Midsea Books - Books from Malta - Catalogue 2016

BOOKS ON

MALTA ARCHAEOLOGY • KNIGHTS OF MALTA • ART • ARCHITECTURE

C ATA L O G U E

Midsea Books Ltd is Malta’s leading publisher. Set up in 1969 by Pawlu Mizzi, a graduate in History and Librarianship. The publishing house pioneered and revolutionized the Maltese book trade Today the group is made up of Klabb Kotba Maltin, Edizzjoni Klaklamin and Heritage Books apart from Midsea Books itself. Each year, some 50 new titles are produced. Most of these publications fall under the history, art, and language category.

Malta

is an island rooted in history. Many have considered it as the cradle of Mediterranean culture. Since the dawn of civilization it has been at the crossroads of history. Its first inhabitants built huge temple complexes both above and below ground at least a thousand years before the Egyptians built their great pyramids; the Phoenicians colonized it and its ports flourished; the Romans declared it a municipality, defended by Cicero and described by Paul of Tarsus in the Acts of the Apostles; Frederick II conquered it; King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella declared its first aristocrats; the Knights Hospitaller made it their home and soon became the bulwark for Christendom and a magnet to the best architects and artists from Europe; General Napoleon made it his; and the British exploited its geographical position making it the a base for the troops in the First World War and the most bombarded during the Second World War; from here southern Europe was liberated until it gained its independence in 1964. Each epoch left its mark on Malta and intertwined the events happening on mainland Europe with that of this tiny island.

Located in the Mediterranean Sea, just south of Sicily, the Maltese archipelago consists of three islands: Malta, Gozo and Comino with a total population of just under 400,000. The distance between Malta and the nearest point in Sicily is 93 km. The distance from the nearest point on the North African mainland (Tunisia) is 288 km. Gibraltar is 1,826 km to the west and Alexandria is 1,510 km to the east.

Contents in alphabetical order Archaeology and Prehistory 2–5 Architecture 28–29 Baroque Art in Malta 16–20 Books in Maltese 39-40 British Colonial History 25–27 Contemporary Art in Malta 20–25 Food and cooking / Medicine 36 General history and tourism 38 Islamic World 7 Landscape and environment 30–31 Late Antiquity and Byzantine 11 Literature and linguistics 32–33 Medieval History 7–8 Photography 34–35 Punic and Roman 6 Politics and economics 37 Post-Medieval and the Modern World 8–9 Religion, philosophy and ethics 31–32 The Order of St John and the Knights of Malta 10–16 War Stories 27

Klabb Kotba Maltin (Maltese book club), was the first to be established in 1969 with the aim of offering a range of books on Malta. KKM publishes a vast range of books in Maltese, spanning from children’s literature and text books, to novels, short stories, poetry, drama, history, language and reference work.

KKM|tfal produces children’s guided readers in Maltese, as well as other children’s titles.

Midsea Books was set up in 1974 and publishes academic and scholarly works in English.

Heritage Books, set up in 1999, aims to produce reference books in English with a popular appeal.

Moreover, Heritage Books works closely with most agencies, foundations, museums and trusts involve in conserving Malta’s heritage.

Over the past 45 years, Midsea Books with its imprints Klabb Kotba Maltin and Heritage Books, have become a household name in Maltese publications and a hallmark for quality books about anything that Malta represents. A number of books published are award winners or have been short-listed for awards both in Malta and overseas.

68, Carmelites Street Sta Venera SVR1724 · Malta Tel: +356 2149 7046 Fax: +356 2149 6904 www.midseabooks.com

2 | Archaeology and Prehistory

Malta: Prehistory and Temples David H. Trump

Uncover Malta’s past! Experience Malta’s varied history as never before! ‘Malta’s Living Heritage’ series produced with the aim to bring together academic text and graphic content, thus appealing to a wider audience. Each volume is packed with the most updated information, colour photography and exclusive illustrations prepared by our team of international illustrators.

This remarkable book, described by Oxbow Books as “the super book of Maltese archaeology”, makes a marvellous gift. This book presents a superb pictorial record of all the temples, hypogea and artefacts.

capture the visitor’s interest. Found in Malta’s many megalithic temples and underground cemeteries, these figurines are part of a rich material culture that has intrigued archaeologists and the public alike. Perhaps, the statues and figurines of the human form are the most intriguing. The body has been a source of fascination and debate for many years and the term human is perhaps restrictive and fails to take into account the many meanings behind these statues. The large body of these human portrayals are brought together, re-interpreted and photographed for the first time since 1924, with the addition of newly excavated material.

Specifications Hardbound, 200 pages in full colour, 300x225 mm ISBN 99932-7-058-X €54.00; US$68.00; GB£37.00

The Human Form In Neolithic Times Isabelle Vella Gregory

Aunique study in the figurative art of the people who lived in Malta some 5000 years ago. The many prehistoric statues and figurines in the National Museum of Archaeology, Valletta, never fail to

Daphne M Sant Caruana

The Ġgantija temple complex is a unique prehistoric monument, situated at the centre of an extraordinary archaeological landscape, the Xagħra plateau on the island of Gozo. The oldest part of this complex dates to 3600bc, thus making it one of the earliest free-standing manmade structures in the world. It represents a remarkable achievement in the history of mankind and its global importance is reflected in its UNESCO World Heritage status.

Part of the ‘Malta Insight Heritage Guides’ series

The is the first volume of the series ‘Malta’s Living Heritage’ Specifications Dutch-bound, 320 pp in full colour, 210x140 mm, ISBN 99909-93-94-7 €28.50; US$33.00, GB£17.95

Ġgantija Temples and Heritage Park, Xagħra, Gozo

The Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum, Paola Anthony Pace

At first, it seemed that yet another early Christian catacomb had been discovered.

For, indeed, the Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum is not unlike the underground cemeteries of the early christian era. It was only after the interior of the underground structure was examined that the unusual character of the monument’s features was noticed. As weeks passed, it soon became clear that the Ħal Saflieni discovery was much older than at first thought. The year was 1902.

A century later, the hypogeum became a centrepiece of maltese cultural heritage and a recognized milestone in the history of world architecture. Its place among unesco’s long list of world heritage sites remains undisputed.

Part of the ‘Malta Insight Heritage Guides’ series Specifications Limpbound, 48 pages in full colour, 240x170 mm ISBN 99932-39-93-3 €8.50; US$9.95; GB£5.50

Specifications Limpbound, 40 pages in full colour, 240x170 mm ISBN 978-99932-7-526-8 €8.50; US$9.95; GB£5.50

The National Museum of Archaeology: The Neolithic Period Sharon Sultana

The National Museum of Archaeology is housed in one of the most stylish baroque buildings still distinguishable in Valletta, more precisely at the auberge de provence, in republic street. The ground floor hosts artefacts from Malta’s unique neolithic period, which spans from the

Part of the ‘Malta Insight Heritage Guides’ series Specifications Limpbound, 40 pages in full colour, 240x170 mm ISBN 99932-7-076-8 €8.50; US$9.95; GB£5.50

Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra Prehistoric Temples, Qrendi Katya Stroud

The Tarxien Temples, Tarxien Anthony Pace

The megalithic temple complex of tarxien was constructed at the height of malta’s late neolithic period, on a site that was used over a span of several millennia. The site appears to have first been used as early as the Żebbuġ phase (beginning c.4100 Bc). The megalithic character of the site emerged as early as 3600 bc, reaching a highly complex layout by about 3000 bc. The Tarxien temples are, therefore, an important source of information. Their value lies in the wealth of relics and traces of the past that have been transmitted down to our generation.

Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra Temples are amongst the most popular and most visited archaeological sites on the Maltese islands. But what is it about these sites that makes them so unique? What do they tell us about the people who built them? And who discovered them? This fully-illustrated guidebook attempts to answer these questions. It highlights some of the reasons why every visitor to the sites should feel privileged and why we should all protect these sites to extend this privilege to our children.

Specifications Limpbound, 32 pages in full colour, 240x170 mm ISBN 99932-39-87-9 €8.50; US$9.95; GB£5.50

Part of the ‘Malta Insight Heritage Guides’ series Specifications Limpbound, 48 pages in full colour, 240x170 mm ISBN 978-99932-7-317-2 €8.50; US$9.95; GB£5.50

Part of the ‘Malta Insight Heritage Guides’ series Specifications Limpbound, 48 pages in full colour, 240x170 mm ISBN 99932-7-078-4 €8.50; US$9.95; GB£5.50

Part of the ‘Malta Insight Heritage Guides’ series

The Prehistoric Temples at Kordin III, Kordin

Cart-ruts and their impact on Maltese landscape David H. Trump

Of the many fascinating problems posed by the prehistory of Malta, three are outstanding, namely, the origins of the temples, their end, and the cart-ruts.

At least on the first two we can make sensible guesses. The third has many aspects, several of them still completely baffling, which of course adds greatly to their appeal. Indeed, they have aroused considerable interest, and controversy, since at least the seventeenth century, from such as Abela (1649), Houel (1787), Boisgelin (1805), with increasing frequency through the course of the twentieth century. Definitive solutions seem as far off as ever.

Nicholas C. Vella

Part of the ‘Malta Insight Heritage Guides’ series

Malta’s prehistoric temples are probably the most spectacular memorial to ancient european history.

Based on the lesser-known temple complex at Kordin III, this fully illustrated guidebook attempts to

Specifications Limpbound, 48 pages in full colour, 240x170 mm ISBN 978-99932-7-209-0 €8.50; US$9.95; GB£5.50

3 | Archaeology and Prehistory

answer this question and others.

It describes the excavations of the site and the objects discovered by the archaeologists. It also shows how humans harnessed available resources to survive on these islands. Changes to the kordin landscape and the grand harbour area are highlighted in order to put the prehistoric temples in a wider historical context.

Għar Dalam phase to the tarxien phase.

Artefacts of particular distinction are the ‘sleeping lady’ and the ‘venus of Malta’.

The display includes numerous artefacts used as implements, human and animal figurines, as well as personal decorative items. A number of monumental architectural altars illuminate the art of the ancient prehistoric craftsmen.

4 | Archaeology and Prehistory

Essays on the Archaeology and Ancient History of the Maltese Islands: Bronze Age to Byzantine

Malta: Origini della civiltà mediterranea

This collection of essays brings together in a single volume a select miscellany of studies which focus primarily on Bronze Age, Punico-Roman, Early Christian and Byzantine archaeology and history filtered through a synthesis of the archaeological, documentary, and art historical evidence.

Its main strength is the contextualisation and informed analysis of the iconographic and artistic source material.

The essays include: The Fortified Bronze Age Settlements of the Maltese Islands; Two Archaeological Sites: Ras ir-Raheb and Ras il-Wardija; Roman Malta: A Review of the Archaeological Source Material; The St Paul Shipwreck Controversy: An Assessment of the Source Material; St Paul’s Shipwreck and Early Christianity in Malta; The Early Christian Cemeteries: An Overview; The Bingemma Necropolis; The Jesuits’ Hill Archaeological Site; The Late Roman and Early Christian Hypogea of Tarxien and Casal Paola; Late Roman and Early Christian Burial Sites; The Funerary Triclinia of the Maltese Catacombs; The Iconography of the Maltese RockTombs: Romano-Punic, Early Christian and Byzantine; The Rock-Engravings and Architectural Decoration of the RomanoPunic and Early Christian Hypogea; The Xaghra ta’ Santa Duminka Rock-Tombs: Reflections on Maltese Early Christian Art; The Early Christian and Byzantine Site at Abbatija tad-Dejr: Archaeological and Art Historical Insights; The Jewish Catacombs of Roman Melite; Early Christian and Byzantine Malta: Archaeological and Textual Considerations; Gozo in Late Roman, Byzantine and Muslim Times

The volume containing the conclusions made by Luigi Maria Ugolini during his survey of the archaeological finds in Malta, is the first volume to be published in the Ugolini series.

This volume was intitially published in 1937. However this new edition of Malta. Origine della civiltà mediterranea is being published together with an English translation and is preceded by an comprehensive introduction that allows the reader to place Ugolini’s work in the context of the tormented political scenario of the time.

Over several years, the papers and photographs, re-discovered in 2000, have been put together following Ugolini’s planned series entitled Malta Antica: Volume 1: The Tarxien Neolithic temples; Volume 2: The major Neolithic temples and the Hypgoeum; Volume 3: The minor Neolithic temples; together with a concluding volumes by the authors.

These volumes will include the Italian text as written by Ugolini and his photographic documentation. A running commentary will be provided as footnotes (in Italian and English) on each page. Furthermore, wherever possible an English abstract to the main text will be included as an appendix for each volume.

Mario Buhagiar

Specifications Hardbound, 522 pages with colour illustrations, 150x228 mm ISBN 978-99932-7-482-7 €60.00; US$75.50; GB£47.50

Malta: Origins of mediterranean civilization Luigi M. Ugolini New edition by Andrea Pessina and Nicholas C. Vella

Specifications LIMITED EDITION 392 pp with illustrations, 287x220 mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-392-9 €55.00; US$73.00; GB£46.00

L.M. Ugolini: An Italian Archaeologist in Malta

Nicholas C. Vella and Andrea Pessina The Italian archaeologist Luigi Maria Ugolini (1895–1936) visited Malta on several occasions between 1924 and 1935 to study the megalithic monuments of the archipelago.

An able photographer and acute observer, in the course of his work Ugolini gathered together a large number of photographs, illustrations, notes, and reports dedicated to the prehistoric temples and the archaeological objects found within.

The Italian scholar wanted to prove in an unequivocal manner the neolithic date of the megalithic temples of Malta and to assert the important role that Malta had in giving birth to Mediterranean civilization (‘ex Medio lux’).

Specifications Limpbound, 56 pages in full colour, 295x210 mm ISBN 99932-7-056-3 €10.00; US$13.50; GB£7.00 (text in English and Italian)

Archaeology and the sea in the Maltese islands Elaine Azzopardi and Timmy Gambin

Malta and Gozo’s geographical location in the centre of the Mediterranean Sea has, since ancient times, led to numerous

Published in association with Aurora Trust Specifications Limpbound, 64 pages in full colour, 189x246 mm ISBN 978-99932-7-402-5 €18.00; US$23.50; GB£14.50

The Malta Archaeological Society organizes meetings and seminars, which are open to the public, as well as site visits both in the Maltese Islands and abroad. It publishes the Malta Archaeological Review, an annual peer-reviewed journal devoted to articles, reports, notes and reviews relating to current research on the archaeology of the Maltese Islands. The Society endeavours to maintain close relations with Heritage Malta, with the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage, and also the Department of Classics and Archaeology of the University of Malta and to support their activities.

MAR Issue 7; 2004-2005 Contents: Comino: historical and archaeological observations (Keith Buhagiar); Tobacco pipes from an underwater excavation at the quarantine harbour, Malta (John Wood); A fresh look at Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra temples (Katya Stroud); A possibly Christian burial of the late Roman period discovered in a quarry at Ta’ Sannat, Gozo (George Azzopardi); Le modèle architectural du Tarxien reconstitué par Ugolini: la solution? (Roger Le Chevretel); Archaeological discoveries at Marsa over the centuries (Timothy Gambin); Ognina: A puzzling prehistoric site in Sicily (David Trump); A view from the countryside: pollen from a field at Mistra Valley, Malta (Chris Hunt and Nicholas C. Vella)

Contents: Cremation burials in early Bronze Age Malta: evidence from Tarxien and Ġgantija (George Azzopardi); Roman architectural practice and the funding of public buildings (Lino Bianco); Il fregio egittizzante del santuario di Tas-Silġ (Francesca Bonzano); Għar Dalam: a shelter for WWII refugees and military fuel supplies (John J. Borg); The origin of Maltese cart-ruts: cut by wheels or tools?

