Giovanni Spano also a priest

Priest

A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...

 and a linguist, is considered one of the first archaeologists

Archaeology

Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...

 to study the Mediterranean

Mediterranean Sea

The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...

 island of Sardinia.

After elementary school

Primary education

A primary school is an institution in which children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as primary or elementary education. Primary school is the preferred term in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth Nations, and in most publications of the United Nations Educational,...

 in which he learnt Arabic

Arabic language

Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

, Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

, Hebrew

Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...

, Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

, Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 and the dialect

Dialect

The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...

s of Sardinia, he progressed to a Sassari

Sassari

Sassari is an Italian city. It is the second-largest city of Sardinia in terms of population with about 130,000 inhabitants, or about 300,000 including the greater metropolitan area...

 seminary and in 1825 earned a degree in theology

Theology

Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...

. He was ordained in 1830 and in 1854 became director of the Cagliari Athenaeum. In 1871 he was named senator

Italian Senate

The Senate of the Republic is the upper house of the Italian Parliament. It was established in its current form on 8 May 1948, but previously existed during the Kingdom of Italy as Senato del Regno , itself a continuation of the Senato Subalpino of Sardinia-Piedmont established on 8 May 1848...

 of the Kingdom of Italy

Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)

The Kingdom of Italy was a state forged in 1861 by the unification of Italy under the influence of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which was its legal predecessor state...

 and professor in Turin

Turin

Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...

.

He wrote Ortografia sarda nazionale, ossia grammatica della lingua loguderese paragonata all'italiana (1840), the first attempt to find a unified orthography

Orthography

The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...

 for the Sardinian language

Sardinian language

Sardinian is a Romance language spoken and written on most of the island of Sardinia . It is considered the most conservative of the Romance languages in terms of phonology and is noted for its Paleosardinian substratum....

. This book divided the language into four dialects and proposed a unification based on Logudorese, a dialect spoken in Bono

Bono, Italy

Bono is a comune in the Province of Sassari in the Italian region Sardinia, located about 130 km north of Cagliari and about 50 km southeast of Sassari....

, Bonorva

Bonorva

Bonorva is a comune in the Province of Sassari in the Italian region Sardinia, located about 140 km north of Cagliari and about 40 km southeast of Sassari....

, Bosa, Ghilarza

Ghilarza

Ghilarza is a comune in the Province of Oristano in the Italian region Sardinia, located about 100 km north of Cagliari and about 30 km northeast of Oristano....

, Macomer

Macomer

Macomer is a town and comune of Sardinia in the province of Nuoro. It is situated on the southern ascent to the central plateau of this part of Sardinia, at the junction of narrow-gauge lines branching from the main railroad line running east to Nuoro and west to Bosa.The district, especially...

, Ozieri

Ozieri

Ozieri is a town and comune of approximatively 11,000 inhabitants in the province of Sassari, northern Sardinia , in the Logudoro historical region...

, Ploaghe and Sennori

Sennori

Sennori is a comune in the Province of Sassari in the Italian region Sardinia, located about 180 km north of Cagliari and about 7 km northeast of Sassari. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 7,298 and an area of 31.4 km².Sennori borders the following municipalities:...

.

He also wrote a Sardinian-Italian, Italian-Sardinian dictionary (1851–1852); the four-volume Sardinian Archaeological Bulletin (1855–1861); Guida di Cagliari e dei suoi dintorni (1856); Guida del Duomo di Cagliari (1856); and Storia e descrizione dell'Anfiteatro Romano di Cagliari (1868).

When he died in 1878, the words "Patriam dilexit, laboravit" were inscribed on his tomb

Tomb

A tomb is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes...

 at Bonaria

Monumental Cemetery of Bonaria

The Monumental Cemetery of Bonaria is located in Cagliari, Sardinia.In use between 1829 and 1968, the cemetery originally occupied an area at the base of the hill of Bonaria, and over time expanded upwards. The main entrance is located in Piazza Cimitero, with a second entrance in Ravenna, at the...

. A scientific college in Sassari is now named after him.

External references

Brief biography of Giovanni Spano, by Bruno Carta (in Italian).

Liceo Scientifico Giovanni Spano di Sassari (in Italian).