"il-kantilena" is the oldest written text known to exist in maltese, dating from no later than 1485, the death of pietru caxaro, the author it is attributed to. it wasn't rediscovered until 1966 or 1968 by prof. godfrey wettinger and fr. m. fsadni in the valletta notarial archives. frans sammut published a revolutionary interpretation of it in 2009. karmenu mallia translated it into esperanto and wrote an article about it in 'literatura foiro'.