(Derek Mottershead); The conservation project and archaeological excavation of the old Parish Church at Siġġiewi – an intermediate report (Paul C. Saliba); A newly discovered late Punic-Roman rock-cut tomb at Limestone Heritage, Siġġiewi (Malta) (Mevrick Spiteri and Nicholas C. Vella); Xewkija and elsewhere: new thoughts on old sites (David Trump); A remarkable feature at Mnajdra (Heiko Wagner)

Contents: ‘Prehistoric painted pottery in Malta’: a century later (Davide Tanasi); Observations on the linguistic epigraphic choice in late antique inscriptions from Malta (Maria Domenica Lo Faro); Ancient anchors from Malta and Gozo (Elaine Azzopardi, Timmy Gambin and Renata Zerafa); Revisiting the Roman domus in Rabat, Malta, through a consideration of its mosaic flooring (Antonio Caselli); The known unknown: identification, provenancing, and relocation of pieces of decorative architecture from Roman public buildings and other private structures in Malta (David Cardona); Wind funnelling underneath the Ħaġar Qim protective shelter (Simon Farrugia and John A. Schembri); Experimental Archaeology (Christopher Busuttil); The original discovery of the Roman shipwreck at Xlendi, Gozo (John Wood); Mapping ancient water management systems (Timmy Gambin); Ta’ Ħaġrat and Skorba: Ancient Monuments in a Modern World (edited by MariaElena Zammit and Joanne Mallia); Site, Artefacts and Landscape. Prehistoric Borġ in-Nadur, Malta (Davide Tanasi and Nicholas C. Vella); An Archaeology of the Senses: Prehistoric Malta (Robin Skeates); Ceramics of the Phoenician-Punic World: Collected Essays (edited by Claudia Sagona); The Ġgantija Temples. A History of its Visitors and Views (Godwin Vella, Nicoline Sagona and John Cremona)

Specifications 80 pp with colour insert, 297x210mm Limpbound €12.00; US$16.00; GB£10.00

Specifications 96 pp with colour insert, 297x210mm Limpbound €15.00; US$16.00; GB£12.50

Specifications 80 pp with colour insert, 297x210mm Limpbound €12.00; US$16.00; GB£10.00

MAR Issue 8; 2006-2007

An Introduction to Cultural Heritage Law Ugo Mifsud Bonnici

The book provides a pabulum for further study and possible legislative elaboration.

It contains a quotations from the sources together with the author’s comments in the light of his own experience as a lawyer and as a Minister. We now have a text book to which students, scholars, conservation professionals, lawyers and politicians can refer when confronted with the need to know the law concerning the protection of the heritage.

The book is not concerned with cultural heritage legislation in an international dimension.

Specifications Limpbound, 279 pages, 228x150 mm, ISBN 978-99932-7-184-0 €18.00; US$24.00; GB£12.00

MAR Issue 9; 2008-2009

5 | Archaeology and Prehistory

ships passing through the islands’ waters. Several records of this maritime activity exist in different archives and other evidence can be deduced from the seabed. Despite this, the maritime archaeology of our islands has remained largely unexplored. This book has been produced to address just a small part of this lacuna. By looking at the history of underwater archaeology in Malta and providing an overview of some of the most important finds from the seabed around the archipelago readers will be able to familiarize themselves with the fascinating world of our submerged cultural heritage. This book should be of interest to divers, students, researchers as well as the general public with the hope to increase awareness and passion towards the submerged cultural heritage of the Maltese islands.

6 | Punic, Roman, Late Antiquity and Byzantine

Romana extended further north, possibly occupying an entire quarter, remains of which can still be seen on the western and northern sides of the site.

Specifications 32 pp in full colour, 240x130 mm, Limpbound 99932-7-031-8 €5.00: US$6.85; GB£4.00

Malta: Phoenician, Punic and Roman

Malta Sotterranea: Studies of its Early Christian and Jewish Sepulchral Art

Anthony Bonanno

Uncover Malta’s past! Experience Malta’s varied history as never before! ‘Malta’s Living Heritage’ series produced with the aim to bring together academic text and graphic content, thus appealing to a wider audience. Each volume is packed with the most updated information, colour photography and exclusive illustrations prepared by our team of international illustrators.

Malta’s Classical period and its archaeology have long been neglected in favour of the island’s unique prehistoric heritage. Anthony Bonanno’s Malta.

Phoenician, Punic, and Roman redresses that imbalance. The book, is also the outstanding literary and pictorial record of these periods which cover over 1,500 years of Malta’s history. Its artwork, maps, illustrations and over 500 colour photographs complement the written text in a superb way.

Part of the ‘Malta Living Heritage’ series Specifications 360 pp in full colour, 210x140 mm, Hardbound 99932-7-034-0 €48.50; US$56.50; GB£30.00

The Domvs Romana site catalogue Suzannah Depasquale

This is Heritage Malta’s official site catalogue on the exposed ruins of the Domvs Romana (Rabat, Malta), uncovered in successive excavations during the 20th century. This work shows that the Domvs

Erich Becker, translated and edited by Katrin Fenech

Roman and Byzantine Malta: Trade and Economy Brunella Bruno, translated by Goergette Cutajar

The idea of carrying out research on the Maltese archipelago during the Roman and Byzantine periods stems from the author’s participation in the activities of the Missione Archeologica Italiana, which had resumed in Malta in 1995 in order to complete research conducted on the sites of Tas-Silg and San Pawl Milqi.

These archaeological sites are today considered amongst the most important on the archipelago. Their stratigraphy spans an extensive timeframe – from prehistory to the modern era – making them important points of reference and comparison, not least in the classification and study of ceramic remains. The author was intreged by the huge amount of transportation amphorae discovered during the excavations of these sites. Their wide diffusion throughout the centuries also includes the period between the 8th and 9th centuries, a period for which there is a dearth of archeological documentation. This would clearly imply the importance of commercial activity on the archipelago.

Specifications 268 pp with illustrations, 228x150 mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-245-8 €30.00; US$40.00; GB£27.00

Erich Becker’s studies of Malta’s early Christian and Jewish sepulchral art are very well researched and exceptionally thorough. In this new translation the author has opted for clarity, accuracy and shorter sentence structures that enable the reader to follow Becker’s detailed descriptions. Becker’s choice of terminology has been scrupulously translated. Every chapter contains endnotes by the translator that provide further explanations, updates or translations. The original version is littered with quotes in Latin, Greek, English, French, Italian and Hebrew, none of which Becker translated. For this English translation, these quotes have been, translated in the endnotes.

When dealing with the inscriptions found in Malta, Becker often refers to inscriptions published in the Corpus Inscriptiones Latinarum (CIL) and in Caruana’s 1882 publication. As neither of these two publications is easily available in Malta, the texts are also provided in the endnotes, together with their translations where possible. Only some plans of the various hypogea described by Becker were available when he was in Malta. The plans published later by Caruana and Buhagiar, to which Becker simply refers, have also been added and corrected where possible.

It is hoped that with this English translation of Malta Sotterranea, Becker’s results and observations will form a more active part of the discussion on the subject.

Specifications 280 pp with illustrations, 228x150 mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-247-2 €30.00; US$40.00; GB£27.00

7

The Coinage of the Crusaders and the World of Islam

Specifications 441 pp with colour insert, 228x150 mm Limpbound 978-99932-7-353-0 €35.00; US$50.00; GB£30.00

Paul Catania

Emmanuel Azzopardi

The book covers an extensive selection of over 840 coins of the Crusades of Edessa, Antioch, Tripoli and Jerusalem and other numismatic areas including the coins of Islam. To bridge Crusader-Islamic history and crusader numismatics, coins of the Seljuks, the Zengids of Mosul, the Seljuks of Rum, the Artuqids and the Ayyubids have been included. It describes coins of the Islamic world before the First Crusade, such as the Moors of Spain, the Aghlabids and the Fatimids. The book also illustrates West European imported coins, some of which Byzantine gold coins as well as coins of the Norman Kings; and coins of the period following the Fourth Crusade of 1204 of Achaea, Athens and Epirus together with all other baronial issues.

Specifications Limited Edition 304 pp in full colour, 300x220 mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-091-1 €125.00; US$156.00; GB£90.00

Malta: The Medieval Millennium Charles Dalli

The story of Malta’s Middle Ages, from the end of the Roman rule to the arrival of the Knights Hospitallers, extendes across centuries of exciting changes and dramatic events. Malta’s medieval history paralleled, to a large extent, that of nearby Sicily, but also had its own original characteristics. The islands formed part of the Ostrogothic kingdom until eastern Roman rule was re-established around 535. Byzantine rule in Malta was only ended by the Arab conquest in 870.

For more than two centuries, Malta and Gozo were part of Dar al-Islam. In 1091 it was the turn of the Norman conquerors of Sicily to annexe the islands. Christianity was slowly re-established. In the remaining four centuries of the Middle Ages, Malta was subjected to the kings of Sicily.

Part of the ‘Malta Living Heritage’ series

A History of Muslim Sicily Leonard C. Chiarelli

The book covers the period of Muslim Arab rule on the island from A.D. 827 to the Norman conquest in A.D. 1070.

It is first the detailed study in English covering the various aspects of this 243-

The People of the North (1546-1610)

Specifications 360 pp in full colour, 210x140 mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-102-0 €48.50; US$56.50; GB£30.00 Dutchbound 978-99932-7-103-9 €28.50; US$33.00; GB£17.95

The book breaks new ground in so far as it brings together the information from extensive archival research into a variety of primary sources, such as notarial contracts and court proceedings, proving once more (if proof is required) the seminal importance of these sources for our social history. The author’s findings, embracing and grounded on an exhaustive data base on Naxxar and its satellite villages and hamlets covering the period between 1546 (when Naxxar parish records start) and 1610, shed insightful light on such diverse aspects of village life as life expectancy, child labour, migration, defence strategy, trade, morality, place-names, agriculture, land ownership, religious practices, and other patterns of behaviour and, last but not least, a masterly etching of the central figure around whom village life revolved and who dominated the parish scene, Don Juliano Borg [1544–1610], parish priest of Naxxar [1570–1610]. The chosen years under consideration were formative years for the parish. The book is a major contribution to Malta’s social history since, together with other studies, provides important insights and essential tesserae in the building up of the mosaic of our island’s past.

Specifications 240 pp, 215x285 mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-553-4 €25.00; US$28.50; GB£20.00

| Islamic World and Medieval History

year period. It incorporates new Arabic sources and draws upon archaeological studies that hitherto have not been used.

The book covers the political, social, economic, demographic, and cultural impacts that during this period forever changed the island’s character. All aspects of society underwent change, making Sicily part of the Arabo-Muslim world for more than two hundred years.

8 | Late and Post-Medieval History

Order of Malta to teach those aspiring to become sailors, a complete set of customs weights and measures, and a figurehead of HMS Hibernia, an 19th century ship-of-the-line of the British Navy.

Part of the ‘Malta Insight Heritage Guides’ series

The Mediterranean Artistic Context of Late Medieval Malta, 1091-1530 Charlene Vella

This book studies the Mediterranean context of art and architecture in the Maltese Islands between 1091, when they made their first contact with the newly imposed Norman government of Sicily and South Italy, and 1530, when they passed under the control of the Knights of St John. Another important focus is to show that Malta before the Knights was not the artistic desert that it is often thought to have been. There was an important divide in lifestyle and artistic preoccupations of the gentry and professional and artisan classes of the Civitas, the Castrum Maris and the Gozo Castello, and their suburbs on the one hand, and the beduini of the countryside.

It shows that artistic patronage could sometimes be surprisingly well-informed and that the Renaissance had already manifested itself on the islands well before the coming of the Knights in 1530.

The Limestone Heritage, Siggiewi

Specifications Limpbound, 48 pages in full colour, 240x170 mm ISBN 99932-7-075-X €8.50; US$9.95; GB£5.50

Vincent Zammit

A disused quarry at Siggiewi, Malta, has been turned into one of the most interesting and educational heritage trails in Malta and a fascinating experience for tourists and locals alike. Experience this unique attraction and discover how Malta’s history is written in stone, from the early prehistoric times till today: the terminology, the tools, and building techniques.

Part of the ‘Malta Insight Heritage Guides’ series Specifications Limpbound, 32 pages in full colour, 240x170 mm ISBN 99932-39-96-8 €8.50; US$9.95; GB£5.50

Specifications 224 pp, in full colour, 265x220 mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-447-6 €65.00; US$88.50; GB£53.50

The Malta Maritime Museum, Vittoriosa Emmanuel Magro Conti

This book illustrates Malta’s maritime history from ancient times to the present day. It portrays the fascination of the sea within the Mediterranean context, without neglecting the overall global nature of seafaring. These aims are achieved by the constant search for identification and acquisition of artefacts related to the museum’s mission. Among the exhibits, the Museum boasts of a model of a galley which was used by the

Antiquing in Malta

Robert Attard; Romina Azzopardi This book tells the stories of ‘Maltese’ treasures lost and found. The first chapter explores the history of the de Vallette Helmet previously in the prestigious Odescalchi Collection. The rest of the book opens the doors of secretive collections describing important privately owned antiques; from rare RomanoMaltese coins and ancient artefacts to unpublished portraits of Knights and from exceptional portraits to precious pieces of Maltese silver and Maltese furniture.

The authors try to bridge the gap between antique collecting and academic research by publishing artefacts of immense historical significance and some of the finest ‘Maltese’ antiques in private collections; the oldest known portraits of Grandmasters L’ Isle Adam and Verdala, majestic Maiolica and ceramics, important manuscripts, unpublished Maltese views and works of art attributed to Old Masters.

Specifications Hardbound, 176 pp. in full colour, 240x170 mm ISBN 978-99932-7-522-0 €38.00; US$43.00; GB£27.95

books from the heart of the Mediterranean

Robert Attard and Romina Azzopardi This book is not only a book about Malta’s patrimony but is a book which discusses a market, warts included. The popularity of antiques is leaving some bitter aftertastes. The Maltese market warrants some serious regulation. Certain trading customs used by some operators are markedly opaque and more transparency and professionalism are required to protect the interest of consumers. An impartial scientific analysis of several items in private collections is risking giving up the whole circus away.

The book include a description on antinques in general, furniture, artistic works, arms and armour, costume, coins and medals, silver, books, prints and maps, and procelain and maiolica, among other items.

Specifications 192 pp, in full colour, 280x220 mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-233-5 €46.50; US$70.00; GB£45.00

Specifications 196 pages with colour inserts, 205x135mm Limpbound 978-99932-7-377-6 €12.00; US$16.00; GB£10.00

Teatru Manoel: The National Theatre of Malta Michael Mangion. editor

The Manoel Theatre: a short history Paul Xuereb

The Manoel Theatre is the only theatre building still extant and still regularly used in Malta that dates back to the period when Malta was ruled by the Order of St John. It was founded by the Portuguese Grand master Antonio Manoel de Vilhena

Teatru Manoel is a historical monument of global importance and a living temple of the performing arts. Named as one of the 15 most beautiful theatres by CNN in May 2014, the Manoel is also one of the oldest ‘working’ theatres in the world and is Malta’s national theatre. This book aims to document the history, the architectural changes, the performers and performances over so many decades to date, ensures that this theatre’s unparalleled contribution to Malta’s cultural scene is acknowledged, appreciated and documented.

Specifications 240 pp, in full colour, 264x220 mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-556-5 €50.00; US$57.00; GB£40.00

9

Mikiel Anton Vassalli (1764-1829): An Enlightened Maltese Reformer Frans Ciappara

Adversity assailed him continually but somehow he always succeeded to regain the fire of his youth, the best warmth of his genius and the greatest strength of his enterprising passion. We are in the presence of a giant individual, who displayed remarkable courage and daring, a brilliant mind and a great heart... Perversity diminished none of his defiant vitality and the fearlessness of his thought. He realised that his adversaries could take everything from him except his mind and heart. But he still had control over those things and he decided not to give them away. Only the lower classes were proud of their language and sang folk songs. But to claim for them any literary merit was to count merciless ridicule. Nevertheless, he continued to defend his mission just as a faithful soldier holds the post which has been committed to his keeping. He was the sole witness of the struggle within him and he could have ignored his conscience to go on. That was impossible because of all witnesses that was the one before whom this deeply human man most feared to blush.

Specifications 192 pp, with illustrations, 238x158mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-476-6 €30.00; US$42.00; GB£25.00

| Post-Medieval and the Modern World

Antique Collecting in Malta

in 1732 and was used regularly by the Knights for their amateur performances of plays and even operas, and also by visiting professional companies. During the siege of the French occupiers during 1798-1800, the theatre was managed by the Maltese opera composer Nicolo Isouard.

