Map of Gozo

After reading the news report "Agius de Soldanis map retrieved abroad" (July 3), I would like to point out that the "unique" map of Gozo and Comino found in the manuscript "Gozo Antico e Moderno" was not drawn by the author, G. P. Francesco Agius de Soldanis, as stated.

Information extant in private records reveals that Agius de Soldanis himself asked his friend, Fr Luigi Bartolo (+1753), a Capuchin Friar and map designer, to draw the map for his "Gozo Antico e Moderno" around the year 1745.

A detailed study on Fr Bartolo of Valletta was published by me in the Proceedings of History week for 1982. The pen-drawing map measures 38.7x24.5 cms and is signed "Frater Aloysius a Melita, Concionator Capuccinus invenit et delineavit". A second drawing also found in the same manuscript is entitled "Prospettiva del Gran Castello del Gozo come si vede dalla parte del mezzogiorno", also bearing his signature.

While on the subject, I would like to add a short note about the manuscript (classified as the first "abbozzo") of the "Gozo Antico e Moderno", preserved at the Floriana Capuchin friary.

It was taken for granted that the manuscript was presented by Agius de Soldanis to the Capuchin Friary in Gozo.

This statement is inaccurate. For various reasons, Agius de Soldanis had a soft spot for the Capuchins, but he donated the first manuscript to his friend Luigi Bartolo, as a token of gratitude. Fr Bartolo was then the Superior of the newly-erected independent custody of Malta (1740) with its archives at Floriana.

The manuscript was however transferred to Gozo by Fr Hyacinth Camenzuli, OFM Cap. of Gozo when he was writing the history of the church and Friary of Our Lady of Graces in Gozo, which appeared in Lehen is-Sewwa of August 24, 25, 26, 1937. It returned to its original abode when Dom Maurus Inguanez, OSB, restored it during his tenure as librarian at the Royal Malta Library between 1947-1955. It is to be noted that the manuscript is incomplete.