Malta has recently been seeing a steady influx of beautiful educational books, and that list has just got another adorable addition.

This new book, Vox Depicta, has a collection of Latin proverbs which have been translated into Maltese and English. That would be more than enough to have us rushing to get one for our personal libraries, but the books go one step further by also having an awesome, colourful illustration for each proverb.

Vox Depcita, edited by Lara Zammit and Maria Zammit, is a collaboration between The Malta Classics Association and local artist Warren Bartolo, who’s known for his very unique style and is currently celebrating the first time his illustrations have been published in a book.  

The Malta Classics Association has been pushing for increased interest in Greek and Latin civilisations for seven years now, and it seems like this collaborative initiative between staff and students of the University of Malta’s Department of Classics and Archaeology is only getting stronger. 

Just last week, the Association had claimed that learning Latin could be the solution to Malta’s literacy problem, announcing it will be introducing Latin to Year Five students as part of a pilot project called Literacy Through Latin. “We cannot continue being just academics talking to other academics. We need to pass on our love of languages and we will do this in a fun way with children, with the collaboration of keen University students,” said Maria Zammit, the MCA Executive President. 14 weekly lessons will be given by University students and MCA members over the next scholastic year. 

The project is being supported by the Director of St. Martin’s College Bernie Mizzi, with a great deal of support coming from Jennifer Mitchell, a primary teacher who is also on the MCA committee and has offered her experience and skills in the field to advise the project.

And judging by this new, absolutely adorable book, it seems like the MCA really is gearing up to take their initiative into overdrive. It’s very interesting to see how these centuries-old proverbs can still be applied to everyday life in 2017, and we can’t wait to start hearing Latin more often!

Tag a friend who’d love a copy of this book!

READ NEXT: Malta’s First Children’s Book About Gay Love Has Just Been Published

David Grech Urpani

Lovin Malta's Head of Content, Dave has been in journalism for the better half of the last decade. Prefers Instagram, but has been known to doomscroll on TikTok. Loves chicken, women's clothes and Kanye West (most of the time).