Focus on medical practice in medieval Malta

The somewhat unknown development of medical practice in medieval Malta will be brought to light at the first in the 2004 series of monthly lectures organised by Din l-Art Helwa.

The presentation by Stanley Fiorini, a scholar of Maltese demography and medieval history, will be held at the NGO's headquarters in Valletta on Thursday at 6 p.m.

The lecture will be held in English and attendance is free of charge.

Dr Fiorini, a professor of mathematics at the University of Malta who has a deep interest in all aspects of Maltese history, will shed a rare light on the development of medical practice in the Maltese islands during the Middle Ages, from Arab times in the 12th Century to circa 1530. Within this period, prior to the arrival of the Order of St John on the islands, many aspects of Maltese social development and academic evolution still lie largely hidden.

Dr Fiorini's presentation will focus on the known medical men encountered at the time. The physicians, pharmacists and barber-surgeons practising healing were all mainly of Jewish and Catalan origin and Maltese doctors made their first appearance in the late 15th Century.

Much information has had to be taken from ancient place names, an example being Rahal Ghattar (meaning the herbalist) near Burmarrad.

Dr Fiorini will illustrate the main medical institutions in the islands, especially Santo Spirito Hospital, in Rabat, the Ospedale di San Pietro, in Mdina and two others in Gozo. He will describe the materia medica available at the time and recount the incidence of the main diseases of those years, focusing mainly on scarlet fever and, particularly, the Black Death in 1360.

He will also cover aspects of medical legislation during this little known period as well as precautions taken then to safeguard public health.

Literature will be given out during the presentation to assist participants gain better understanding of the period's main medical protagonists and the place names that have helped research.

One other interesting aspect to be discussed is that which sheds light on the financing of the practice, in particular in Gozo where income arising from the husbandry of certain lands were devolved to medical work and which allowed studies to be possible.

Dr Fiorini's sole and joint publications include: Santo Spirito, 1989, the Catalogue of the Order of St John, published in 1990, the Mandate Documents at Mdina of 1992, the Origins of Franciscanism of 1995 and Mdina, The Cathedral City of Malta in 1996.