The passing of Malta to Britain meant that the theatre remained of importance to the substantial British garrison. During the twentieth century the Manoel was known largely for its productions of plays in English. In the late 1950s the Labour government decided to bring the theatre back into state ownership and it opened as a state theatre in December 1960.

10 | The Order of St John and the Knights of Malta

Miniature Maps of Malta Albert Ganado

The book includes over 90 miniature maps of Malta and Gozo, plans of Valletta and the Three Cities ranging between the 16th and early 20th century. The majority of these miniature maps have been carefully selected from the exclusive Albert Ganado Malta Map Collection that the National Museum of Fine Arts, Heritage Malta, has proudly owned since July 2008. A number of others come from the Malta Maritime Museum, Heritage Malta, and private collections. Included also are 19 books from the Albert Ganado Melitensia Collection that show miniature maps and plans of Malta and Valletta in their original function as illustrations to text.

Specifications 128 pp, + 90 illustrations in full colour, 240x170mm Limpbound 978-99932-7-272-4 €18.00; US$26.50; GB£16.00

of the period. But Garibaldi’s connection with Malta and the Maltese dates back to 1837 when he had already taken refuge in South America, mainly in Montevideo.

It was there that he met with other Italian exiles on the run from the despotic governments that held Italy in thrall for so many years. In Montevideo he teamed up with Luigi Rossetti, undisputed leader of the followers of Mazzini in South America, and supposed nephew of Gabriele Rossetti, who had found refuge in Malta in 1821, befriended by John Hookham Frere.

In their battle against despotism these Italian refugees had taken up the cause of the secessionist province of the Rio Grande do Sul against the forces of the Imperial Government of Brazil. In 1837 Garibaldi was given Letters of Marque by the rebellious province, to run after Brazilian ships - a privateer who needed to assemble a crew for his ship. Among the crew of “corsairs” Garibaldi had approached and enlisted two Maltese - “due maltesi” - whose names he does not give, and consequently none of his many biographers - Alexandre Dumas, Howard Blacket, Jessie Mario White, Indro Montanelli - give their names: Montanelli writes “due maltesi di cui non si conoscono i nomi”.

Torture and the Roman Inquisition

Specifications 180 pp, with illustrations, 228x150 mm Limpbound 978-99932-7-531-2 €20.00; US$26.50; GB£16.00

Part of the ‘Malta Insight Heritage Guides’ series

Kenneth Gambin

The introduction of the use of torture as part of inquisitorial procedure goes back to the bull ad extirpanda of pope innocent iv in 1252, when he allowed its use against the albigensians, a heretic sect originating in provence. In using torture, however, the inquisition was simply living up to contemporary standards. In the case of the holy office, in fact, more than a case for the human rights of those under arrest, it was a question of the tribunal’s responsibility to save the soul of the accused, at all costs!

Specifications 32 pages in full colour, 240x170 mm Limpbound 99932-39-96-8 €8.50; US$9.95; GB£5.50

The Inquisitor’s Palace, Vittoriosa Kenneth Gambin

Garibaldi’s Maltese Corsairs Abraham Borg

Giuseppe Garibaldi’s first and only visit to Malta took place in March 1864 when the Italian Risorgimento goals had been reached and the unity of Italy had become a reality. That visit, a prelude to the enthusiastic welcome he was given in England some days later has been amply recorded by Maltese newspapers

The inquisitor’s palace, sited in the heart of vittoriosa, is one of the very few surviving examples of such palaces which could be found all over europe and south america in the early modern period.

Part of the ‘Malta Insight Heritage Guides’ series Specifications 32 pages in full colour, 240x170 mm Limpbound 99932-39-96-8 €8.50; US$9.95; GB£5.50

The Prison Experience at the Inquisitor’s Palace, Vittoriosa Kenneth Gambin

Imprisonment is the imposition of involuntary bodily confinement of people convicted of criminal offences; it forms part of a wider category of physical punishments that restrict the individual’s freedom of movement. Incarceration also provides a means of punishment which offers the authorities control over the

The cathedral is the seat of the archbishop of Malta. Since Norman times, the cathedral has been the see of the bishop of Malta, although the bishops themselves did not always reside in Malta.

Also available in Italian, German, and French

Part of the ‘Malta Insight Heritage Guides’ series

Part of the ‘Malta Insight Heritage Guides’ series

Specifications 32 pages in full colour, 240x170 mm Limpbound 99932-39-96-8 €8.50; US$9.95; GB£5.50

Specifications 32 pages in full colour, 240x170 mm Limpbound 99932-39-96-8 €8.50; US$9.95; GB£5.50

The Maritime Ex-Voto: A culture of thanksgiving in Malta Isabelle Borg

Casa Rocca Piccola, Valletta Nicholas de Piro

Casa Rocca Piccola is the lived-in home of the de piro family – an ancient maltese lineage. The history of Casa Rocca Piccola goes back over 400 years to an era in which the Knights of St John decided to build themselves a prestigious city to rival European capitals. Palaces were designed for prestige and aesthetic beauty in most of Valletta’s carefully planned streets, and great bastion walls fortified the new sixteenthcentury city.

Casa Rocca Piccola houses a little museum called costumes and collections which is worth a visit. There are also the World War II shelters. They give you an idea of how people lived during the bombing of malta. A visit to Casa Rocca Piccola is an opportunity to see inside one of the last private unconverted Valletta palaces still lived in today.

In a few of the older sanctuaries and rural churches scattered throughout the Maltese islands one can find a substantial number of ex‑voto paintings. These paintings, often naively executed, are in fulfilment of vows made by groups or individuals who found themselves in peril on the sea or stricken by misfortune or malady. The fulfilment may be manifested in different ways such as in paintings, on canvas, timber panels, or stamped on sheets of silver in the shape of a leg or an arm, or as a scale model of a ship, or other votive offering. These were generally deposited in those sanctuaries thought to be endowed with special intercessionary favour, to be preserved within their walls, as popular expressions of gratitude for graces received through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin or other patron saints.

Part of the ‘Malta Insight Heritage Guides’ series Specifications 32 pages in full colour, 240x170 mm Limpbound 99932-39-96-8 €8.50; US$9.95; GB£5.50

Cynthia de Giorgio

St John’s Co-Cathedral is a gem of Baroque art and architecture. Its rich history and artistic heritage is due to the fact that, for over 200 years, it was the conventual church of the Order of St John of Jerusalem. The history of the church is directly tied to the history of the Order in Malta. Over the years, the grand masters, dignitaries, and knights donated gifts of high artistic value and made enormous contributions to enrich it with the best works of art by the leading artists available to them. The knights themselves referred to the church as ‘la nostra chiesa maggiore della Sacra Religione Gerosolmitana’.

Also available in Italian, Spanish and German.

Part of the ‘Malta Insight Heritage Guides’ series Specifications 32 pages in full colour, 240x170 mm Limpbound 99932-39-96-8 €8.50; US$9.95; GB£5.50

Part of the ‘Malta Insight Heritage Guides’ series Specifications 32 pages in full colour, 240x170 mm Limpbound 99932-39-96-8 €8.50; US$9.95; GB£5.50

St John’s Co-Cathedral, Valletta

The Methropolitan Cathedral, Mdina Aloysius Deguara

11 | The Order of St John and the Knights of Malta

offender without necessarily abusing his body. The book tries to take a practical view of human relations in a religious prison. By delving into the original documents and tries to dispel many of the unfounded prejudices that have coloured the real nature of the inquisition.

12 | The Order of St John and the Knights of Malta

the first millennium ad. This book outlines their history as Sovereign Military and Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta since the early days till modern times. The order to-day enjoys diplomatic relations with a number of countries and is represented in several international organizations such as the united nations, the council of europe, and unesco.

The book gives short biographies of the twenty-eight grand masters of Malta from 1530 to 1798.

St George’s Basilica and its Il-Ħaġar Museum, Victoria, Gozo Pawlu Mizzi

St George’s basilica, historically known as San Ġorġ tal-Ħaġar, rises at the heart of Il-Ħaġar, the prehistoric walled settlement and later Punic-Roman town, in the ancient quarter of Victoria. A walk around this area gives the sensation that little has changed since the Middle Ages and a visit to the basilica, rebuilt in 1678, is bound to be a memorable one. Adorned in rich Italian marble and boasting a lavishly painted ceiling and gilded plasterwork, with fine canvases and statuary, a Renaissance-style altar, and magnificent bronze portals in contemporary art, ‘the golden church of Gozo’ represents inspiration, beauty, and craftsmanship on an outstanding scale.

Part of the ‘Malta Insight Heritage Guides’ series Specifications 80 pp, in full colour, 240x170 mm Limpbound 978-99932-7-495-7 €8.50; US$14.00; GB£9.50

The Grand Masters of Malta from the origins to modern times Pawlu Mizzi

The Order of the Knight Hospitallers of St John has its origins in the early years of

Specifications 40 pp in full colour, 245 x 190 mm Limpbound 99909-93-19-X €8.50; US$9.95; GB£5.50 Hardbound 99909-75-68-X €16.95; US$19.95; GB£7.00

Chronology of the Grand Masters of the Sovereign Military Order of St John known as the Order of Malta 1099-1962 Fra John Critien

This book presents for the first time the whole collection of the ‘CRONOLOGIA DE I GRAN MAESTRI DELLO SPEDALE DELLA SACRA RELIGIONE MILITARE DI SˆGIOˆGEROSOLIMITANO E DELL’ ORDINE DEL SANTO SEPOLCRO OGGI DETTI DI MALTA. The collection consists of two series of engraved portraits of the Grand Masters.

The first series starts with the founder of the Order, Frà Gerard – 1st Rector of the Hospital of Jerusalem (c.1099) and ends with Frà Emmanuel de Rohan – 69th Grand Master of the Order (1775). The second series starts with Frà Ferdinand von Hompesch – 71st Grand Master of the Order (1797), and ends with Frà Angelo de Mojana di Cologna – 77th Grand Master of the Order (1962).

The portraits are all in the same format: head and shoulders, placed within a circular frame bearing their title, with armorial in centre below. The original issue, published in 1709 consisted of 66

portraits up to Grand Master Perellos with the addition of six other plates. The text was written by G.B. Brancadoro Perin with the original plates by G. Rossi (1682– 1762). The other set, from grand masters Hompesch to de Mojana di Cologna, is found at Palazzo Malta, in Rome.

This set of portraits of the grand masters of the Order from 1099 is a unique collection and a must have in collections that include the Knights of the Order of St John.

Specifications 190 pp in six colours, 320x240 mm Hardbound 99932-7-067-9 (text in Italian and English) €95.00; US$118.00; GB£65.50

Malta: The Order of St John Thomas Freller

The urban, cultural, and political profile of the Maltese islands is deeply marked by the presence for 268 years of the knights of St John. The Order has left its mark decisively in the collective memory of the Maltese. The books gives a global picture of this multinational institution in those crucial years when Grand Master L’Isle Adam moved the convent from Rhodes to Malta, when legendary Grand Master Valette withstood the Turkish assault in 1565, when Grand Masters Wignacourt, Cotoner, and Carafa turned Malta into a centre of Mediterranean corsairing, and Grand Masters Vilhena and Pinto tried to imitate the Central European absolutist princes. It all came to a sudden – but not unexpectedly – end in 1798 when Grand Master Hompesch handed over Malta to the rising star on the European horizon, Napoleon.

Part of the ‘Malta Living Heritage’ series Specifications 360 pp in full colour, 210x140 mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-297-7 €48.50; US$56.50; GB£30.00 Dutchbound 978-99932-7-298-4 €28.50; US$33.00; GB£17.95

Thomas Freller and William Zammit

In the middle of the seventeenth century, apart from such leading powers and commercial giants as Spain, Portugal, England, France, and the Netherlands, all of a sudden even the minuscule Order of St John joined in the global race for colonies. In 1651 the Order acquired the islands of St Kitts (St Christopher), St Martin, St Bartholomew, and St Croix, and in the next years, in spite of many obstacles, tried to make them profitable.

The history of these events not only sheds light on the international, indeed worldwide, networking of the Order but also on the personal ambitions and greed of a new ‘globalized’ age. This book presents the long overdue full story of this, until now only scarcely researched, colourful episode in the long and chequered history of the Knights of St John.

Specifications 176 pp, with illustrations, 228x150 mm, Hardbound 978-99932-7-552-7 €30.00; US$33.00; GB£24.00

The Observing Eye: The French artist Jean Houel in Malta Thomas Freller

the remote Malta of the Knights kept on attracting a tremendous number of visitors. In spite of the upheavals, crises, and often deep uncertainty that mark the early modern period of European history, Malta was the focus of the interest for Catholics as well as the Protestants, and people from France, Spain, Italy, England, the German lands, the Scandinavian countries. This book will try to embrace the whole colourful spectrum of visitors to Malta.

Specifications 760 pp including illustrations, 228x150mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-248-9 €55.00; US$75.00; GB£50.00

Specifications 194 pp, with colour illustrations, 228x150 mm, Hardbound 978-99932-7-417-9 €40.00; US$53.50; GB£34.00

Romegas Carmel Testa

Malta and the Grand Tour Thomas Freller

The phenomenon of the European Grand Tour to Italy, Sicily, or France has been extensively treated, but its extension to Malta has never been analyzed at length. The term ‘Grand Tour’ is mainly used to describe the European giro in the eighteenth century, but this book includes the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as well as the first decades of the nineteenth century. It throws light on the role of Malta in the period of the Ancien Régime which in itself implies a certain homogeneity in European society and culture. As this was the period when the island was governed by the cosmopolitan Order of St John, many phenomena and developments of European culture also found their echoes in the microcosm of Malta. The travellers’ tales and descriptions reflect this development.

A closer look at the single cases of the European travellers suggests that

The book describes in detail a period of intense activity heading to a climax between two rival super-powers: the Christian block under the leadership of Catholic Spain, against the Muslim challenge spearheaded by Suleiman the Magnificent. The French knight Fra Mathurin Lescaut Romegas was the contemporary of Emperor Charles V, King Philip II of Spain, Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, Prince Don John of Austria, admiral Andrea Doria, the terrible Muslim corsairs Barbarossa, Dragut and Ulugh Ali, Popes Pius IV and Gregory XIII and other leaders who moulded the future fate of the Mediterranean. A close friend of the legendary Grand Master La Valette, Romegas within a few years he became the terror of the Muslims. Fate decreed that he played a very prominent part during the Great Siege of Malta (1565) and the no less dramatic battle of Lepanto (1571). With a lifetime of continuous success, Romegas seemed to be destined to be elected Grand Master of the Order of St John in due tim had it not been for his sudden death.

Specifications 262 pp, with illustrations in colour 150x228mm Hardbound 99932-39-14-3 €56.50; US$65.95; GB£35.00

13 | The Order of St John and the Knights of Malta

Knights, Buccaneers, and Sugar Cane: The Caribbean Colonies of the Order of Malta

The French artist Jean Pierre Louis Laurent Hoüel is rightly described as master of the ‘vedutismo itinerante’. Art historians have acknowledged his important contributions to the development of 18th-century landscape painting. Volume four of his magnus opus, the Voyage pittoresque des îles de Sicile, de Malte et de Lipari …, contributes substantially to our knowledge about the state of locations and monuments during his two visits to Malta and Gozo in 1770 and 1777. This new book also includes more sketches and reproductions of the original gouache paintings related to these islands which are now preserved in the Hermitage in St Petersburg. The accompanying text makes clear Hoüel’s profound knowledge – at least by the standards of his times – of the history, geo-physical structure, and folklore of the Maltese archipelago.

14 | The Order of St John and the Knights of Malta

The fabulous life of the Comte de Bavière and Malta Thomas Freller

Novice and negotiator in the service of the Catholic Order of St John, candidate to the post of grand prior of Castille, but bastard son of a prince and married to his niece, lieutenant general in the French army and fighting at the forefront of many battles, French envoy, lover of his father’s mistress, and protagonist of several scandals and duels, the Comte de Bavière was one of the most notorious and popular figures of his times. Based on the material of various European archives, this book finally presents the long-overdue biography of this colourful character.

Specifications 140 pp, with illustrations, 205 x135 mm, Limpbound 978-99932-7-529-9 €12.00; US$13.50; GB£9.00

his consorting with Moorish slaves.

