Anyone with a soft spot for ancient literature has plenty to look forward to this autumn, as the National Library of Malta gears up to launch its ninth Public Lecture Series in partnership with the Malta Classics Association.

Running from October through to May, the free programme, Secular Threads: Greek and Latin Culture in Later Print, takes a slightly different approach to the classics. Instead of dwelling on the ancient texts alone, each session traces how Greek and Latin culture kept resurfacing in the work of later writers, pulling in perspectives from various academic fields along the way.

Sessions are held monthly at the National Library in Valletta, starting at 6.30pm, and delivered entirely in English. No booking is needed, and entry is free throughout.

Eight lectures make up the full programme. The opening talk on 28 October turns to Petrarch, Dante and Machiavelli, unpacking how their engagement with antiquity helped lay the groundwork for the modern library. A month later, on 25 November, Prof. Krista Bonello Rutter Giappone examines Shakespeare’s relationship with classical sources, followed on 16 December by Prof. Horatio C.R. Vella’s look at the moral framework running through Virgil and Horace.

The new year brings a broader sweep of topics, among them Dante’s classical influences, the ecological undertones of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and the reinvention of Ulysses within Italian literature. One session even considers a distinctly local angle: possible connections between Homer and Malta itself. The series draws to a close on 26 May with a talk on Sappho, exploring how her poetry has managed to survive, however incompletely, across thousands of years.

Whether attendees are classics scholars or simply curious newcomers, the series offers a rare chance to see how deeply the ancient world still shapes literature, thought and culture today, all without leaving Valletta or paying a cent.