Giovanni Spano

Who was Giovanni Spano?

Giovanni Spano, also a priest and a linguist, is considered one of the first archaeologists to study the Mediterranean island of Sardinia.

After elementary school in which he learnt Arabic, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Latin and Sardinian, he progressed to a Sassari seminary and in 1825 earned a degree in theology. He was ordained in 1830 and in 1854 became director of the Cagliari Athenaeum. In 1871 he was named senator of the Kingdom of Italy and professor in Turin.

He wrote Ortografia sarda nazionale, ossia grammatica della lingua loguderese paragonata all'italiana, the first attempt to find a unified orthography for the Sardinian language. This book divided the language into four dialects and proposed a unification based on Logudorese, a dialect spoken in Bono, Bonorva, Bosa, Ghilarza, Macomer, Ozieri, Ploaghe and Sennori.

He also wrote a Sardinian-Italian, Italian-Sardinian dictionary; the four-volume Sardinian Archaeological Bulletin; 'Guida di Cagliari e dei suoi dintorni; Guida del Duomo di Cagliari; and Storia e descrizione dell'Anfiteatro Romano di Cagliari.