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Robert Thake, Patriotism, Deception and Censorship. De Soldanis and the 1751 account of the uprising of the slaves. BDL Publishing, 2013. 192 pp.
Little must the Gozitan canon Francesco Agius De Soldanis have imagined that the public-ation of an account of the notor-ious, unsuccessful uprising of the slaves of 1749 would land him in a sea of troubles. It was to force him to face a formidable Grand Master, almost irate out of his senses, and to answer for his actions in front of an ecclesiastical court in Rome.
And thereby hangs an interesting tale which Robert Thake has assiduously researched and followed in its myriad complic-ations. The result is an engaging study that is as fascinating as the incidents it describes.
The sketchy facts go like this. In February 1750, the Gozitan canon sets sail for Naples with a manuscript copy of Mustafà Bassa di Rodi. Here, he meets the enigmatic Michele Acciard, whom he entrusts with readying the text for publication. Publication eventually took place inJanuary 1751.
The book infuriates Grand Master Pinto, who sees in it the seeds of a potential uprising of the Maltese against the Order. This is especially so since, in the general historical introduction, quite a long and strong reference is made to the right given to the Maltese in 1423 to resist manu forte any feudal pawning. This spelled out, not too slyly, that the Order’s occupation was illegal.
The further suggestion that a republican government could be set up threw no oil on troubled waters, and the whole matter was compounded by the insist-ence that the Maltese possessed an autonomous identity.
This elegantly produced book is his first monograph and it bodes a bright future for this amateur historian
The publication of a private letter by the Grand Master to the French king, which could have been interpreted that the Order was submissive to foreign demands, must also have taken a large bit out of Pinto’s not-inconsiderable ego.
The publication of the book turned out to be quite an odyssey for De Soldanis, who was also at the same time concerned with the publication of his linguistic study Della Lingua Punica, which was printed in Rome.
David Thake, who has recently graduated as a lawyer, is yet another legal practitioner who has been bitten by the unforgiving Melitensia bug. He has already made other literary contributions, but this elegantly produced book is his first monograph and it bodes a bright future for this amateur historian.
Thake explains well the complications that emerge from this publication, mainly concerned with what, if any, changes Acciard made to the De Soldanis text. He carried out extensive original research in local archives, as well as those in the Vatican, Rome and Naples. The entire argument revolved on who was really responsible for the ‘subversive’ statements in the book, which was published under Acciard’s name.
One important source for the information is an anonymous diary titled Notizia Giornale della Novità e Successi Accaduti in Malta e Gozzo nel Anno 1753 Annale dal Primo Giugno MDCCLIII, which is to be found in a private collection. In spite of its title, the manuscript gives a detailed account of the events in Malta between March and December 1751.
The manuscript was compiled by somebody who was quite well-informed on the matter and also repeatedly gives the opinions of others.
The decision to have cumul-ative numbering for the footnotes was not a happy one, as the number soars up to over 300, making the whole look ungainly.
The illustrated pages from documents should also have their actual source documented; in one case there seems to be actual disagreements between the text (page 82) and the accompanying illustration (page 84), with Palermo being read as Salerno and Benevento as Benvenuto.
The number of copies sent to Malta also seems different, with the text saying 111 and the document 100.If the author is quoting from a different source, one does not know.
Still, the book is a valuable addition to the rich field of Melitensia, not least because it touches a field so few scholars have entered, namely the history of local publications in the 18th century.