworthy of an epic Virgilian muse, he saw, got to know, and loved another nation; a moaning and oppressed nation under the yoke of the Arabs; yet still glorious, tenacious, magnified through misfortune.
“And how could his heart not beat with the most pure, the most noble emotions, when he thought of this heroic nation, this great and oppressed nation under the great dominion of Rome! But before Rome, before Carthage and the Phoenicians were still unheard of, this heroic nation of the Knights, this great and oppressed nation under the yoke of the Arabs, this free and prosperous nation under the Romans, was already sending signs of civilisation across the mists of time.
“Great and small monuments that are still present today show that she was already manifesting the mighty genius of her race. Wrapped in mist because of the great span of time, buried for the most part in the unexplored depths of our island, this was the nation that Napoleone Tagliaferro liked best. He loved above all else prehistoric and ancient Malta… No, no one loved his country more than he did. He is the most Maltese of the Maltese.
“When, after completing my studies, I returned from Rome in 1900, Napoleone Tagliaferro had already been director of education for three years, presiding over meetings in the Tapestry Chamber. Politically, these were not happy times; the harsh debates about the Constitution and the language were in full swing. In that bleak atmosphere few could appreciate the beneficial work being carried out by the director of education for the good of the population, of youth, and of the nation.
“Many were against him. This hurt him intimately, immensely. He confessed to me one evening: ‘Those were the hardest years of my life’… The bitter debates typical of political meetings were not in his nature; so he was uncomfortable during these meetings; neither could he efficiently sustain the vigorous attacks of his assertive adversaries.
“It is this virtue which was such a big part of the man that I mourn;… it dedicated itself completely to the happiness of a woman, a miracle of gentleness and courtesy, whose kindness, an immense kindness typical of her lineage, showed through the nobility of her character and actions; compassionate of face, soft in her speech, so soft, mellifluous and forgiving. Maria Grech Mifsud perfumed the heart of Napoleone Tagliaferro, made him stand tall and true, and I would even say made him a better Christian, instilling in him, with a wonderful and saintly grace, new feelings of gentle love and goodness…
“But, oh dear, God took this gentle creature away from him too soon. Took her away? No, Maria Grech Mifsud never left Napoleone Tagliaferro; she lived in him, with him; she lived in his dreams, in his heart beats, his prayers, in his words, in his feelings, in his pure thoughts; so much so, that the last word uttered by Napoleone Tagliaferro was, in fact, that saintly and adorable name, ‘Marietta’. Thrice, at short intervals, he repeated her name, and thrice times a smile touched his lips, lighting up his face.
“But the end came too quickly and unex­pectedly, and when on the third of October at three in the afternoon I was called by his family to do my duty as a priest and friend, he was already unconscious, with his head abandoned mortally on the pillow, his eyes tightly shut, his mouth half-open, his arms and his face pale. Periodically he uttered a brief cry, then he was silent: he looked as though he were sleeping peacefully.
“I realised, however, that life was quickly ebbing from that body. A priest came and performed extreme unction; then his sisters knelt down, praying and crying. But the agony dragged on. At eleven, his pulse, which up to then was beating at an incredible rate, slowed down; his face and his arms changed colour, he grew pale; his lamenting weakened, then he went silent, and one could clearly hear the weak breathing of a dying man. In the deep silence of the night, the clock of St John’s struck half past eleven; leaning his head lightly on the soft pillow Napoleone Tagliaferro gave up his spirit to God.
“Let me conclude this ora­tion prostrated in front of God who sees me and hears me, by praying for my sweet and unfor­gettable friend: Pie Jesu Domine, You who knows how hard my friend worked for the benefit of the young and the nation with Your help; You, who knows us so intimately, can see with what sin­cerity he embraced Your faith up to his last breath, give to him eternal rest: dona ei requiem. Amen.”
Cuschieri’s words are an enlightening evocation of a person who embodied integrity and humility and yet rose to the top of his profession. Tagliaferro was a son of Malta recognised abroad for his achievements. He deserves an honoured place in our national pantheon. Yet for all the accolades he garnered his life deserves greater study and appreciation – what better challenge for one our bright young minds to accomplish?
The author is grateful to Prof. Anthony Aquilina of the University of Malta for his translation of Prof. Cuschieri’s oration.

Publications

External Publications

contributor to Excavations in 1908-11 in various megalithic buildings in Malta and Gozo, 1907 by Thomas Ashby and others