The Communicative Role of Visual Media in Malta 1700-98 WILLIAM ZAMMIT

rt, independently of form and of aesthetic quality, has always constituted - together with A the spoken language - the primary means of communication. The transmission of cultural values through artistic genres has been intensely studied for different eras and in different social contexts. 1 What has been described as 'the power that visual evidence possesses, to define what a society considers both normal and eccentric'2 still remains mostly unstudied for much of Malta's past. The utilization of art forms as reinforcers of the political and religious power structures in eighteenth-century Malta is evident to a very considerable extent. The study of the ways of assimilation of European artistic movements in Malta during the period - in terms of which and at what point in time were particular European artistic styles adopted - now enables an attempt at outlining the contribution of locally available art in the reinforcing of the social and political status quo. No artistic medium remained untouched by the influence of European baroque - from sculpture to painting and architecture, from silverware to jewellery and costume, and from book to furniture design.3 Major visual media of communication in eighteenth-century Malta comprised imagery, architecture, and public spectacle and entertainment, all of a secular or religious inspiration. Their aggregate communicative potential was of velY considerable importance, given the sheer extent of their presence in an increasingly affluent society as well as the fact that this was mostly unfettered by restrictive factors such as linguistic competence, illiteracy, and, to a certain extent, social class differentiations. The baroque transformation of the Maltese islands, initiated during the mid-seventeenth centUlY, proceeded unabated throughout the following one, with the advent of neo-classicism discernible only during the last two decades. The exposure to baroque coincided and interacted with the grand masters' striving for the outward manifestation of their sovereign status.4 The utilization of baroque art as a medium of communication undoubtedly played a crucial role in the reinforcing of the political and religiOUS power structures and in the accentuation of social class distinctions, particularly through the notion of conspicuous consumption.' In contrast, the presence of non-sanctioned visual communicative forms, comprising prohibited imagery and rituals and having the opposite objective becomes more evident locally during the course of the century. 326 William Zammit IMAGERY Imagery available in eighteenth-century Malta illustrated different themes and, irrespective of its artistic merits, served as jln important tool of propaganda for the aggrandizement of the political and ecclesiastical power structures. The higher quality baroque imagery intended for public display and consumption enhanced the institutions' striving for increasing prestige and power through sheer awe-inspiring depictions. Moreover, the execution of high quality and expensive works of art served to enhance the status of the individual commissioning them as much as that of the individual or institution they actually depicted and glorified. The commissioning, for instance, of the set of Flemish tapestries for the conventual church depicting the life of Christ certainly exalted the image of Grand Master Ramon Perellos, who financed them, at least as much as they served to reinforce Catholic fervour and orthodoxy. This was achieved not least through the manner in which such works of art were displayed for the public'S stupefaction.6 Earthly prestige and not simply concern for the inculcation of devotion and for the salvation of one's soul was certainly a primary motivation in the commissioning of religious works of aIt by eighteenth-century grand masters, individual members of the Order and by the affluent in general whose identity invariably featured prominently on the work executed. Cheaper and more commonly available imagelY, mostly in the form of prints and coinage reached out to all social classes and geographical areas of the island, forcing upon the masses, as it were, the reality of the existence and might of the ruling establishments upon the most socially and physically remote of their subjects and inf~i·s.

The visual representation of power The adoption of the various artistic genres for the visual depiction of political and religiOUS power in eighteenth-century Malta assumed unprecedented dimensions. Baroque indeed provided an aesthetically attractive and affordable means for the glorification of the secular power. It was, as has been observed,

in the illusive ideology of the baroque that the Order sought to slake its thirst for political power and glory. The baroque achievement in Malta was the dilated expression of the Order's new political attitudes and values, a new way of life, an ideological alternative which radically altered the entire Maltese environment.?