In 1598 he accused of apostasy. The proceedings of his trial were discovered in the Cathedral Archives, Mdina, Malta and provide a vivid picture of the times, the interaction between the various communities in Valletta and the allimportant role of the Inquisition. Among the folios of the proceedings were found three letters, written in the Arabic dialect of Sfax (Tunisia) by a scribe for Moorish galley slaves. The letters are a unique find, giving first-hand accounts of the lives at sea. This book is the result of collaboration among ten researchers from Birmingham, Exeter, Leeds and Malta, each revealing a different aspect of Scala’s world.

Specifications 536 pp, illustrated in monotone, 228x150mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-415-5 €45.00; US$60.00; GB£39.50

Jewellery in Malta: Treasures from the Island of the Knights (1530-1798)

The Conventual Church of the Knights of Malta: Splendour, History and Art of St John’s CoCathedral, Valletta

Cynthia de Giorgio

St John’s Co-Cathedral is a gem of Baroque art and architecture. Its rich history and artistic heritage is due to the fact that, for over 200 years, it was the conventual church of the Order of St John of Jerusalem. Over the years, the grand masters, dignitaries, and knights donated gifts of high artistic value and made enormous contributions to enrich it with the best works of art by the leading artists available to them. The book outlines the history of the church. It also describes the chapels, the art and the treasures found within. Moreover it is the first book to be published after the completion of the restoration project of the main nave.

Specifications 144 pp in full colour, 265x220mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-291-5 €65.00; US$110.00; GB£69.00

Francesca Balzan

Georgio Scala and the Moorish Slaves: The Inquisition Malta, 1598 edited by Dionisius A. Agius

Georgio Scala, a young man of humble origins from Damiata, was captured on a trading vessel by the Knights of Malta in 1590. After gaining his freedom, Scala made a life for himself in Valletta, and married Bernardina Mendicino. Outwardly a good Christian, his behaviour and

Researched and written by Francesca Balzan, this study has made extensive use of primary sources to build up a history of jewellery in Malta, which focuses on the art of jewellery, its social history and trade practices, and is the first study of its kind to be published in Malta. The book is in two parts, the first of which contains essays on historical aspects of Jewellery in Malta while the second part is devoted to analytical case studies of a number of jewellery items. One of the merits of the book is to discuss jewellery in a meaningful art historical and social context. This broadens the reader’s response and opens a window on the anthropology of jewellery.”

Specifications 262 pp in full colour, 280x240mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-278-6 €83.50; US$125.00; GB£75.00

The Palaces of the Grand Masters in Malta: Valletta, Verdala, San Anton Thomas Freller

The book gives an overview of the history of the three main palaces of the grand masters of the Order of St John in Malta:

Also available in German Specifications 96 pp in full colour, 295x185mm Limpbound 978-99932-7-254-0 €18.00; US$26.50; GB£16.00

Daily life in eighteenthcentury Malta Robert Attard and Romina Azzopardi

Eighteenth-century Malta was a fascinating place. It was a land of contradictions. The island was ruled by a Religious Order but contemporaries described it as ‘un lieu de debauche and impurite’. Prostitutes lined the streets of Valletta. While Grandmaster Pinto’s ladies feasted on precious delicacies including Acque gelate imported from Sicily, Cioccolata imported from South America and expensive Macaroni imported from Naples, the poor begged for food from the stairs leading to the harbour.

This book seeks to transport the reader back to 18th-century Malta and is meticuously reconstructed from judicial records which contain important data relating to the food, the clothes, the household and the way of life. Traveller’s accounts contain interesting descriptions of the curious island.

Specifications 176 pp in full colour, 265x220mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-327-1 €48.00; US$64.00; GB£40.00

The German Langue of the Order of Malta Thomas Freller

The presence and history of the Order of St John in various regions of the lands of Germany and East Europe has been researched in several aspects, but a comprehensive work on the langue of Germany as such has never been written. This book presents an overview of the 800 years of the history of the Hospitallers in Germany and in the lands of the former ‘Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation’. Because of the vastness of the subject, the present book does not pretend to be a study in depth of this subject but is a basic outline of the development of the institution and of the most important events connected with it.

The book is aimed at the general reader as well as at the specialist, who will find indications for further reading on single aspects and events.

Specifications 288 pp including illustrations, 205x135mm Limpbound 978-99932-7-299-1 €18.00; US$22.00; GB£15.00

The Last Knight of Malta Thomas Freller and Gabriele Von Trauchburg

From the tender age of 14 up to his death at 64, Joseph Maria von Rechberg was prominently involved in many of the most

important events at the end of the Ancien Régime and the chequered history of the Order of Malta. Rechberg was a boy when he participated in the fatal campaign of Algiers, as already a most respected military man he participated years later prominently in the defence of Malta against the French. It was Rechberg who fired the last bullet against Napoleon’s French armada, long after Grand Master Hompesch had surrendered the island.

The newly discovered fact that Rechberg had warned the government of the Order about an imminent French attack puts the surrender of Malta in June 1798 in a new light. In the turbulent years of the early 19th century he served as spy and envoy for his Order. Joseph Maria von Rechberg was also involved in the Napoleonic wars, the Russian campaign and Waterloo.

Specifications 240 pp with illustrations, 205x135mm, Limpbound 978-99932-7-330-1 €11.00; US$15.75; GB£10.00

Padre Ottomano and Malta

Thomas Freller and Dolores Campoy One of the most enigmatic figures in Malta’s chequered history was certainly ‘Padre Ottomano’, allegedly the first-born son of Sultan Ibrahim. This mysterious character and his mother, allegedly Sultana Zafira, were captured by the knights of Malta when they seized a giant galleon as a prize on 28 September 1644.

The young boy was educated in Malta and took the vows of a Dominican friar becoming known as Padre Ottomano.

But the great scheme to instal him on the throne of Sultan Mehmet IV failed.

Subsequently he stepped back from the great scene of European politics and ended his days in Malta as prior of Porto Salvo in Valletta. This book tries to sort out the many facts and fiction.

Specifications 168 pp with illustrations, 228x150mm Limpbound 978-99932-7-079-2 €12.50; US$15.00; GB£9.50

15 | The Order of St John and the Knights of Malta

the Magistral Palace in Valletta, Verdala Palace and Buskett Gardens in the vicinity of Rabat, and San Anton Palace and Gardens at Attard. It serves as an introduction to some of the most prestigious architectural and artistic gems of the island. The history and development of the palaces of the grand masters reflect the history of art and architecture in Malta, from mannerism to baroque to early modern.

Their genesis and development was connected with some of the greatest names of architects and artists who worked on the island.

16 | The Order of St John and the Knights of Malta

Voyage d’Italie et de Malthe which was but one of a six volume work entitled Le Voyageur d’Europe published in Paris in 1672, Albert Jouvin, accompanied by some friends, arrived in Siracusa, Sicily in December 1663 from where they soon managed to board a war galley of the Hospitaller Order of St John the Baptist which was then visiting that city to participate in the festivities of S. Lucia.

Having safely reached Malta on the S. Luigi via Capo Passero, Jouvin remained on the island for about four weeks and eventually returned to France in 1665.

Two death sentences by the Inquisition Tribunal of Malta, 1639 Kenneth Gambin

The setting up of the Roman Inquisition in 1542 was also aimed at introducing a sense of correct behaviour and beliefs expected from all Christians, Besides fighting Protestant doctrines,.

The Inquisition was lenient with first-time offenders or with those who showed genuine signs of repentance.

In those rare cases where the accused insisted in their errors, however, the instructions were clear: the obstinate and stubborn unrepentant who refused to be reconciled to the Church had to be handed to the secular court to be burned alive.

Specifications 108 pp with colour illustrations, 205x135mm Limpbound 978-99932-7-074-1 €9.50; US$11.50; GB£7.50

A description of Baroque Malta by Albert Jouvin de Rocheforst Dennis De Lucca

Albert Jouvin de Rochefort was one of many seventeenth century European travellers who visited several cities in Europe, Asia and Africa. According to his

Specifications 48 pp in full colour, 245x190mm Limpbound 99932-39-91-7 €11.50; US$13.50; GB£12.00

Essays on the Knights and Art and Architecture in Malta, 1500-1798 Mario Buhagiar

The twenty essays in this collection represent a selection of studies on the Knights of St John and the art history of early modern Malta that the author, Head of the Department of the History of Art with the Faculty of Arts at the University of Malta, published between 1964 and 2007 in various Maltese and overseas journals and miscellaneous other publications. They are being reproposed in the belief that, in spite of the fact that the earliest among them may have become outdated by more recent research, they can still be read with profit.

Specifications 350 pp, over 100 illustrations in full colour, 228x150mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-246-5 €50.00; US$65.00; GB£45.00

Caravaggio and painters of realism in Malta edited by Cynthia de Giorgio and Keith Sciberras

In July 1608, Caravaggio was invested with the habit of Magistral Obedience

by Alof de Wignacourt, Grand Master of the Knights of Malta. The artist, however, soon fell out of grace and was deprived of his knighthood in the very same year. Caravaggio’s presence in Malta was, however, to remain strong, partly because of the pictures that he painted and partly because of the overwhelming influence that his art had on realist paintings that found their way on the island thereafter. The essays in this book include ‘Caravaggio and Paintings of Realism in Malta’ by Keith Sciberras; ‘Caravaggio: Biography in Paint’ by Helen Langdon; ‘Painting in Exile’ by David M. Stone; ‘Caravaggio’s Late Paintings: Invisible Witnesses’ by John T. Spike; ‘Ars Moriendi – Ad Usum Proprium: Aspects of dealing with death in Caravaggio’ by Peter Serracino-Inglott; ‘Malta: Caravaggesque Crossroads’ by John Gash; Caravaggio and Early Naturalism in Naples: The context for Neapolitan paintings in Malta’ by Nicola Spinosa; ‘The Technique of Caravaggio’s Late Years (1606-10)’ by Roberta Lapucci; ‘The Beheading of St Catherine at Zejtun, Malta: A Maltese-Sicilian Caravaggist painting worthy of attention’ by Mario Buhagiar; Giulio Cassarino (1588-1637): A Biographical Outline’ by Simon Mercieca.

Specifications 236 pages with a colour inserts, 300x220mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-162-8 €86.50; US$112.00; GB£62.50

Keith Sciberras and David M. Stone

Written by two leading authorities in the field, this richly illustrated book tells the story of Caravaggio’s voyage to Malta, his interactions with the Knights and their leader Grand Master Alof de Wignacourt, and the magnificent paintings he made for them. Among the works he produced on the island are the Beheading of St John the Baptist – his largest and only signed picture – and the St Jerome Writing, a canvas of exceptional psychological force. The book presents new iconographic, technical, and stylistic analyses of all of the Maltese pictures as well as two chapters devoted to discussions of Caravaggio’s importance in the history of art and the chronological problems in his late works. Based on original archival research, this study also includes an account of Caravaggio’s crime in Malta, his imprisonment, and daring escape to Sicily.

Specifications 138 pp in full colour, 240x170mm Limpbound 99932-7-071-7 €27.50; US$34.50; GB£19.00

Specifications 236 pages with a colour inserts, 300 x 220mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-162-8 €86.50; US$112.00; GB£62.50

Mattia Preti: The Triumpant Manner Keith Sciberras

Caravaggio to Mattia Preti: Baroque Painting in Malta Keith Sciberras

The book aptly provides the parameters that span 17th-century baroque painting

This book marks the 400th anniversary of the birth of the artist Mattia Preti (1613-1699), who spent forty years of his working life in Malta. Research for this superb book is co-ordinated by Professor Keith Sciberras, who is also the author of the two critical essays which compose the first part of the book. Over 150 catalogue entries are co-authored by Professor Sciberras and Ms Jessica Borg M.A. The book includes over 270 paintings taken purposely for this book by master photographer Mr Joe P. Borg.

Specifications 496 pp in full colour, 300x240mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-407-0 €175.00; US$228.00; GB£141.50

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Caravaggio: Art, Knighthood and Malta

in Malta. Caravaggio’s move to Malta in 1607 opened this magnificent chapter in Maltese art, to which the island responded with extraordinary artistic foresight. Malta offered Caravaggio security, but more importantly it offered him the opportunity to redeem himself.

During this period, Malta was ruled by the Knights of the Order of St John and their fascinating political context impinged significantly on the character of its art. Their political clout and their eight-pointed cross attracted other artists, including Mattia Preti, whose four-decade stay on the island defined the triumphant manner of Maltese baroque art. Preti’s death on the island in 1699 came at the end of the century. This book discusses the work of the major artists and analyses the context in which they were produced.

It also discusses paintings of importance that were sent from mainland Italy and reviews them and their critical fortune within the story of Maltese art.

Mattia Preti: Faith and Humanity

Sandro Debono and Giuseppe Valentino, editors The book includes 9 papers by leading art scholars and historians, some of whom are publishing for the first time their findings after the recent studies of Preti’s paintings. It also includes entries of the 49 art-pieces and artifacts which formed part of an exhibition in 2013.

The essays include: ‘Mattia Preti (16131699): “Il Cavalier Calabrese”’ by Craig Felton; ‘Mattia Preti in Taverna: References for Knowledge on the Context of Origin’

by Giuseppe Valentino; ‘Mattia Preti in the Roman Context: Reflections on Documents and Works’ by Giorgio Leone; ‘The Space Revisited: A contemporary Mattia Preti’ by Luigi Tassoni; ‘The Effect of Dürer’s Prints on the Art of Mattia Preti’

by Kristina Herrmann Fiore; ‘Sculpture and the Art of Mattia Preti’ by Devin Therien; ‘Edged Weapons in the Art of Mattia Preti’

by Robert Cassar; ‘A Maltese Hagiography for Mattia Preti?’ by Sandro Debono; and ‘Mattia Preti in Taverna: On-going task for case studies’ by Caterina Bagnato.

Specifications 304 pp illustrated in colour and monotone, 265x220mm Limpbound 978-99932-7-437-7 €40.00; US$52.50; GB£33.50

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Mattia Preti: Saints and Heroes for the Knights of Malta Cynthia de Giorgio

This book studies the iconography of saints and heroes of the Knights of Malta as depicted by the artist Mattia Preti between 1658 and 1698. Mattia Preti’s corpus of paintings was selected because it is one of the most important collections of narrative paintings depicting saints and heroes that received the devotion of the Knights of Malta. The influence of these paintings was instrumental for introducing new devotions as well as the new expressive baroque artistic style to the Maltese Islands. This book attempts to examine why paintings of saints became so popular in the seventeenth century and their importance to the Knights of Malta. This study was made to bring to light the stories of these saints, some well known, but some forgotten in a world of ever-changing cultural diversity.

Specifications 144 pp in full colour, 265x220mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-481-0

Mattia Preti: Beyond the Self-Portrait Sandro Debono and Giuseppe Valentino with a foreword by Giorgio Leone

This book proposes new methodologies for the study of Mattia Preti. The researched essays look at Preti from

different perspectives. Whilst the foreword serves the purpose of an introductory summary; the authors deliberately chose to probe Preti’s multifaceted personality through a very restricted group of paintings, four in all, which are believed to stand for Preti’s views and opinion about knighthood and art. Moreover, his two self-portraits (San Domenico, Taverna; Uffizi, Florence) describe identity through physiognomy. The St John the Baptist Wearing the Red tabard of the Order of St John (National Museum of Fine Arts, Heritage Malta) and the altar painting of St Luke (Franciscan Conventuals, Valletta) go beyond.

Preti) like a magnet towards them whilst their refined tastes saw them commission important works from the Continent. The other major influential force on the island was the Catholic Church (the Diocese and the major Religious Orders). Within this context, this book surveys the context and character of Baroque painting in Malta and discusses the work of its major protagonists.

Specifications 540 pp in full colour, 300x220mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-249-6 €110.00; US$148.00; GB£100.00

Also available in Italian Specifications 96 pp in full colour, 240x170mm Limpbound 978-99932-7-429-2 €18.00; US$23.50; GB£14.50

Roman Baroque Sculpture for the Knights of Malta Keith Sciberras

Baroque Painting in Malta Keith Sciberras

The story of Baroque painting in Malta reflects that of the Italian peninsula and, in many ways, it can be directly integrated within it. In terms of quantity, the island was impressively prolific. In terms of quality, works vary tremendously. There were, however, celebrated instances when the island was significantly at the forefront of stylistic development.

