Giovanni Bonello is now in the ninth volume of the well-known series Histories of Malta and he shows no signs of faltering whether in his impish and ironic style or in his quest for new subjects in his chosen sphere of historical Maltese studies.
Apart from a couple of studies related to the Great Siege, he has written in his inimitably mischievous manner on the use of tobacco under the knights; on the way in which the Maltese language and, especially, Maltese toponymy, reflect the influence of the Order; on the judiciary under the Order; on a personage he calls "an inordinate critic of de Valette" and on the fate of the Ximenes cannon, the most beautiful piece of ordnance existing in Malta under the knights.
He also writes most engagingly on the doodles, many of them wicked little portraits, drawn by a scribe in the Libri Bullarum in the Archives of the Order at the National Library of Malta.
The student of the Great Siege will be thrilled by the author's discovery of a hitherto forgotten account of the 1565 Great Siege written by G.B. Adriani, a Florentine rhetorician and historiographer in his Istoria Dei Suoi Tempi (1583), a book described by Judge Bonello as being "in some subtle ways... radically different from the rest of his contemporaries" as "it gives a far more 'humanist' account of events than all the others do". Judge Bonello, however, reproves Adriani for giving far too little importance to the Maltese contribution to Malta's defence.
As Adriani's book is a very rare one, Judge Bonello does a great service by providing an English version of the pages relating to the Great Siege.
Two chapters will be enjoyed by lovers of art in this country.
The study on the Italian painter Girolamo Gianni who spent a little over 20 years in Malta is perspicacious. The author does not agree with those who view Gianni as just a commercial artist and places him "half way through 'high art' and 'business art'".
Known best for his landscapes and seascapes, Gianni also produced attractive town scenes and scenes of life in Malta. Judge Bonello notes that while one could once say that most Giannis were to be found in England, today the eagerness of Maltese collectors has brought many of them back to Malta.
The study of the photographer S.L. Cassar will be useful to those who have known and have perhaps collected his numerous photographs.
Two chapters focus on Judge Bonello's legal and judicial career. One of them is an interview he gave to the journal Law and Practice and the other a review of a book on the Maltese law of trusts in which he makes the epigrammatic remark that Malta's "civil law substratum has been cajoled into accepting the intrusion (of a common law institute) without tears or trauma".