Mysteries and Myths

The eighth volume in Giovanni Bonello’s much admired series is characterised by the same variety of subject matter as the previous volumes. The articles are, as usual, well researched, the illustrations are many and often fascinating, and the style is as light, and sometimes as cheeky, as ever.

Three of the articles make useful contributions to the medical history of  Malta. In one of them, the author examines petitions made by medical practitioners between 1632 and 1732, many of which are not directly related to the petitioners’ profession but to matters like their property and even the legitimization of children, an example of the latter being a 1675 petition the granting of which brought about the legitimization of a doctor’s three illegitimate offspring. Grand Masters also often agreed very easily to petitions by doctors who sought exemption, temporary or long-term, from military duties. As the Order’s great hospital in Valletta was run by the French knights, it was inevitable that French doctors were often invited over to practice in Malta, and that Maltese people tended to go to the great medical school at Montpellier for their training. "French surgeons in Malta, 1645, 1674 and 1690” focuses on a few French surgeons, including one Blaise Rostagneux who, according to the author was probably the ancestor of the Rossignaud family of Malta. The medical historian will probably find the third article in this group, “reforms in the Holy Infirmary, 1680” the most important as it shows how, from time to time, the management of the Order’s Hospital was examined and improved.

The historian of the 1565 Great Siege of Malta will be interested to read the new evidence produced by Bonello in “Unpublished documents from Ragusa about the Great Siege, 1565”, showing how the Christian republic of Ragusa (Dubrovnik) sided with Suleiman the Magnificent as he invaded and tried to conquer Malta. On the other hand, another article, this time on people from Dalmatia who lived, worked and died in Malta, makes it clear that the ordinary people of that region were not just friendly to Malta and the Order, but took an active part in Maltese corsairing activities against the Ottomans and their Muslim allies.

Those readers who enjoy reading about the more nefarious activities of the members of the Order of St John should find plenty of this material in the article on “Thefts by Knights in the 16th century” which is illustrated with a wealth of gruesome contemporary prints. Just as gruesome is a much later episode, that which relates to Admiral Francesco Caracciolo who was also a Knight of Malta. A fine and successful seaman, Caracciolo took up arms against the despotic King of Naples, Ferdinand, whose naval support by Horatio Nelson’s fleet led to Caracciolo’s defeat and brutal hanging at the yardarm of Nelson’s ship  Bonello is fascinated by Lady Hamilton, Nelson’s mistress, so the article includes several portraits or drawings (two of them grotesque) of this notorious woman.

Bonello is in his playful mood in his very readable “A Maverick Introduction to Palazzo Falson” which will be read with pleasure both by those still waiting to visit the Palazzo and by those who have already done so. Leonardo Abela, a 16th century Maltese prelate and scholar who is buried in the great Roman basilica of  San Giovanni in Laterano, has never attracted as much attention from Maltese scholars as he should have. Bonello’s biographical article about Abela, whose palazzo in Tarxien is now used for wedding receptions, points out his considerable achievements, not least of which was his being one of the signatories of the report to Pope Gregory XIII that led to the adoption of the so-called Gregorian calendar in 1582.

Other articles include the one about the Order of St John’s 18th century historian, René Aubert de Vertot, whose first edition is prized by collectors, and which many readers will be surprised to learn was placed on the Church’s Index of Prohibited Books, where it remained until the following century because of the lack of respect Vertot showed for a number of popes who play a part in his history. Collectors of the more valuable printed items of Melitensia will also be interested to read the article in which Bonello confirms findings by other authors that the engravings in the Verdalle edition of the Statutes of the Order are based on drawings by the Italian painter, Cavalier D’Arpino, while readers more interested in 20th century Maltese history will find new archival information about the failed attempt to bring about a reconciliation between the Nationalist Party, led by George Borg Olivier, and the splinter Democratic Nationalist Party led by Herbert Ganado.‍

‍

CONTENTS

Thefts by Knight of Malta in the 16th century

Unpublished documents from Ragusa about the Great Siege, 1565

A maverick introduction to Palazzo Falson

Leonardo Abela - A forgotten intellectual of the Cinquecento

TheCavalier d'Arpino and the statutes of the Grand Master Verdalle

Petitions by Medical Practitioners 1632-1732

Dalmatians in Malta at the time of the Knights

Frenh Surgeons in Malta, 1645, 1674 and 1690

Reforms in the Holy Infirmary, 1680

Vertot's History of the Order of Malta

Tiepolo's' Council of the Order of Malta' - What's behind it?

A Knight of Malta hanged by Horatio Nelson

Umberto Adinolfi - A 'Maltese Postcard Publisher'

Nostalgias of Gozo

Failed mediation in the Borg Olivier-Ganado split, 1958-1961

Caravaggio duo - A very personal assessment

Provenance

Index