A handful of Maltese artists worked beyond the island’s shores and some, like the painter Francesco Noletti (il Fieravino), made major breakthroughs in Rome. The island’s small size also meant, on the other hand, that it could be easily conditioned by one or two major artists working there. The story of Baroque painting in Malta is thus marked by such artists.

The fascinating political context of the island also impinged significantly on the character of its art. In this period, Malta was ruled by the Knights of the Order of St John.

The Knights’ political clout, and their Cross, attracted great artists (such as Caravaggio, Leonello Spada, and Mattia

This book, now in its second revised edition, studies the mechanics of patronage of Roman Baroque sculpture produced for the Knights of the Order of St John and discusses the extent of such patronage together with the artistic and historical importance of the works commissioned. Leading artists such as Alessandro Algardi, Ciro Ferri and Melchiorre Cafà are thoroughly examined and new attributions to others are made.

Moreover, Sciberras’ research sheds light on the lesser known aspects of the artistic liaisons between Malta and Rome, on who took care of the Order’s artistic affairs in Rome and on how these works traveled to Malta.

Specifications 454 pp including illustrations, 240x140mm Limpbound 978-99932-7-396-7 €30.00; US$37.50; GB£24.00

Edgar Vella

The book discusses for the first time the rich tradition of relic veneration in Malta. It looks closely at the period between 1600, with the early documented translation of relics, and 1798, the end of the Knights’ period which has contributed greatly in the divulgation of the cult and veneration of relics. The knights of Order of St John had arrived in Malta in 1530 after they had been expelled from Rhodes bringing with them a great treasure of relics.

The author approaches the theme holistically, discussing not only their religious origins and significance but also the artistic value of the containers themselves. Furthermore, he categorizes these reliquaries in the diocese of Malta during the Baroque period in 21 different typologies, varying from pendants to phials, from ostensories to urns, and from arms to lantern.

The volume is profusely illustrated with splendid photographs which have been purposely taken by master-photographer Joe. P. Borg.

Specifications 240 pp in full colour, 240x300mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-562-6 €60.00; US$75.00; GB£53.00

Francesco Zahra 17101773: His life and art in mid-18th century Malta

Keith Sciberras, with the contribution of Jessica Borg

Part of the ‘Malta Insight Heritage Guides’ series

This book celebrates the 300th year anniversary of Francesco Zahra’s birth in 1710 and seeks to show the extraordinary range of the artist’s output. Zahra was Malta’s most important native painter of the mid-18th century and his style wonderfully captured the spirit of the Late Baroque. He was extremely prolific and could handle the brush with a fascinating ease, thus furnishing Maltese churches with hundreds of paintings, large and small. His extraordinary creative spirit also ensured that his pictures breathed the compositional freshness of mature artists. Francesco Zahra produced various designs for church furniture, marble altars, silver artefacts, liturgical vessels and other objets d’art that still survive scattered around the island which made him made him one of the most fashionable of the Baroque painters active in Malta.

Specifications Limpbound, 56 pages in full colour, 240x170 mm ISBN 978-99932-7-164-2 €8.50; US$9.95; GB£5.50

Specifications 272 pp in full colour, 300x220mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-319-6 €80.00; US$115.00; GB£72.00

Understanding Caravaggio and his art in Malta Sandro Debono

Mattia Preti: St Catherine of Alexandria Cynthia De Giorgio and Sante Guido

The book is a thematic study of works of art by Mattia Preti and brings together various paintings of St Catherine produced by the artist. Within the Christian Church, St Catherine has been the subject of popular devotion for at least six centuries as she ranks as one of the fourteen most invoked saints in Heaven.

The canvases presented in this book are some of Preti’s most outstanding works and they make a very interesting study of his diverse palette and compositional studies. .

Specifications 48 pp in full colour, 297x210 mm Limpbound 99932-7-062-8 €16.25; US$19.95; GB£11.50

19 | Baroque Art in Malta

Treasures of Faith: Relics and Reliquaries in Malta, 1600–1798

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio’s art single-handedly revolutionized artistic concepts and ideas. His artistic career and turbulent life was over before he reached 40 years of age but he successfully managed to achieve much in so little time. His art was a source of inspiration for numerous followers and Malta still cherishes his legacy long after the few months he spent on the island 400 years ago. his book makes no pretence at academic scholarship. It is meant for the general public, but the author deserves credit for telling the story of the great artist and his Maltese context, in a factual straightforward manner that gives added meaning to the Caravaggio appeal for the non-specialist.

20 | Baroque Art in Malta

Stones of Faith: tombstones, funerary rites and customs at the Gozo Matrice Charles R. Cassar

The Cathedral of Gozo perched atop the Castello is renowned for its art treasures, drawing many visitors throughout the year. a little known feature is the wonderful array of marble tombstones that cover the whole floor of the church.

The tombstones, which were produced at different periods, exhibit various styles and are a testimony of skilful artisticcraftsmanship in marble intarsia. replete with memento mori symbols and intended to appeal to the senses, these ledger stones provide an enduring tribute to the people who sought to be laid to rest in the sacred confines of the church.

third most important Neapolitan crib in the world. In the early 1990s, the author acquired his first crib figures at antique markets in London, among which a Madonna by Lorenzo Mosca, a St Joseph

by Nicola Somma, and a rustic figure

by Genzano, truly lucky acquisitions. By time other acquisitions followed and, through meticulous observation, analysis, and research, other important names of crib sculptures from the Settecento came forth: Francesco Viva, Giuseppe De Luca, other pieces by Lorenzo Mosca, Giuseppe Gori, Francesco and Camillo Celebrano, Salvatore Franco, Nicola and Aniello Ingaldi, Francesco Cappiello.

Many crib figures are to be dated to the setting of the various workshops that emerged in eighteenth-century Naples, some of which of extreme importance, such as that of Giuseppe Sanmartino, the caposcuola of Neapolitan sculpture.

Specifications 144 pages in full colour, 280x240 mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-387-5 €48.00; US$64.00; GB£40.00

The Busuttil Family: A legacy of three generations

edited by Sandro Debono and Bernardine Scicluna

Edgar Vella

This book is about Edgar Vella Neapolitan crib which is now considered to be the

Specifications 135 pp in full colour, 290x210mm Limpbound 978-99932-7-305-9 €42.00; US$52.00; GB£35.00

The Bellanti Family: Contributions to art and culture in Malta edited by William Zammit

Specifications 224 pp with a colour section, 240x170mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-411-7 €45.00; US$59.00; GB£36.50

An Eighteenth-Century Neapolitan Crib in Malta – The Evolution of the Italian Crib: A Threshold To The Bourbon Crib

private art school next to his father’s residence in Strada Irlandese, somewhere opposite the Lower Barracca. Among his students were Massimo Gauci and Giorgio Pullicino, Michele’s future assistant at the University.

The artistic gene in the Busuttil family was first noticed in the young Michele, and as a result he was given painting lessons by Rocco Buhagiar (c.1725-1805) in Valletta. At the age of eighteen, he was sent to Rome with another Maltese student, Giuseppe Grech (1755-1787), to study design, painting and sculpture at the Accademia di San Luca, one of the most prestigious academies of art in Europe. Here Michele was placed under the tutelage of sculptor Tommaso Rigi. In drawing competitions in both September 1782 and September 1783 he came second in class and Giuseppe Grech came first. On 2 July 1785 Michele, then aged 23, accompanied by his elder brother Giuseppe, four years his senior, left Rome for Naples. Possibly he was on his way back to Malta where he opened his own

This publication is the first to delve in depth into the artistic and cultural achievements of different members of the Bellanti family. Michele Bellanti (1807-1883) was a major Maltese artist, active from the 1840s onwards, and who has contributed most significantly to the post-Baroque Maltese artistic scene. While his paintings, sketches and lithographs have always been appreciated and greatly sought after for their artistic merits, no detailed study on the artist or on the significance of his work had as yet been undertaken.

The studies contained in this publication not only constitute a detailed corpus describing the achievements of the Bellanti family, but should, moreover, serve to stimulate academic interest in other, as yet unstudied individuals and families, who gave a sterling contribution to various aspects of Maltese intellectual, cultural and artistic development during different periods.

Specifications 208 pp in full colour, 300 x 240 mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-331-8 €70.00; US$98.00; GB£61.00

21

The Archaeological Drawings of Charles Frederick De Brocktorff

Specifications 96 pp in full colour, 297x210mm Limpbound 978-99932-7-414-8 €18.00; US$23.50; GB£14.50

Rueben Grima

In the early 1820s, Charles Fredrick de Brocktorff, a German artist, was commissioned to make a series of watercolours on the Maltese islands.

Nineteen of these watercolours depict the archaeological remains of the Ġgantija temple and the nearby stone circle which had just been excavated by Col. Otto Bayer. The book, written by Rueben Grima, with photography by Daniel Cilia, includes background information about the plates, the artist, the person who commissioned the work, the orginal sketches (now kept at the National Museum of Archaeology) and other old illustrations and photos of Ġgantija and the Xagħra Circle. The book may be purchased separately.

Specifications Plates: 437 by 342 mm, printed in full colour Book: 96 pp in full colour, 300x220mm Plates and book 99932-7-022-9 €212.50; US$247.95; GB£135.00 Limpbound 99932-7-033-4 (book only) €50.00; US$69.00; GB£40.00

Christian Attard

Edward Caruana Dingli (1876-1950): Portraits, views and folkloristic scenes edited by Paul Xuereb

Edward Caruana Dingli is the twentieth century painter many Maltese are likeliest to know by name and by fame, and some of his works have long attained iconic status. So highly regarded was he in his own lifetime that in the 1920s he was utilized by the officials responsible for the marketing of the fledgling tourist industry, and in fact the colourful images of Malta and of Maltese people he produced created what contemporary managers would call “branding” for Malta.

Specifications 400 pp in full colour, 300x240mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-303-5 €120.00; US$148.00; GB£102.00

Henry Mayo Bateman (1887-1970) edited by Bernardine Scicluna

Malta and Gozo of the sixties must have carried some distinct appeal as artistic

Gianni Vella: The life and works of an early twentieth century Maltese artist This book aims at presenting the diverse facets of Gianni Vella’s artistic personality. It will present his Church paintings which, because of their very accessibility, remain his bestknown, but it will also present Vella working in different conditions, when, cut loose from the understandable strictures of Church commissions, he let his guard down and manifested a more adventurous and experimental nature. More importantly, this study seeks to redress the virtual obscurity and misunderstanding that loom unjustly over his large corpus of works.

Specifications 144 pages, in full colour, 240x280mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-444-5 €45.00; US$61.00; GB£37.00

| Contemporary Art in Malta

and creative celebrities were attracted to visit regularly or actually reside here.

Henry Mayo Bateman was among those who chose to settle here, spending the final years of his life in Gozo until his death in 1970. His years here were largely spent painting scenes of Gozo and Gozo-life. A renowned cartoonist who created “The Man who…” series, H. M. Bateman was a celebrity in his time. This monograph is the first study of the last years of this loved British cartoonist.

22 | Contemporary Art in Malta

of the Maltese students in Rome who had foolishly chosen to remain there for the duration. This may well have been in circulation around the time of the ‘Conspiracy Trials’. The fact that the drawings depict - or caricature - judges, jurors, lawyers and spectators during a controversial trial by jury, also makes them a significant record, rich in psychological insight, of an occasion that is not often encountered in Maltese legal history.

Willie Apap: Descent from the Cross

Specifications 32 pp in full colour, 297x210mm Limpbound 99932-7-008-3 €11.50; US$13.00; GB£7.00

Antoine Camilleri: Pictures in clay

Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci

Notwithstanding the fact that Willie Apap (1918-1970) spent most of his productive and artistic career in Rome, where he passed away at the age of fifty-two, we can consider him as one of the most important prolific twentiethMaltese artist.Like many impressionist artists such as Degas, Apap was fond of painting ballerinas and dancers. His large collection on the genre of paintings and sketches is orchestrated with movement and drama, boldness and fragility.

Dr. Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci’s present contribution is a very important step in the studies of the works by Willie Apap.

This publication creates a novel approach in the analyses of Apap’s corpus, and thus opens new horizons for a further development and enrichment in the study of Melitensia art.

Specifications 64 pp in full colour, 297x210mm Limpbound 978-99932-7-193-2 €12.00; US$16.50; GB£10.00

Willie Apap: The ‘Conspiracy Trial’ Drawings 1947 Dennis Vella

Following the Allied victory, a witticism that did the rounds in Malta for some time referred to the misguided decision

Denis Vella

Vincent Apap (19092003): Works from the National Collection edited Sandro Debono

This is the first publication dedicated to the sculpture legacy of Vincent Apap since his death in 2003. A number of pieces are being presented for the first time or brought together within a fresh context. Most of these are new additions to the National Collection having been donated by the family of the artist.

The book is intended to commemorate Apap as Malta’s leading sculptor of his time. His artistry created representations of our Nation’s quest to commemorate its iconic personalities. His works have also been admired and collected by Royalty while Maltese communities commissioned him to embellish their churches and public spaces. Indeed, his legacy builds on Malta’s long-standing tradition in sculpture which has produced such prodigies as Melchiorre Cafà and Antonio Sciortino. Vincent Apap is their worthy successor.

Specifications 104 pp in full colour, 297x210mm Limpbound 978-99932-7-348-6 €29.00; US$40.00; GB£24.00

Antoine Camilleri’s initial artistic innovations were not fully accepted when they first appeared, but as the years went by, the artistic appreciation of the Maltese began to broaden to embrace new trends.

The subjects of many of the works of his maturity transcended the personal (despite containing so many selfportraits), and entered the sphere of universality particularly due to his truly touching interpretation of spiritual themes. On the other hand, his Maltese landscapes and related subjects are authentic and individual, reflecting the various changes that have taken place around us, from prehistoric times to modernity.

Specifications 40 pp in full colour, 297x210mm Limpbound 99932-7-128-4 €9.50; US$13.00; GB£7.50

The Joseph Briffa Bequest (1987) and other works Denis Vella

The artist, Joseph Briffa, at his death in 1987, chose to bequeath a number of his works to the National Museum. It is

Specifications 32 pp in full colour, 297x210mm Limpbound 99932-7-099-7 €9.50; US$13.00; GB£7.50

long and suffered process. His Nudes have a dignified sobriety and an anatomical exactitude that is hard to surpass in Maltese contemporary art.

Specifications 144 pp in full colour, 285x240mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-304-2 €59.00; US$73.00; GB£50.00

John Martin Borg: The Watercolours Emmanuel Fiorentino

Here indeed is one of those handful of artists deeply committed to cater for those eternal ramblings of the spirit aimed to exploit the sweetness of life.

Occasionally accompanied by the lining of melancholy, which everybody at some time or other is destined to assimilate.

His technique is beyond any trace of reproach to an extent that he can stand on equal terms with the medium’s best exponents anywhere. For an artist, who as far as I know, is self-taught his mastery of the medium can only serve to add greater merits to his innate talents. (Emmanuel Fiorentino, The Sunday Times, May 1995) Specifications 128 pp in full colour, 220x295mm Hardbound, , 99932-7-064-4 €55.00; US$67.50; GB£37.50

The Maria Rosa Pisani Bequest of paintings by Lazzaro Pisani

Specifications 32 pp in full colour, 297x210mm Limpbound 978-99932-7-177-2 €14.00; US$19.00; GB£11.50

Raphael Vella

“Periodically, it seems fit to re-evaluate your geopolitical and cultural coordinates.

As you scrutinise and plot your artistic terrain and cultural timelines, you ask yourself again (because you always knew that the answer is inexhaustible) where you belong, where you should locate yourself. Here or there? As an artist you have been tempted to abandon the question, to let your work do the talking.”

The emerging artist in this publication are: Emanuel bonnici, Gilbert Calleja, Patrick Mifsud, Teresa Sciberras, Elisa Von Brockdorff, and Michael Xuereb.

Specifications 100 pp in full colour, 260x200 mm Limpbound 978-99932-7-311-0 €15.00; US$20.50; GB£12.50

Lino Borg

The recent bequest to the national collection by the late Miss Maria Rosa Pisani, of a good collection of paintings by her father, the renowned artist Lazzaro Pisani made possible this publication.

