Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti has just added another significant book to its publications.

The Late Medieval Art And Architecture Of The Maltese Islands, by Mario Buhagiar, was launched at the Knights Room, Le Meridien Phoenicia, in Floriana last week.

Present for the launch were the Minister of Tourism and Culture, Francis Zammit Dimech, Patrimonju's chairman Maurice de Giorgio, its general editor Paul Xuereb, Richard Reece, a reader in late Roman and Medieval Art and Archaeology at University College, London, as well as Prof. Buhagiar.

Dr Xuereb said: "Once again Patrimonju was very pleased to have been entrusted with this exceptional work, which is essentially the result of a whole academic career devoted to this area".

Dr Zammit Dimech welcomed the publication as "yet another important contribution to a proper appreciation of Malta's vast cultural heritage, and particularly late medieval Malta, which was clearly not, as this work shows, an artistic desert".

Prof. Reece commended the work and its "importance in conceptualising Malta's medieval artistic heritage, and putting it in its rightful Mediterranean context".

This is Prof. Buhagiar's fourth book, in addition to numerous articles in journals abroad and locally which have all served to put Malta on the map in terms of its medieval artistic heritage.

The book, printed by Progress Press retails at Lm19.50 (hard cover. ISBN 99932-10-35-8) and Lm17.50 (limp cover. ISBN 99932-10-36-6) and is available from leading booksellers.