Old Gozo and Comino guide books exhibition

An exhibition of about 100 guidebooks on Gozo and Comino has been set up at the National Archives in Gozo.

Max Farrugia, chairman of the Friends of the Archives Committee, who put his collection of guide books at the disposal of the archives, came up with idea for such an exhibition.

Other guide books were provided by the Public Library, Gozo, courtesy of George Borg, senior assistant librarian.

The original copy of Jean Quintin d'Autun's, Insulae Melitae Descriptio - A Guide to Malta and Gozo published in Lyons in 1536, from the collection of the Gozo Public Library will be on display.

Abbè Jean Quintin was in Malta in 1530, some months before the arrival of the first Grandmaster of the Order of the Knights of St John.

He began taking notes for this guidebook which was to present future knights with an idea of the islands that Emperor Charles V had donated to the Order.

Other exhibits include George Percy Badger's Description of Malta and Gozo (1838); a copy of the earliest illustrated guide book; J.E. Gatt, Guide to Gozo (1937); that by Edgar G. Montanaro, On The Trail Of The Sovereign Military Order of Malta In The Island Of Gozo (1950); and the six guide books to as many Gozo villages written by Joseph Bezzina, the assistant national archivist.

The last in the series, Nadur - the Village of the Rising Sun, was published last June.

The exhibition was inaugurated yesterday. It will be open from Monday to Saturday from 8 a.m. till 1 p.m., until August 25.