These paintings clearly demonstrate this artist’s many gifts which fully justified the recognition he enjoyed in his lifetime, and which deservedly has carried on to our time.

Relocation: emerging artists from Malta

Patrick Dalli: The Human Figure edited by Keith Sciberras

Patrick Dalli insists on describing himself as a painter not an artist. However he has singled himself out as one of the Maltese contemporary artists and a leading master of the Nude. His paintings are highly finished and reveal fastidiousness with having as much a perfect product as he is capable of mastering. He is habitually self critical and finding satisfaction with his own work is for him a

23 | Contemporary Art in Malta

fitting that this artist from Birkirkara, who also applied his artistic talent on paintings on the ceilings of several churches in Malta and Gozo, and who taught more than one generation of artists in the course of his calling, is represented in the National Museum of Fine Arts in Valletta.

His bequest has ensured that a nucleus of his works; a representation of his religious compositions, family portraits, drawings and of the Maltese landscape.

Painting in Malta’s churches, at the beginning of the twentieth century, although flourishing, Briffa had to contend with the dominance of Giuseppe Calì (1846-1930) and Lazzaro Pisani (18541932). He was to hint at his eventual primacy in church decoration even from his very earliest commissions. Although two of his major painting cycles were destroyed, enough remains of his work, in Malta and Gozo, for his stature in this field to be unquestioned.

24 | Contemporary Art in Malta

works of art that honour both the artist as well as Malta and the Maltese Islands.

His imagination is fired by his constant interaction with nature, whether it is the peaceful rural environment of his studio at Mtahleb where he creates most of his works, or his idyllic homeland of Gozo.

Specifications 96 pp in full colour, 240x210mm Limpbound 978-99932-7-347-9 €15.00; US$20.50; GB£12.50

complex representations of the human form, and his profound inquisitiveness and commitment has left an impact on modern and contemporary art in Malta.

He is a man of considerable vision, and his openness to risk and discovery are traits that have, without any doubt, contributed towards the development and evolution of a great Maltese artist.

Specifications 96 pp in full colour, 240x210mm Limpbound 978-99932-7-194-9 €15.00; US$20.50; GB£12.50

BOV Exhibtion: Richard England

Renzo Piano and Charles Knevitt Richard England is a native of the Mediterranean Sea. The Mediterranean is not a simple sea; it is a complex amalgamation of different cultures possessing a rich heritage of sounds, lights, colours and vibrations. This is a legacy which can be drawn on today by individuals who have ears to listen and eyes to see. Richard England is such an individual. It is from the articulation and the joints in an edifice that one recognizes the real maker of buildings, and it is thanks to this quality that England’s architectural work avoids appearing romantic. His is an architecture which is local, but also global, for his language is the language of poetry.

Specifications 96 pp in full colour, 240x210mm Limpbound 978-99932-7-438-4 €15.00; US$20.50; GB£12.50

BOV Exhibtion: Charles Cassar Louis Laganà

Charles Cassar is an artist who is continually in search of a form that suggests rather than defines his visions.

He often states that his “shapes are deformed and dissolved when hit from various directions by rays of light and colours.” His paintings are devoid of direct statements; instead, they invite the viewer to study the works at close range and to interpret the message that the artist attempts to convey.

Specifications 96 pp in full colour, 240x210mm Limpbound 978-99932-7-265-6 €15.00; US$20.50; GB£12.50

BOV Exhibtion: Philip Chircop Emmanuel Fiorentino

Philip Chircop has made a name for himself as an abstract artist. This exhibition, featuring over seventy of his works covering the period from 1961 to the present, provides an excellent opportunity to the public at large to view and appreciate the artist’s work.

Specifications 96 pp in full colour, 240x210mm Limpbound 99932-7-123-3 €15.00; US$20.50; GB£12.50

BOV Exhibtion: Paul Haber Giovanni Bonello

Paul Haber’s ceramic creations are timeless. Though firmly embedded in the present, they reflect the future without shunning the great heritage bequeathed to him by his island and its people. Haber’s material of choice – clay, turns into a medium that is transformed into extraordinarily creative original

BOV Exhibtion: Caesar Attard John Paul Cassar

Caesar Attard is well known for his

BOV Exhibtion: Victor Diacono Gabriel Pellegrini

Victor Diacono is an artist who speaks in Silence. His art comes from within; as soon as his fingers feel the soft touch of

25

Specifications 96 pp in full colour, 240x210mm Limpbound 99932-7-147-0 €15.00; US$20.50; GB£12.50

| British Colonial History

the clay, an unexplainable excitement flows through his body. His eyes light like fire. He is now fully concentrated and he has a complete vision of the subject he is about to model. His vision is so clear that his fingers move along with such rhythm and ease that he resembles an expert lady working on her lace. He pours all his feelings in his works. Diacono has been an important figure in the local art sphere and I sincerely hope that some of his works will find its right place in our National Museum of Fine Arts.

Europe and Empire: Culture, Politics and Identity in Malta and the Mediterranean (1912-1946) Henry Frendo

BOV Exhibtion: Luciano Micallef Emmanuel Fiorentino

Luciano Micallef is widely considered as one of the foremost products of his generation in Malta’s artistic scene, and we are delighted to host an exhibition of his works. This exhibition will provide an opportunity to both our customers and the public at large to appreciate the artist’s prodigious and versatile talent.

Specifications 96 pp in full colour, 240x210mm Limpbound 99932-7-096-2 €15.00; US$20.50; GB£12.50

In this major undertaking, Henry Frendo follows up on Party Politics in a Fortress Colony (1979) tackling essentially the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. The focus is chiefly on culture and politics, with some penetrating, even disturbing, analysis as to the past, present, and future of a Maltese body politic, affinity, and identity, as this emerges from the tensely formative, determining onetime empire in its principal Mediterranean ‘fortress’ which, however, was inhabited by a European population. For the first time, here is a Maltese in-depth study examining national and international ‘cultural’ politics which relies on Italian as well as British archival sources. In addition the author has also had access to complementary American, Australian, Tunisian and Maltese documentation. As is readily discernible from the 22 chapter this book treats mainly about Malta and the Maltese during the inter-war period in their Imperial, European, and Mediterranean contexts, with ample references to Britain, Italy, Gibraltar, Cyprus, Australia, Egypt and the Maghreb, wherever there was a Maltese presence or Malta exerted a resonance for political, strategic, linguistic, cultural, economic, or ethnic reasons.

Specifications 884 pp including illustrations, 228x150mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-344-8 €70.00; US$95.00; GB£58.00

Party Politics in an Island Colony: The Maltese Experience Henry Frendo

‘It was no coincidence that the author of the first significant “home-grown” history of the new nation-state’, wrote Dr Geoffrey Hull in 1992, ‘should have been a member of the first generation of politically free Maltese, those born after World War II and educated in the 1950s and 1960s.’

This is because in Party Politics in a Fortress Colony, first published in 1979 with a second edition in 1991, Professor Henry Frendo pieced together, from original sources, an analytical narrative of how Maltese political parties had originated, formed, evolved and developed in contexts of time and place from the 1870s onwards. Although there were various social and economic undercurrents which sometimes came to the fore, until World War II the party political battleground remained tensely contested and largely dominated, at least as a surface phenomenon, by resistance to assimilation and subjection, cooperation or collaboration, under colonial rule. At the same time, an internally ambivalent socio-political dynamic came into play which kicked the earlier goal posts in an uneven playing field. Who ultimately were ‘the Maltese’ and how would they cope with such a changing situation unless they managed somehow to be in a position to control it, if they could?

Specifications 304 pp with illustrations, 228x150mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-427-8 €45.00; US$60.00; GB£39.50

26 | British Colonial History

Nation, Pride and Dignity: Borg Olivier and the National Anthem Joseph M. Pirotta

“Nation, Pride and Dignity. Borg Olivier and the National Anthem is another systematically constructed historical account, profusely annotated, written in an equally vivid and subtle style. It may be simultaneously defined as (a) a historical account of how difficult it was for Malta to attain some degree of official recognition for its newly composed national anthem, as well as (b) a portrait of a Maltese political leader seeking to introduce an agenda with an item much more controversial than an anthem: Independence itself. Prime Minister George Borg Olivier, about whom Joseph M. Pirotta has frequently written with great admiration regarding his political achievement and exceptionally calm nature, is here being proposed in a way which, however revered he has been for decades, must prove quite alien to many.

An equally gentle and timid person, apparently submissive and actually irrevocably stubborn, the political leader whom Joseph M. Pirotta here succeeds in depicting so well, albeit through exclusively scientific methods, is a man deeply proud of his country.”

The Court Martial of Enrico Mizzi Austin Sammut

The Language Question is probably the greatest and longest controversy in Malta’s political history. It reached a climax at the turn of the twentieth century, resulted in a number of significant developments. In 1917 Mizzi was court-martialled for his beliefs and his activities in aspiring to fulfil his desire for Malta’s political union with Italy. Mizzi inherited such beliefs from his father, Fortunato Mizzi, and went a step further.

He developed the Language Question into a question of nationality, interpreted in official quarters . The court martial exposes these activities and gives a picture of Mizzi’s early life, helping one to understand him even in his later life.

Definitely, the language question formed the basis of Enrico Mizzi’s court martial and this book attempts to provide the necessary background to put things in context.

Specifications 140 pp including illustrations, 228x150mm Hardbound 99932-7-047-4 €35.50; US$41.50; GB£22.00

Specifications 240 pp with illustrations, 210x148mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-561-9 €30.00; US$35.00; GB£24.00

Dimech’s Lost Prison Poems Henry Frendo

Prof. Henry Frendo, who unearthed the utterly unknown or taboo-ridden figure

of Manuel Dimech (1860-1921) in three books between 1969 and 1972, and researched his non-repatriation from Egypt in 1918-1921 (2012), has struck on a new manuscript find which, he says, is “almost unbelievable.” Dimech’s Lost Prison Poems contains, for the first time, a substantive collection of Dimech’s prison writings dating back to the early 1880s, most of them signed and dated in his own steady hand.

There is a general analytical introduction in English with a contextual focus on thematics, accompanied by original textual reproductions and transcriptions, together with translations of letters in Spanish received by Dimech in prison from Gibraltar, followed by a name index.

Specifications 128 pp including illustrations, 240x170mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-483-4 €25.00; US$35.00; GB£20.00

... of Maltese Generals and Admirals Charles Gauci

The book starts by looking at Generals in the armies of Wallachia, Hungary, Poland and Bavaria and follows this by an account of the two Maltese Generals who led the 1798 insurrection against the French. It also deals with Maltese generals in the army of the British Empire and of the United Kingdom and looks in some detail at the honorary rank of Brigadier General conferred upon the Bishops of Malta by the British government.

The section dedicated to Admirals includes tales of Admirals in the navies of Argentina, the Napoleonic kingdom of Naples as well as in the Royal Navy. Since Brigadiers are, in effect, one-star Generals.

The book is full of interesting anecdotes and stories. It is a mine of vital information about a number of military personalities.

Specifications 210 pp with illustrations, 240x170mm Limpbound 978-99932-7-538-1 €20.00; US$23.00; GB£16.50

Mario Farrugia

Rinella Battery was built in the late nineteenth century at a time when the growing naval power of nearby italy posed a potential threat to british commerce and navigation in the mediterranean.

Today, after more than a century in disuse, both gun and battery are back into the limelight. With the help of the volunteer members of fondazzjoni wirt artna, both battery and gun were secured for posterity. They are today open to visitors as well-deserved monuments to a time in history when dependence of man on machine became increasingly a daily fact of life.

Part of the ‘Malta Insight Heritage Guides’ series Specifications Limpbound, 40 pages in full colour, 240x170 mm ISBN 99932-39-90-9 €8.50; US$9.95; GB£5.50

Raiders Passed

Charles B. Grech, translated by Joseph Galea Debono Charles B. Grech was just emerging from boyhood when the first enemy bombs fell on Malta in June, 1940. Like most boys of his age, his imagination was fired by the adventure of war. Unlike most youngsters,

Mediterranean during World War II and to all those who lost their lives defending the values of freedom and democracy.

John A Mizzi has brought together in one publication a number of related anecdotes and background accounts which may not have been widely known until now, thereby making this an important addition to the records of the fascinating history of Malta and Gozo.

Specifications 96 pp illustrated, parts in full colour, 297x210mm Limpbound 978-99932-7-406-3 €18.00; US$23.50; GB£14.50

Specifications 344 pp with illustrations, 205x135 mm Limpbound 99932-39-08-9 €12.00; US$16.50; GB£10.00

The Origins of Maltese Statehood Henry Frendo

Operation Pedestal: The Story of the Santa Marija Convoy John A. Mizzi

In 1942 an epic naval operation was mounted so as to relieve Malta from the onslaught of attacks by the forces of the Axis. This operation was codenamed “Pedestal”- or “il-Convoy ta’ Santa Marija” as it is better known in Malta and Gozo.

The men taking part in Pedestal must have gone through hell. For example, the gallant tanker SS Ohio withstood persistent Stuka dive bomber attacks, had a Ju87 crash on her deck and when a Ju88 was brought down it bounced off the water and crashed into the vessel’s side!

Yet Ohio, after much effort by the Royal Navy, her captain and crew, and survivors from other ships, still made it to Grand Harbour in Malta!

Il-Convoy ta’ Santa Marija is undoubtedly an iconic landmark event in the history of our country and it is therefore only fitting that those who paid the ultimate price in this operation be commemorated in a Roll of Honour which is reproduced in this book.

This book is a lasting memory of this extraordinary mission which was a turning point in the defence of Malta and the

This book is a case study of decolonization in the Mediterranean. It seeks to paint and to frame a picture of how Maltese statehood originated in the early 1960s, what was going on behind the scenes. It does this mainly through the voluminous original correspondence released in the expertly organized and managed British archives in London.

Some of the relevant archives had become accessible after more than thirty years. These documents deal mainly with Colonial and Commonwealth Relations Office affairs.

Specifications 728 pp with illustrations, 215x150mm Limpbound 978-99932-0-015-4 €30.00; US$35.00; GB£24.00

27 | British Colonial History and War Stories

Fort Rinella and its Armstrong 100-ton gun

however, the author somehow managed to be in the thick of any action taking place all over the Maltese Islands.

This book is a simple but gripping eyewitness account of the war years (19401945) in battle-torn Malta, by a happygo-lucky child who quickly matured to adulthood, joining the Royal Air Force as an airman.

“Raiders Passed” is a fitting tribute to the children of Malta who, like Charles B. Grech, saw their childhood snatched away by the ravages of war, hunger, disease and, at times, the premature loss of their dearest ones.

28 | Architecture

Malta: The Baroque Island

Quentin Hughes and Conrad Thake The monograph Malta – the Baroque Island is a representative survey of the rich mosaic of the island’s architectural legacy during the rule of the Order of St John (1530-1798). The survey presents a broad overview of local examples in the realm of both civil architecture and military fortifications. It traces the evolution of local Baroque architecture from the austerity of the early days of the Order in Malta during the mid-sixteenth century to the rhetorical and sovereign posturing that permeated the eighteenth century.

The monograph highlights the works of both local and foreign architects and military engineers who contributed to shaping the Maltese urban landscape. It is a tribute to the works of diverse architects such as Francesco Buonamici, Lorenzo Gafà, Romano Carapecchia, Francois de Mondion, Andrea Belli and others who produced some of the most endearing works of architecture of this period.

The authors, architects Dr Quentin Hughes and Dr Conrad Thake have collaborated together to produce what should prove to be a standard reference work on Maltese Baroque architecture for many years to come. The photographs of Daniel Cilia complement the text and serve to visually capture the essence and spirit of these buildings beyond the realm of words.

Specifications 266 pp in full colour, 300x250 mm Hardbound 99932-39-39-9 €95.00; US$120.00; GB£59.00

Malta: War and Peace: An Architectural Chronicle 1800-2000 Conrad Thake and Quentin Hughes

A comprehensive survey of the Malta’s architecture in the last 200 years. This new book follows logically from the definitive initial publication by Dr Hughes and Dr Conrad Thake, Malta: The Baroque Island which surveyed the buildings from the Mannerist and Baroque periods (15301798) which adorn the Islands. Malta: War and Peace is different and takes up the story of the more recent architectural heritage, bringing its history up to the millennium in the form of a colourful gazetteer.

