[attach id=324050 size="medium"][/attach]
William Soler and Albert Ganado, The Charting of Maltese Waters, BDL Publishing, Malta 2013, 140 pp
It may at first seem strange for one to feel so greatly enthusiastic about a book of nautical charts, but the latest publication by William Soler and Albert Ganado is really a book that all lovers of Melitensia are bound to cherish and treasure as a work of great scholarship and interest.
It is a publication of quality, full of information that goes far beyond the limited scope that the title may indicate. This book will stand tall with any other similar book published abroad and indeed deserves wide recognition.
Ganado definitely does not need any introduction, to use the trite phrase so often used to introduce undeserving nobodies. A lifetime dedicated to collecting and studying Melitensia has made Ganado an authority with a deserved reputation in the world of scholarship especially, but not only, in the field of cartography with a local connection.
Soler, an architect by profession, has been bitten by the Melitensia bug, against which no vaccination has been known to work, and has found research in matters Maltese an extremely satisfying and rewarding experience.
The point of departure of this book was to get together all the known portolans, nautical maps, and related documents, some of which in foreign repositories which were hitherto unknown.
The mere fact of bringing all these sources together is already an achievement; presenting them together with an authoritative commentary makes it a superlative one. And since this area is known only to a few cognoscenti, this book provides a fascinating introduction to the general reader and anyone with an interest in Melitensia.
Most of the charts come from Ganado’s own collections, but the authors have really cast their nets wide in a search for more. Dating and analysing them is a task only the consummate expert can undertake, especially since very often cartographers tended to copy from one another with plates being used and re-used. This book, however, is a pioneering attempt to study the historical development of these nautical charts from the early days up to the 19th century.
For long, Malta was off the beaten track of the major shipping lanes of the Mediterranean, especially when navigators hated to lose sight of land. As such, the earliest nautical charts do not feature the islands. Until the Order settled in Malta, there were not too many reasons for vessels to call. Indeed, the authors have only been able to trace four nautical charts depicting Malta by itself before the Quintinus map of 1536.
A well-known one is that by the Turkish corsair Piri Reis who, as we are informed in one of the numerous exhaustive and fascinating footnotes, was executed in Cairo in 1554 for losing a battle. There are actually three variants of the Piri Reis map, all of which are duly shown.
A book that all lovers of Melitensia are bound to cherish and treasure as a work of great scholarship
Indeed, footnotes offer a treasure trove of detail, such as the fact that sea charts used to be drawn on vellum which, when the charts became outdated, was used for other functions, such as book covers. Or that Giovanni Domenico Cassini discovered the division between the rings of Saturn which now bear his name in 1675. Or that Mercator did not actually invent the projection that bears his name.
Up to the 16th century, such maps are quite scarce. But Italian, Dutch, and French cartographers came into their own in the following two centuries, producing several remarkable maps, some of notable aesthetic value.
The scientific advances that took place at the end of the 18th century saw a marked improvement in the art of map-making and increased accuracy and precision.
Each map is treated with scrupulous care as the authors tease out heaps of information about the author (when known), the map itself, map-making and other minutiae.
One detail with which I humbly tend to disagree is the reference to the chapel dedicated to St Paul in St Paul’s Bay being “roughly in the position of what is known as Selmun”. To me it looks as being sited exactly in its original place (instead of the Wignacourt Tower). The cove facing it is definitely Mistra Bay, with the much larger Għadira Bay to the bay’s right. One can, for example, see an identical configuration in the Opizio Guidotti map.
As to the Buodelmonti chart, which is the earliest known separate map of the island and which was first published by Ganado himself, I tend to believe that the portus so marked could be actually Salina Bay which had served as a major port since antiquity, being the nearest port to Sicily, and then possibly not yet silted over to become smaller, shallower, and hence impractical. In the map, Marsamxett and Grand Harbour were transformed into one large harbour, an inconsistency easily explained by the cartographer’s misguided placing of Gozo’s castello on mainland Malta.
In the midst of all the goodness, two jewels – as the authors themselves describe them – stand out. One is Robert Dudley’s exquisite two-volume Arcano del Mare of 1646, engraved by Antonio Francesco Lucini, who also engraved a set of the 1565 siege, and which includes charts and maps of the Mediterranean. Unfortunately, Malta is not rewarded with a separate chart.
But the shining jewel is the unique set of six Alexander Briarly charts, probably drawn for Lord Nelson. Today, they lie in Ganado’s possession and are being mentioned and published for the very first time. The charts include, inter alia, a map of the islands and depictions of various bays and shoals.
Another interesting set of maps are those drawn by William Henry Smith who, incidentally, was honoured by having a whole lunar mare named after him. His St Paul’s Bay refers to Bugibba as Badjubba! We also get to know that Hurd’s Bank is actually named after a captain who assisted Smith in his surveys.
The Charting of Maltese Waters is really a fascinating book which should give constant pleasure to anyone with a love for Melitensia. Armed with a magnifying glass, one can spend hours going over the charts noting place names and details.