Gaetano Mannarino, leader of the 1775 "rebellion of the priests", is exposed by Judge Giovanni Bonello as a "false and deceitful idol" in the 10th volume of his Histories Of Malta: Passions And Compassions.
In his fear, Judge Bonello writes, "Dun Gaetano" betrayed all his fellow-conspirators against the Order of St John.
Under the title The Internati - And Who Should Be Ashamed, Judge Bonello expresses his indignation at what he deems as the very grave injustice done in 1942 by the British colonial government in exiling a good number of Maltese with Italian leanings, some of them very eminent, to Uganda for the duration of the war.
The account is made sharper by the fact that the author's father, Vincenzo Bonello, was one of the internees. Two of the chapters in the 10th volume has the author writing about warring and mayhem.
His chapter on the English pirate John Ward and his exploit with the Order's galleys is rendered specially interesting by a well-argued theory that Ward's alleged capture of a galley in what was claimed to be 1605 probably corresponds to an episode in 1604 where the capture of two galleys of the Order was speedily followed by a crushing defeat of the pirates by the Order's navy.
The chapter on knights belonging to the Pagano family, one of whom was publicly beheaded in Naples, is rendered grim by old images of executions.
Patronage By The Knights Of Malta should be of particular interest to the art historian but also to those keen on the buildings and works of art belonging to their town or village.
Modern Malta owes many of the fine things it has to grand masters and ordinary knights who, if wealthy, chose to be remembered by embellishing buildings with expensive works of art, commissioning the building of places like the Manoel Theatre, erecting libraries, encouraging talented musicians and artists.
The chapter A Brawl Off Strait Street, Valletta, 1828 is a vivid account of episodes involving the Royal Navy and the brothels or music halls in Strait Street. Rare photographs and images of paintings depicting this formerly infamous street should prove nostalgic to older readers who still remember Strait Street in colonial times.
Other chapters in the volume deal with insanity in Malta at the time of the Knights, a well-illustrated chapter on Sliema in pre-war postcards, castrati singers in Valletta and Mdina and the once famous and now all but forgotten prelate Nicholas Bonett, philosopher and Bishop of Malta.