The book is organized into building types which conveniently coincide with historical periods. They range from the early military Naval Hospital at Bighi, now serving in part as the headquarters for the Malta Centre for Restoration and upon the initiative of Edward de Bono as a ‘World Centre for New Thinking’. The hospital complex was rebuilt and restored but it still dominates the Grand Harbour environs and alerts every visitor to its strong gaunt colonial Neo-Classical style.

There are very few examples of what one might call Modern Movement (MoMo) architecture of the interwar period.

The collective work of local architects has made the islands look as they do.

Their buildings indicate the depth of local talent and a good selection is to be found in the closing section of this welcome and comprehensive gazetteer.

Specifications 260 pp in full colour, 300x250mm Hardbound 99932-7-055-5 €100.00; US$120.00; GB£59.00

Giovanni Battista Vertova: Diplomacy, warfare and military engineering in early 17th century Malta Denis De Lucca

The book offers some fresh ideas concerning the study of the remarkable fortifications that protected Baroque Malta from Turkish occupation. Its text and illustrations focus on the career of Count Vertova (1592-1647), a prominent yet forgotten mathamatician and military engineer from Bergamo who was active within the ranks of the Knights Hospitallier of St John during the first half of the 17th century. As director of Valletta’s fortifications, Vertova was responsible for important decisions which were intended to improve the defences of Valletta at a crucial time of change when military theory in Europe was shifting its attention from the bastioned wall of the Renaissance to elaborate outworks introducing the concept of the new Baroque city. Count Vertova’s awareness of these changing international concerns was in no small way due to a series of traumatic siege experiences in neighbouring Italy and no intensive consultations held with leading Catholic princes and military engineers of Italian, French and Spanish extraction, whom the trusted envoy of Grand Master Lascaris had the privilege of meeting during an official visit to Italy in 1638.

Specifications 118 pp with illustrations, 297x210mm Hardbound 99909-93-76-9 €42.50; US$49.50; GB£26.95

Denis De Lucca

Scamp was instrumental in introducing industrial steel structures to Malta.

The Naval Bakery in Birgu (today the Maritime Museum) is testimony to Scamp’s knowledge, pragmatism, and ingenuity in adopting a variety of building systems. He was versatile and wellversed in various disciplines related to construction – an accomplished civil and structural engineer, a superb draftsman, a meticulous quantity surveyor, and a disciplined project manager. Even after he had permanently departed the island, his professional services were still sought after (albeit in a consultative capacity) on other projects such as the Valletta Market Hall and Lunatic Asylum where there were building components in steel.

Specifications 302 pp with illustrations, 230x300mm Hardbound 99909-93-00-9 €84.95: US$99.00; GB£52.95

Specifications 128 pp in full colour , 250x240mm Limpbound 978-99932-7-345-5 €25.00; US$34.00; GB£22.00

Charles Francois de Mondion (16811733) was a French military engineer who first arrived in Malta in 1715 during the principate of Grand Master Ramon Perellos y Roccafull. His arrival on the island was somewhat overshadowed by the dominating presence of his superior, Réné Jacob de Tigné, who was eventually credited with the impressive fortification results achieved during the 1715-1722 period. Apart from examining the mysterious origins, training and career of Mondion in France, this book produces fresh evidence that does justice to the achievement of Mondion.

Specifications 96 pp in full colour, 297x210mm Hardbound 99932-39-24-0 €42.50; US$49.50; Gb£26.95

William Scamp: An architect of the British Admirality in Malta Conrad Thake

Carapecchia: Master of Baroque Architecture in the early eighteenth century Malta Denis De Lucca

Born in 1666 to poor parents residing in Rome, Romano Fortunato Carapecchia

This monograph focuses on the work of William Scamp, an architect in the employment of the British Admiralty.

Although Scamp’s architectural career in Malta was limited to a four-year period 1841–1844, his achievements were considerable. He pioneered the establishment of the British naval yard in Dockyard Creek by the construction of the first dry-dock on the island and an imposing Naval Bakery that serviced the entire British fleet in the Mediterranean. In addition, he salvaged the high-profile project of St Paul’s Anglican cathedral, Valletta that had been mired in crisis under his predecessor Richard Lankesheer. Scamp assumed responsibility for the project after construction was suspended. It is a remarkable achievement that Scamp managed to design, supervise, and oversee the successful completion of three high-profile projects in Malta within such a limited period of time.

29 | Architecture

Mondion: The achievement of a French military engineer working in Malta in the early 17th century

was a self made man. Having received his architectural education in the studio of the great Carlo Fontana, he started practising his profession where he was responsible for the creation of a number of buildings and theatrical scenes which collectively reflected the academic discipline of the famous Accademia di San Luca, once described by King Louis XIV of France as ‘the fount and teacher of the many famous artists who have appeared during this century’.

This book is a fitting tribute to the memory of a brilliant architect of humble origins whose forgotten contribution to the Baroque architectural scenario of eighteenth century Malta was indeed remarkable and long-lived.

30 | Landscape and environment

the Ice Age fauna in an uninterrupted sequence dating back to 180,000 years ago having the latter all in one place.

Part of the ‘Malta Insight Heritage Guides’ series Specifications 40 pp, in full colour, 240x170 mm Limpbound 99932-7-144-4 €8.50; US$9.95; GB£5.50

Nature at Ħaġar Qim Heritage Park, Qrendi

Shooting Society: Document Contemporary Life in Malta

John J. Borg

Very near the village of Qrendi lies an area known as Tas-Sejjieħ, a stretch of land characterised by garrigue landscape and by its world-renowned structures: two megalithic temple complexes dating back 5000-6000 years. The original landscape in which these two structures were built must have had great significance to the temple architects and builders. In the millennia that followed, climate change, erosion and human impacts all contributed to the paucity of flora and fauna present in the area today.

Part of the ‘Malta Insight Heritage Guides’ series Specifications 32 pp, in full colour, 240x170 mm Limpbound 978-99932-7-527-5 €8.50; US$9.95; GB£5.50

Carmel Borg and Raphael Vella

The National Museum of Natural History, Birżebbuġa John J. Borg

The National Museum of Natural History was officially inaugurated on 22 June 1973. The display areas consisted of a Geology and Palaeontology halls, an Osteology hall, and a hall each for Insects, Molluscs, Fish, and Birds. Subsequently exotic mammal and mineralogy displays, a cactus garden, and marine aquariums were added, the latter two being closed down some years later. Heritage Malta has embarked on a project to update the present displays. An effort is being made to change the concept from a Victorianstyle museum to a present-day showcase of Maltese ecology and biodiversity, shifting emphasis from quantity to quality.

The photographs and texts in this book were not brought together in order to try to define a country’s identity. Shooting Society: Documenting Contemporary Life in Malta presents a unique picture of a small island and its people, rituals, desires, and much more.Blending texts written

by Maltese and international sociologists, anthropologists, philosophers and other scholars and social scientists with short stories by literary authors bears witness to the belief that photographic images can be read and appreciated in different ways. On the other hand, many of the photographs chosen would generally fall under the general category of documentary photography. This genre of photography clearly plays a central role in much of modern and contemporary life, in journalism and even in contemporary art.

Specifications 328pp in full colour, 265x220mm Limpbound 978-99932-7-419-3 €55.00; US$75.50; GB£45.50

Part of the ‘Malta Insight Heritage Guides’ series

Għar Dalam, the Cave, the Museum and the Garden, Birzebbuġa

Specifications 40 pp, in full colour, 240x170 mm Limpbound 99932-7-145-1 €8.50; US$9.95; GB£5.50

Nadia Fabri

Għar Dalam is one of Malta’s most important national monuments since it contributed a great deal to our knowledge on life on the Maltese islands in the remote and in the more recent past. Għar Dalam is the only cave in Malta where one can study the Pleistocene or

A Complete Guide to the Birds of Malta Natalino Fenech

“This mighty book on the birds of Malta

Specifications 448 pp in full colour, 280 x 240 mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-310-3 €60.00; US$74.00; GB£50.90

Specifications: 216 pages, 228x150mm, Paperback 978-99932-7-085-7 €14.00; US$17.50; GB£10.50

Conscience in the Parochial and Plain Sermons of John Henry Newman Fabio Attard

Time for Radical Change: The Introduction of Eco Taxation in Malta Carmel Cacopardo

Ħal Kirkop: A village in Malta Jeremy Boissevain

This admirable book shows a real grasp of what it is like to be a villager in Malta, but it also presents an excellent picture of village social structure, of the relations between the village and the town, and it discusses the typicality of the findings in Ħal Kirkop. The book is written in a clear and pleasant style. General points are nicely documented with examples.

Among the most rewarding chapters in the book are those dealing with religion and politics. The fit between religion and society in Malta would have delighted Durkheim, but he would have had difficulty in distinguishing the sacred from the profane. Political contest within the village is largely a struggle between the adherents of two local saints expressed annually by colossal displays of fireworks on the respective saints’ days.

This pyrotechnic potlatch is now being

31

crosscut to some extent by national politics. The book shows how the forces of secularization are played out through the structural forms of the Roman Catholic church. (American Anthropologist, 1972, Vol. 72)

The Maltese Government was courageous in taking steps to introduce eco taxation in Malta in 2004. Even if the process through which it was introduced leaves much to be desired, in the long term this step will serve a positive purpose.

The resulting deficiencies can still be corrected.

A debate which was long overdue has been initiated. Much has been said, though not all as been listened to. What was initiated as a selective dialogue with bottlers should be expanded to include all stakeholders, including future generations. It is to this debate that I wish to contribute such that we widen our perspectives and try to identify the way forward in the interests of all as a result.

Eco-taxation introduces a radical agenda into Maltese Environmental Policy as its proper application aims at fundamental change: a change in attitudes. It is an instrument which seeks to align our behaviour in line with the unwritten rules of nature through the use of market-based instruments. It is radical because if tackled properly it will overhaul completely our way of doing things.

Specifications 212pp, 205x135mm Limpbound 99932-7-124-1 €9.50; US$13.00; GB£7.50

A theme, which is rightly associated with the personality of John Henry Newman, is surely that of conscience. Newman’s whole life story comes across as a witness of someone who followed the light of his conscience wherever it lead him. .

Specifications 266pp, 135x205mm Limpbound 99932-39-23-2 €15.50; US$19.95; GB£10.50

John Henry Newman: Words od Conscience in Parochial and Plain Sermons Fabio Attard

The purpose of this study is to serve as an introduction to those who are already familiar with John Henry Newman and would like to go beyond the parameters of general historical information that they may already know.

Specifications 228pp, 135x205mm Limpbound 99932-39-04-6 €13.00; US$17.75; GB£10.75

| Landscape and environment / Religion, Philosophy and Ethics

is a labour of love, the deep love and appreciation of birds. Like Natalino Fenech, I come from a culture where a widespread love for birds is rooted in exploitative relationships, in my Fryslân especially the capture of Golden Plovers and the taking of Lapwing eggs. However difficult, as times and economies change, exploitative relationships can reinvent themselves into appreciative ones, with bird catchers contributing to new and constantly updated knowledge on our threatened biosphere. I dearly hope that before too long, Malta will no longer be famous as the slaughterhouse of migrants in Europe but as the magnificent island country where people can “talk with birds” (as I know so many hunters and catchers can). What I am sure about, is that this book will make a big contribution to such a wonderful change in attitude.” Theunis Piersma, Professor of Animal Ecology, University of Groningen, The Netherlands

32 | Religion, philosophy and ethics / Literature and linguistics

An Abridged Version of the ‘Project for Perpetual Peace’ – M. L’Abbé de Saint-Pierre translated by Carmen Depasquale edited by Roderick Pace

Seventeenth and eighteenth century Europe was a cauldron of wars and upheavals. However, in the midst of this turmoil, some of the more imaginative and gifted Europeans were able to think “outside the box”, on how to establish a lasting peace in Europe. One of these enlightened Europeans was Charles Irenée Castel de Saint-Pierre, better known as the Abbé de Saint-Pierre.

Throughout his life, Saint-Pierre wrote several projects on a wide range of subjects. However, the one closest to his heart and which he promoted with the greatest vigour, was no doubt the 1713 Project for Perpetual Peace, known as the Projet, and its abridged version, the Abrégé which was published for the first time in 1729. This first-ever translation of the 1729 edition of the Abrégé into English makes this work accessible to a wider audience.

Specifications 256 pp, 135x205mm Limpbound 978-99932-7-237-3 €12.00; US$20.00; GB£11.95

Maltese and other languages: A linguistic history of Malta Joseph Brincat

Throughout the ages, the Maltese language has undergone a series of internal changes as well as modifications and accretions caused by various external forces. Internal changes are not easy to date and explain because they require a painstaking comparative exercise that can be carried out only by experts in Semitic languages.

As a result, their systematic description in a historical grammar of Maltese has not been published yet. By contrast, the external history of Maltese is essentially an account of its contact with various languages. All languages are marked by contact, albeit to varying degrees. Gumperz holds that “most words in most modern languages would count as borrowed” (1982: 67), but what makes Maltese unique is that it blends together elements from three distinct language families, the Semitic, the Romance, and the Germanic.

Specifications 536 pp including illustrations, 228x150mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-343-1 €44.00; US$63.00; GB£38.50

Publication for the Millenium’. The dictionary which is considered Malta’s top linguistic reference, is the work of a lifetime research. It consists of not less than 80,000 entries in the MalteseEnglish version (2 volumes), and 120,000 entries in the English-Maltese version (4 volumes). It includes all modern scientific terms in banking, commerce, science, the arts, technology, medical and other spheres of the socio-economic sectors.

Professor David Cohen, in his foreword to the English-Maltese version, describes this work as ‘an excellent example of what modern lexicography can offer’ containing ‘a soundly based history of words which allows one to reach the real sources of the Maltese lexicon’. It is also ‘an invaluable treasure concerning the manners, customs, and techniques of all aspects of Maltese culture, and of Western Mediterranean cultures’.

Specifications Maltese-English Dictionary, Vol. 1: 807 pp, Vol. 2: 908 pp; English-Maltese Dictionary, Vol. 1: 866 pp, Vol. 2: 902, Vol. 3: 974, Vol. 4: 1080, 245x170mm Hardbound 99932-7-130-6 €410.00; US$475.00; GB£255.00 for 6 volumes

Il-Miklem Malti

in ten volumes Erin and Mario Serracino-Inglott Il-Miklem Malti by Erin Serracino-Inglott, published between 1975 and 1989, is considered as one of the masterpieces in the study of the Maltese language. It includes more than 30,000 Maltese words explained in more than 1,700 pages. It is the labour of over 30 years of study and research. The dictionary also incorporates grammatical and historical meaning of the Maltese language. The dictionary is regarded as an excellent referral to all those study Maltese and oriental languages.

Maltese-English-Maltese Dictionary in six volumes

Joseph Aquilina

The Maltese government awarded this 6 volume dictionary the title ‘Malta’s

Specifications Vol. 1: 302 pp, Vol. 2: 320 pp, Vol. 3: 259 pp; Vol. 4: 444 pp, Vol. 5: 330 pp, Vol. 6: 367 pp, Vol. 7: 412 pp, Vol. 8: 533 pp, Vol. 9: 444 pp, Vol. 10: 230 pp, 245x170mm Hardbound 99932-7-131-4 €595.00; US$695.00; GB£375.00 for 10 volumes

Specifications 168 pp , 205x135mm Limpbound 978-99932-7-285-4 €20.00; US$25.00 ; GB£17.00 ·

Concise Maltese-EnglishMaltese Dictionary Joseph Aquilina

1200 pp, 195x135mm Dutchbound 99932-7-070-9 €25.00; US$34.00; GB£20.00

Dictionary for Financial Services Carlo Farrugia

Essays on De Soldanis: Journal of Maltese Studies, No. 27 Edited by Olvin Vella

Historians specialising in the eighteenth century who have published works on the role played by Maltese literati during this period are all in agreement that de Soldanis deserves much more importance than has ever been accorded to him.

