George Zammit-Maempel: Seals of Medicinal TerraSigillata Melitensis and Pauline Traditions in Malta, Gutenberg Press, Malta 2010, xiv + 386 pp., illustrated.

This is the latest work with a Pauline theme in a spate of publications on the subject in recent years, the fourth in this year alone.

George Zammit-Maempel’s book is narrow in scope in that it concentrates on the Pauline cult in Malta as expressed by the propagation, in Malta and beyond its shores, of the rock excavated from St Paul’s Grotto in Rabat, and its ramifications. The research by the author into this field, culminating in this magnum opus, extends over more than four decades of his life.

A strong tradition going back to medieval times holds that the grotto beneath St Paul’s Church in Rabat, Malta, was the ‘prison-cell’ where the apostle was kept confined during the three months of his sojourn in Melite, and in view of the episode of the viper, it was strongly believed that the earth and rock of this grotto were endowed with quasi-miraculous powers against the venom from snake-bite.

This magico-therapeutic attribution by the Maltese to the grotto earth appears to have been extended over the centuries to all earth from Malta, so that several fossils found on the island came to be given Pauline connotations, among which, Ilsien San Pawl (St Paul’s tongue), Għajnejn il-lifgħa (Viper’s eyes), Sider San Pawl (St Paul’s breast), Iz-Zokk ta’ San Pawl (St Paul’s rod), and Atar San Pawl (St Paul’s footprints). With the help of visual representations and descriptions of these fossils in early-modern publications, the author manages to identify all but one of them with one or other facets of palaeontological marine fauna.

The author begins by placing this aspect of the Pauline cult in a wider background, noting how the grotto earth begins to figure among other materia medica from the 16th century with the technical name of TerraMelitensis as distinct from several other terrae from other localities, especially those from the Greek islands, from the Levant, from Europe as well as from the Far East, all of these competing with Terra Melitensis on the medicinal markets.

The edge which the earth from the Maltese grotto had over the others was that, further to its chemical attributes, it was reputedly endowed with supernatural powers.

The propaganda for Terra Melitensis, especially outside Malta’s shores, received a boost with the arrival of the Order of St John as its fame spread over Europe, almost parasitically, on the strong back of the fame of the Order which had made a name for itself during the Great Siege of 1565.

On the other hand, the Knights soon realised that their prestige had only to gain by association with the Pauline cult in these islands, so that during the magistracy of Alof de Wignacourt, they usurped for their use the Church of San Pawl tal-Ħġejjeg, in St Paul’s Bay and the Rabat Grotto.

Next to the grotto, they established the Chaplains’ College at that time. The book includes an interesting chapter concerning leaflets that used to be printed mostly in Malta, but also onthe continent, advertising the Terra Melitensis and other Pauline products.

An indication of how much the order was influential in the propagation of the fame of Terra Melitensis is afforded by the fact that few 16th-century prescriptions are known that recommend it whereas several include it thereafter.

The earth of the grotto used to be given freely in its forma cruda to anyone who requested it, but there was a whole industry that made products from this materia prima in the form of sealed sachets stamped with a guarantee of authenticity – whence the name of the product and of the book, Terra sigillata Melitensis – or in other forms, such as medals, medallions and even cups for the taking of medicine.

The book is profusely illustrated with more than 240 plates and figures that exhibit the minutest details of these objects. The author goes into the details of prices and of prescriptions that included them. He looks into the problem of the volume of the grotto rock that was exported.

He gives a full description of how the grotto presented itself in the various phases of its existence, identifying in the process an important description, including a fresco seen there, by a German visitor in 1588. The search for this fresco has led to the discovery of others in the grotto which had been covered over by the whitewash.

An important contribution made by Zammit Maempel’s book is a detailed list of all known museums which hold collections of Terra Sigillata Melitensis in Denmark, Germany, Holland, Italy, Switzerland and Malta.

He also lists another 26 museums in Malta, Europe and the US where he looked for it and did not find it.

He gives a minutely detailed description of all these exhibits among which pride of place is given to a collection of 32 exhibits put together by Francesco Buonarroti, a nephew of the world-famous Michaelangelo.

The book concludes with a catalogue of all 68 seals known to exist and a full bibliography of the subject including some 250 works cited.

These, together with a detailed index of names should be of no small assistance to the reader who wants to delve deeper in this material.