Heritage Malta receives important donations

Heritage Malta has been presented with two very important natural history collections by Guido Lanfranco and Denis de Lucca.

Guido Lanfranco’s donation consists of more than 120 books covering various topics from entomology to ornithology, more than 200 original off-prints related to Maltese natural history, a collection of original colour and half-tone prints, most of which were published in a number of books and journals, and more than 500 geological/mineralogical specimens.

The donated books include some historically important copies such as Antonio Schembri’s Catalogo Ornitologico (1843), Gavino Gulia’s Repertorio di Storia Naturale (1858-59), Luigi Benoit Ornitologia Siciliana (1840) and Enrico Hyllyer Giglioli’s Avifauna Italica (1886).

Other important printed material include a wide selection of papers on Maltese lizards, sea turtles and local insects by Anthony Valletta and Carmelo De Lucca among others, notebooks with various observations on butterflies and other wildlife, numerous press cuttings, and the original drawings which appeared in various publications.

A collection of rocks and minerals as well as a large specimen of a locally occurring coral Dendrophylla ramea and two mounted skeletons of a snake and a frog, both prepared by Lanfranco, complete this collection.

Heritage Malta also received the insect collection of the late Carmelo De Lucca, who between 1969 and 1971 was assistant and later curator of the National Museum of Natural History in Mdina responsible for the birds and insects sections.

In the late 1960s, the museum acquired the bird collection previously belonging to Carmelo’s father Vincenzo.

Dr De Lucca was an eminent entomologist specialising in butterflies and moths, on which he published a number of scientific papers. The collection is made up of 36 glass-topped boxes containing several hundreds of insects, including a number of type specimens of great scientific value.

Type specimens are those specimens on which the original description of the species was made. The collection also includes a herbarium and several hundred line drawings of local plants.

This collection was presented by Dr De Lucca’s son Denis.

Both collections will be available to the public for research purposes, along with the other million or so specimens housed in the National Museum of Natural History, which is constantly increasing its profile as a national research source both locally and abroad.

The museum is also currently undergoing constant improvement in its permanent displays and has embarked on a project to systematically reorganise all its collections.

The two donations were received by the Culture Minister Dolores Cristina at the National Museum of Natural History in Mdina today.

A small exhibition displaying the highlights of the donated material will be open to the public until March 14 in the same museum.

It is Heritage Malta’s wish that these two important donations will encourage others to donate their collections to the Nation.