Although his linguistic input has long been recognised, especially through the effort of the late Joseph Cassar Pullicino, the monumental figure of Mikiel Anton Vassalli has overshadowed that of de Soldanis and it is felt that such an unbalanced attitude is neither accurate historically nor does it do justice to the development of the Maltese language. .

Specifications 168 pp , 205x135mm Limpbound 978-99932-7-285-4 €20.00; US$25.00 ; GB£17.00 ·

168 pp, 240x170mm Limpbound 99932-7-122-5 €12.00; US$16.50; GB£10.00

Rythmic Patterns in Maltese Literature Charles Briffa

The aim of this academic book is not primarily a history of the Maltese novel but to identify and describe rhythmic patterns in prose to enhance interpretation. Prose is expression that is normally not metrically versified but it has its own rhythms. It is characterised by the rhythmic varieties because of its correspondence with speech. Rhythmic variety in prose contributes to the impression of reality in fiction especially in the creation of a character’s mind style.

It also helps to create atmosphere and mood. An author’s general organisation of rhythmic structures in a novel assists literary competence.

Specifications 372 pp , 210x150mm Limpbound 99909-93-90-4 €18.00; US$24.50; GB£15.00

Dictionary for Specific Purposes edited by Charles Briffa

346 pp, 240x170mm Limpbound 99932-7-070-9 €12.00; US$16.50; GB£10.00

Essays on the Cantilena: Journal of Maltese Studies, No. 28 Edited by Bernard Micallef

For decades, the Cantilena has inspired an unending exchange of critical, historical, linguistic and other scholarly views. This issue of the Journal of Maltese Studies merely recognizes and extends this fruitful correspondence between learned Cantilena studies, bringing the research

33 | Literature and linguistics

priorities of their respective fields into mutual proximity. Through this volume, the Department of Maltese continues to uphold and encourage the ongoing interdisciplinary approach to our language and its literature.

34 | Photography

damage inflicted to its body and soul, when compared to Malta, looks smaller in consequence and magnitude. Most of the illustrations in this book came from the author’s hoard of antique postcards, cigarette cards and photographs.

Nostalgias of Malta: Images by Geo Furst from the 1930s

Specifications 224 pp in full colour, 265x210mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-160-4 €66.00; US$99.00; GB£60.00 Limpbound 978-99932-7-161-1 €45.00; US$50.00; GB£75.00

Giovanni Bonello

Nostalgias of Malta: Images by Geo Furst from the 1930s’ is the name of a most beautiful book by Judge Giovanni Bonello who through the medium of pictures recounts the history of Malta in the 1930s.

The author has drawn up a biography of the German photographer Geo Furst and has outlined the seemingly improbable relationship between the photographer and British dominated Malta. Furst’s love for Malta is rendered most tangibly in his photographic legacy, a legacy so extensive that the author confessed that he had to leave unpublished four photos out of five.

Specifications 240 pp in full colour, 265x210mm Limpbound 99932-7-113-6 €45.00; US$50.00; GB£75.00

Nostalgias of Gozo: Images by M. Farrugia from the 1880s to the 1930s Giovanni Bonello

After publishing ’Nostalgias of Malta’ it was only fitting to publish ’Nostalgias of Gozo’. The images in this book were taken from the 1880s to the 1930s. The back images of old Gozo although sterile in themselves are indispensable when it comes to nursing a sense of memory, of heritage and of belonging. Gozo still retains much of its rural charm and

Nostalgias of Malta: Images by Horatio Agius from the 1890s to the 1900s Giovanni Bonello

Nostalgias of Malta: Images by S.L. Cassar from the 1890s to the 1930s Giovanni Bonello

This is the third in a series of Nostalgias

by Judge Giovanni Bonello. Through the medium of pictures by the renowned Salvatore Lorenzo Cassar the book recounts the history of Malta from the 1990s to the 1930s. The author has drawn up a biography of the photographer who was dubbed by the ’Revue Universelle’ an honour to the photographic art. That authoritative magazine published in Geneva listed S.L. Cassar as ’among the artists in photography who particularly distinguished themselves’ and his work as ’truly remarkable’. The author Giovanni Bonello attempted to put together bits and pieces of his biography, relying on published and unpublished sources.

This is the fourth in the series of Nostalgias volumes by Giovanni Bonello in which he lays before the reader handsome sets of photographs taken by artists, mainly Maltese, who recorded the appearance of the landscapes and seascapes of the Maltese Islands and, to a smaller extent, that of the people who inhabited them in the late nineteenth century and in the first half of the last century. Handsomely bound and elegantly designed like its predecessors, Nostalgias of Malta - Images by Horatio Agius from the 1860s to the 1900s, should sit proudly on a bookshelf or on a coffee table, whilst being pleasantly useful as a work of reference, or as one of those books through which it is pleasant just to leaf idly.

Specifications 224 pp in full colour, 265x210mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-257-1 €66.00; US$99.00; GB£60.00 Limpbound 978-99932-7-258-8 €45.00; US$50.00; GB£75.00

Specifications 220 pp in full colour, 265x210mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-188-8 €66.00; US$99.00; GB£60.00 Limpbound 978-99932-7-189-5 €45.00; US$50.00; GB£75.00

Nostalgias of Malta: Images by Modiano from the 1900s Giovanni Bonello

This is the fifth in the series of Nostalgias volumes by Giovanni Bonello in which he lays before the reader handsome sets

Specifications 265 pp in full colour, 265x210mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-315-8 €66.00; US$99.00; GB£60.00 Limpbound 978-99932-7-316-5 €45.00; US$50.00; GB£75.00

Nostalgias of Malta: Images by Alfred Vella Gera from 1920 to 1964

35 | Photography

of photographs taken by artists, mainly Maltese but also some foreigners as is the case of this volume, who recorded the appearance of the landscapes and seascapes of the Maltese Islands and, to a smaller extent, that of the people who inhabited them in the late nineteenth century and in the first half of the last century. Handsomely bound and elegantly designed like its predecessors, Nostalgias of Malta - Images by Modiano from the 1900s, should serve as a useful as a work of reference.

Vanishing Valletta David Pisani

edited by Timmy Gambin

‘Vanishing Valletta’ is a photographic rendering of Valletta by David Pisani who took up photography at a very early age.

David Pisani’s photography is closely linked to his passion for architecture and design, a quest for beauty and order that are a trademark of his work. Specialising in fine art black and white silver printing he has pursued a relentless search for the deepest expression of empathy with his subject, pushing the limits of the dictum that photography should not reproduce what is visible but make visible the invisible. Pisani’s work on Valletta spans a nineteen year period.

The Flickristi is a group for Maltese photographers or photographers living in Malta who would like to meet up for photo shoots – lets make a day out of it: a theme, a location - shoot ideas and lets go for the shoot! Until the time we were going to print the group has 303 members and the administrators are Kris D’Amato, Jakov Cardona. Gege Gatt, Aron Mifsud Bonnici, Therese Debono and Will Camilleri. Flickristi were given a theme and asked to submit photographs for final selection. The theme for this book was ‘Malta Seascapes’

Specifications 105 pp in full colour, 230x285mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-153-6 €44.00; US$60.00; GB£36.00

Giovanni Bonello

This is the sixth book in the series of ‘Nostalgias’. In the introduction to this book, the author describes his journey while doing research on this photographer: “I find it intriguing that some of Vella Gera’s best creations he left unpublished. I was fortunate enough to be given access to his archives by his sons, and allowed to reproduce photographs he never thought of sharing with the public during his lifetime.

Specifications 256 pp in full colour, 265x210mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-357-8 €66.00; US$99.00; GB£60.00 Limpbound 978-99932-7-358-5 €45.00; US$50.00; GB£75.00

Flickristi: Malta Seascapes

Gorgeous Gozo

Daniel Cilia and Charles Cini Gozo, the sister island of Malta, is still considered as one of those unpolished pearls of the Mediterrannean. It still retains the characteristic and nostalgia of days gone by. Yet this seeks to bring into perspective the modern vibrant Gozo. A photographic journey of Gozo and the Gozitans through the eyes of a sharp photographer coupled with a narative which makes the reader fall in love with this tiny island. This is indeed a labour of love.

Specifications 256 pp in full colour, 320x220mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-173-4 €55.00; US$45.50; GB£75.00

Specifications 128 pp in full colour, 240x210mm Limpbound 978-99932-7-288-5 €20.00; US$30.00; GB£18.00

36 | Food and cooking / Medicine

The Way We Ate Matty Cremona

What is Maltese Food? Like the food of all nations it moves with the times and food fashions or fads are quick to come and go.

It is the signature dishes – the tried and tested dishes – that endure to become “traditional”. But even these are subject to change and availability. Imagine if food purists sneered when potatoes were woven into the tapestry of Maltese food?

What then of our famous patata Maltija, patata fgat or patata fil-forn? Or our perfect ħobż biż-żejt that was probably first made with oil and a few olives – if traditionalists had sniffed at the tomato and said, “what’s this strange foreign fruit?”, where would our national dish be today?

This book traces the history of some of our popular dishes, meals and festivals.

The information therein created a wonderful picture of the past that is slotting the food into.”

Specifications 288 pp in full colour with over 200 Maltese recipes , 250x195mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-326-4 €58.00; US$80.00; GB£50.00

Outlines of Maltese Medical History Charles Savona-Ventura

This book deals with a facet of Maltese life that has been generally neglected by professional historians, the contributions to the field being generally made by members of the medical fraternity.

The study records how our present knowledge of medicine has been gained and how the medical profession applied that knowledge to the prevention, control and treatment of disease.

The first section of the book includes a general review of the principal milestones of Maltese medical history incorporating the whole period of human activity on the Islands, from prehistoric to present times. It puts into perspective and relates local medical practice with the political situation of the Islands and the contemporary medical developments on the European continent. The second part of the book investigates the history and development of the various medical specialities, including medicine, pharmacy, surgery, gynaecology and midwifery. It also reviews the history of medical and paramedical teaching on the Islands, and the development of state hospitals from the medieval framework of the Church to secularized management.

A subject index provide easy and ready reference in the text to events, disease and personalities that have left their mark on the progress of Maltese medical practice.

Specifications 145 pp with a colour section, 150x230mm Hardbound 99909-75-24-8 €35.50; US$41.50; GB£22.00

Who’s who in the house 1921-2006

This book chronicles the political history and evolution of Malta’s Parliament from 1800 to 2003 and is divided into three sections. Section One (1800-1921), the shortest of the three sections, with its study of the workings of the colonial style Council of Government, explores the emergence of a partially elected Chamber and the continuing Maltese struggle for responsible government.

Section Two, which covers the period 1921 to 1964, examines Malta’s first responsible government Parliament at work until its dissolution in 1933 when the 1921 Constitution which had created it, was first suspended and later withdrawn. It also gives a brief look at the events which followed until responsible government was re-instated in 1947. This section then takes the reader through the issues debated in Parliament and the Parliamentary process which culminated in Malta’s Independence in 1964. Section Three covers the period 1964-2003, and allows the reader to explore Malta’s transition to Republican Government, the closure of the military base and its implications for a Malta free from the last vestiges of colonialism, and the long road to EU membership.

The idea of this book stems out from a unique collection of cigarette-card photographs of members elected to the Legislative Assembly and the Senate in 1921 (the year the Maltese Islands savoured their first taste of selfgovernment) which, when the cigarettecards ceased to be produced, was then extended to include all members of parliament till 2006. These cards together with the photos included in this publication provide historical material which is of great interest to Maltese political history.

Godfrey Pirotta

Joe and Richard Felice Pace

Specifications 268 pp with illustrations, 245x190mm Hardbound 99932-7-115-2 €28.00; US$38.00; GB£23.00 Limpbound 99932-7-116-0 €18.50; US$25.00; GB£15.00

Specifications 128 pp with illustrations, 210x145mm Limpbound 99909-7-500-0 €7.00; US$8.50; GB£4.50

Micsrostate Security in the global system EUMalta relations Roderick Pace

This book is the first analysis of EU-Malta relations spanning four decades and which throws more light both on the current state of play in these relations as well as in the domestic politics associated with them. It makes essential reading for students of European Studies but also for the more discerning general reader, the political class, leaders within public administration and the social partners, businessmen and the professions.

Specifications 312 pp in full colour, 290x225mm Hardbound 978-99932-0-443-9 €54.50; US$66.00; GB£42.50

Polluted Politics: Backgorund to the Deportation of Maltese nationals in 1942 Carmel Farrugia

Polluted Politics covers what may be described as the most agitated decade in the history of Maltese Politics, 19321942, giving a background of the events which led to the arrest and deportation of Maltese nationals from Malta. Sometimes,

Specifications 584 pp, 135x205mm Hardbound 99909-93-87-4 €36.70; US$50.00; GB£30.00

37 | Politics and economics

Malta’s Parliament: An Official History

the narrative goes even further back than 1932 giving the origin of the quarrels and dissentions in Maltese politics. The book opens in the immediate pre-World War II years when the religious political question was at its peak and people were swayed from one side of the political chess-board to the other according to the prevailing beliefs and emotions. Politics were then centred on the Nationalist Party’s claim for quasi-Dominion Status and Constitutional Party’s support for the perpetuation British Protectorate. It was a game in which sympathies rather than ideologies played a most significant role in forging Malta’s destiny.

38 | General history and tourism

The Making of Malta Rueben Grima and Daniel Cilia

The Historical Collection: Celebrating Malta’s Heritage Through Stamps edited by Kenneth Gambin

To celebrate the new Definitive Set, MaltaPost, in collaboration with Midsea Books Ltd., published a book titled “The Historical Collection – Celebrating Malta’s Heritage Through Stamps”. The book narrates Malta’s history through a number of essays by specialist historians, including A Bonanno, M. Buhagiar, R. Cachia Caruana, J.M. Pirotta, C. Dalli, R. Grima and K. Gambin.

A uniquely numbered Souvenir Sheet bearing the 17 stamps, with a face value of €11.42, is also be included in the first 2,500 numbered copies of this publication. Both the Souvenir Sheet as well as the book will bear a matching number.

Joe Said, chairman of MaltaPost remarked that, “This remarkable set of stamps offers a philatelic and historical timeline while also confirming that a small postage stamp can succinctly tell a major story.”

Specifications 128 pp in full colour, numbered + numbered stamp souvenir sheet, 280x220mm Hardbound with slipcase 978-99932-7-289-2 €85.00; US$120.00; GB£76.00

A journey into Malta’s chequered history through the seven basic elements that mostly influenced its roots and made Malta what it is: sea, rock, water, food, faith, war and celebration. The author and photographer have sought to narrate, through words and pictures, each of these elements transforming every chapter into and explosion of verve and colour depicting the Maltese way of life, culture, traditions, and gastronomy.sea, rock, water, food, faith, war, celebration.

The book is a fresh approach to the islands history from the dawn of civilisation through to the threshold of the new millennium and Malta’s membership in European Union.

Specifications 352 pp in full colour, 236x282 mm Hardbound 978-99932-7-204-5 €60.00; US$90.00; GB£58.50

Heritage

edited by Pawlu Mizzi The remarkable story of Man in Malta: his magnificent feats – since the early prehistoric days when the unique neolithic temples were built to the latter Middle Ages when the island rescued the Order of St John and to the recent modem times, when the savagery of Hitler’s air attacks failed to shake his faith and courage ‑ is reproduced in Heritage.

Heritage originated as a partwork magazine that built up into an encyclopeadia of Maltese culture and civilization. Today the monumental work, to which some of the best scholars and researchers contributed, is available in six hardbound volumes. Each volume is packed with information and illustrations about all the facets and events which made Malta during the centuries what it is today. Each volume is indexed.

Specifications 364 pp per volume in colour and monochrome, 245x190mm Hardbound, 6 volumes €45.00; US$61.50; GB£37.00

Midsea Books is also one of the key contributors to Maltese literature. For the past 45 years, through its sister company, Klabb Kotba Maltin, it has published some of Malta’s finest novels and poems which are also available for translation.

39 | Books in Maltese

Awarding-winning literature from award-winning authors

40 | Books in Maltese Midsea Books are proud to have been partners in the production and publication of the National Book Council (Malta) project on literature in translation. (Copies of these books are available on request)

68, Carmelites Street, Sta Venera SVR1724 路 Malta Tel: +356 2149 7046 Fax: +356 2149 6904 www.midseabooks.com UPDATED SPRING 2014