Marking a golden milestone

Giovanni Bonello (Ed.): Treasures of Malta, Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti, No 50, Easter 2011, Vol.XVII No. 2.

The Easter issue of Treasures of Malta, an impressive bumper number, marks a notable milestone in the history of this publication.

Not only is it the 50th number of a magazine that has set high standards but it also marks the handing over of the editorship to Judge Giovanni Bonello, who certainly needs no introduction in the field of Melitensia scholarship. It is the announced intention of continuing on the same well-tried lines, although some exciting innovations are announced.

This 130-page edition will surely whet the appetite of all regular subscribers but it has all the makings of a rare collectors’ item which, within a few years, will greatly increase in price, as is the case with the very first number. This number features a paper on ‘The Romans in Malta’ by Anthony Bonanno, first published in issue number 1.

Andrew Alamango is involved in an exciting and invaluable project to re-record and make available the earliest recordings featuring local individuals going back to the early years of the last century.

In ‘Malta’s Lost Voices: the early recordings 1931-32’, he writes about these early attempts to record local singers. The earliest example apparently took place in 1931 when some Maltese singers were sent to Tunisia where the first recording took place.

The rarity of these early records, not to say their extreme fragility, makes this project a significant attempt for popular culture.

Chris Grech, an associate professor at the Catholic University of America, Washington DC, draws our attention to one of Malta’s lesser known colonial administrators in an article that will be followed by a number of others. A number of these high civil servants, including admirals and governors, had noteworthy graphic skills which many had honed in the process of their military training.

Bonello writes about cinemas in Malta before World War I. It is quite a surprise to learn that Malta was actually showing films, in an establishment in St George’s Square, just a year after the first shows that took place in December 1897.

Various cinemas were opened in Valletta and Sliema, testifying to the popularity of the new medium of entertainment. By 1910, Maltese were showing locally filmed fea-tures by Salvatore Lorenzo Cassar, one of Malta’s premier pioneering photographers.

De Giorgio, curator of St John’s Co-Cathedral, discusses the excellent restoration work carried out on the chapel of the Virgin of Philermos. Little by little, St John’s is being restored to its former glory, making each visit an act of discovery.

This chapel, also known as the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, was actually being used a couple of years after the beginning of the building but it had suffered a lot of deterioration.

Best known for its silver gates, this chapel was dedicated to the miraculous icon of the Virgin of Philermos which today has turned up in Montenegro after years of mystery.

De Giorgio also accounts for the latest attributions that scholarship has determined. The chapel is the burial place of Gian Francesco Abela, the father of our historiography, one of the few Maltese to be buried in the church. The latest restoration has made possible the sure attributions of paintings in the chapel, including an Annunciation by Mattia Preti. Today the chapel is dedicated to the Virgin of Carafa.

Theresa Vella writes about five 17th- or early 18th-century depictions of Valletta’s streetscapes looking at St George’s Square from the corner of Archbishop Street and Strada Reale, this being the premier site in the new city.

Vella posits the possibility that three of them formed a sort of set, commissioned by the Grand Master possibly to hang next to each other in the magistral palace.

Joseph Haines was a well-known and colourful character in post-Restoration England, who made a name as an actor, dancer, musician, fortune teller, and author. In a visit to Malta, he allegedly seduced Grand Master Gregorio Carafa’s mistress, whom he describes as “a fine, plump, two-handed Bona Roba… with eyes as sparkling as canary and cheeks as red as claret”.

David Dandria, however, writes of his conversion to Roman Catholicism which took place following a trip between Algiers and Malta when he developed a painful tumour on his arm which only went away when he applied earth from St Paul’s grotto in Rabat.

German publisher Christopher Weigel (1654-1725) was the first engraver to use a machine to work on the background of his works. German historian Thomas Freller writes about the man and how his high-quality engravings of St Paul in Malta reflect the changing perceptions of the island in European eyes. He was also responsible for more engravings with a Malta connection and for an engraving of the coats of arms of the German grand prior.

Geologist and palaeontologist Michael Gatt writes about the Glaswegian geologist James Smith who recorded the earliest Quaternary fossil – part of an elephant’s molar discovered in Gozo before 1857. This discovery led him to speculate that the islands must have been connected to a larger landmass in the past. Gatt’s efforts to trace this fossil have unfortunately proved fruitless as yet.

Maltese furniture experts Joseph Galea Naudi and Denise Micallef write about some really marvellous 17th- and 18th-century cabinets that are to be found locally and that are really museum pieces.

These items come from private collections and the pictures in the magazine are for most people the only chance to appreciate them.

Edward Said, the architect who worked on the restoration of the dilapidated chapel of St Anthony of Padua in Fort Manoel gives an excellent résumé of the work undertaken, which should be a shining example of how such work are to be undertaken.

Albert Ganado, a leading international authority on antique maps and prints of Malta, writes about ‘Printed views of Malta published in the 16th and 17th centuries’.

The earliest ‘set’ of three views of Malta shows the harbour and was engraved by Jan Peeters (1624-77). Ganado is a regular contributor who so generously shares his knowledge and his unique Melitensia collection with readers.

In this number he also provides two watercolours by Vincenzo D’Esposito and Nikolay Krasnov, as well as supplying the frameable view of Villa Bichi, which is given free with this issue.

A page from the marvellous 15th-century St Anthony Codex is featured in a new series highlight-ing treasures from the National Library, while Ingrid Ross gives practical hints about caring for glass chandeliers.