The eighteenth-century absolutist philosophy was reflected in the full flourishing of the baroque style in practically every form of artistic expression. It represented the major driving force behind the power structures' use of art as a reinforcer of their power base throughout eighteenth-century Europe, the process being well on its way by the second half of the preceding century with the creation of Versailles. In the Maltese case, this moreover coincided with a period of stability and particularly of economic prosperity which made possible the use of very substantial resources by both political and religiOUS establishments for the commissioning of artistic works intended to be visible and indeed awe-inspiring to all, making their subjects more conscious of their existence, vitality, and power.H The main artistic media for the iconographic depiction of power comprised statuary, painting, printed imagery and coinage. The Communicative Role of Visual Media in Malta 1700-98 327 Statuary and sculpture The grand master's position as head of a religious Order had traditionally precluded him from indulging in the depiction of his own image in a three-dimensional artistic format, even in his role of a secular ruler. Up to the second half of the seventeenth century, the representation of the grand master's figure in the form of a bust was limited to mausoleums, with such depiction being devoid of any hint of regal pretensions.9 The incorporation of the ruler's bust in prominent areas of the more important edifices constructed by particular grand masters was carried out by Nicola Cotoner (1663-80), Gregorio Carafa (1680-90), Antonio Manoel de Vilhena (1722-36), and Emmanuel Pinto (1741-73). Vilhena had a full-length statue of himself in regal posture erected within his Fort Manoel project, even if the statue was not actually commissioned by him. 10 The statue was even eulogized in the 1735 and 1736 CaJendimaggio festivities held at Valletta, one of the major secular local annual celebrations. 11 Grand masters who refrained from displaying their image on public buildings normally compensated this by the prominent inclusion of their coats-of-arms framed within a flamboyant panoply of baroque decoration. A notable example of this was Perellos' coat of arms on the Porte des Bombes gate. The period also witnessed the commissioning of much more impressive mausoleums by the grand masters, again starting with that of Nicola Cotoner and continuing down to that of Emmanuel de Rohan, the last grand master to be interred on the island. The mausoleums of Grand Masters Cotoner and Perellos have indeed been described as 'perhaps the most striking sculptures of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries in St John's'Y During the eighteenth century it increasingly became the practice for the ruling grand master to commission his funerary monument - invariably incorporating his effigy - and to have it erected in the conventual church during his lifetime. Perellos' monument was in place in late 1704, a good 15 years prior to the grand master's demise. 13 Vilhena's monument was similarly executed six years prior to his death.14 This practice ensured the commissioning of highly impressive works of art from greatly renowned artists, foremost among which were Giuseppe Mazzuoli and Massimiliano Soldani BenzLIs The sepulchral monuments thus served as testimony of the secular prince's power during his lifetime and rule and not simply as vestiges of past rulers. In their entirety the monuments were one of the most permanent, impressive, and expressive publicly viewable elements of the personality cult consciously inculcated by most eighteenth-century grand masters and celtainly an outstanding example of 'the baroque [thatl makes us relish, in the fleeting passage of time, a foretaste of Eternity' .16 Their grandeur managed to sufficiently impress even the succeeding antagonistic French regime into respecting them.17 The local production and availability of religious-inspired statuary had much deeper roots than its secular counterpart. While the presence of statuary depicting the vast array of established devotions was by no means an eighteenth-century development, increased prosperity and contacts with Catholic states certainly did much to increase its presence, to generally improve its artistic quality, and to make that artistic medium more accessible to the population at large. I8 Dazzling works of religiOUS sculpture were commissioned by the Order, its individual members, the Maltese religiOUS establishments, and individual well-off Maltese. These works included the Baptism of Christ composition, executed in marble by Giuseppe Mazzuoli (1703) 328 Wi!liam Zammit and the set of solid silver statues depicting the apostles (1741), both for the conventual church. The elaboration of practically all the symbols of Catholicism from the baroque rebuilding of ecclesiastical edifices to the refinement of village feasts and other annual religious celebrations could not but include religious statuary as an essential element. The rebuilt churches often included an elaborately carved prospettiva facing the high or side altars with calved images in relief or in three-dimension. 19 An important seventeenth-century precedent was the impressive statue of St Paul, attributed to the renowned Maltese sculptor Melchiorre Gafa and executed in the second half of the seventeenth century.20 The increase in the number of parishes and the evolving of the annual parish feast in celebration of the patron saint required the availability of life-size statues to be carried in the procession, the latter gradually becoming the focal point of the feast. 21 Rather than remaining at the level of a two­ dimensional, static, and somewhat remote painted figure on the main altar, the inclusion of life-size statuaIY in parish feasts made the patron saint assume more human characteristics, transforming the latter into a moving figure with which actual physical contact was possible and which could moreover be surrounded by the most exuberant form of celebration not sanctioned within the solemn and Latinized environment of the parish church itself. The elaboration of the village feast celebration with the use of statuaIY assuming central importance was paralleled by that of other religious celebrations, foremost among which were the Good Friday processions. The latter, albeit on a much more sombre note, similarl~ started to feature the use of statuaIY carried in processionY The celebration of Chris'hJas also started to include the use of cribs and statues of Jesus. 25 The eighteenth century similarly witnessed an increase in the practice of erecting popular religious statlJalY. This often took the form of publicly-placed niches as signs of devotion by both the urban and rural populations. The more popular Marian titles, saints, and the souls of purgatory were the most common subjects of this form of religious statuary.2i

Secular portraiture and religious painting In contrast with sculpture, depiction through painted portraiture was not limited to the portrayal of the ruler, but was increasingly utilised by the more prominent members of the Order and the Maltese elite. Many of those who counted for anything in eighteenth-century Malta, whether lay or ecclesiastic, had their portrait commissioned. The demand for portraits, increasingly considered as important status symbols, provided fashionable portrait painters like Vincenzo Pace, Giuseppe Grech, Francesco Zahra, and Antoine de Favray, among others, with a steady flow of commissions. Social status was conveyed both by the display of one's portrait as well as through the manner of iconographical representation. Fine clothing, jewellery, wigs and other symbolic paraphernalia intended for contemporalY and future viewers became as much a characteristic of the portraiture of the Maltese affluent classes as of that of members of the Order. 25 The portrayal of the grand masters went back to at least the last decades of the sixteenth centlllY, with tlle adopted artistic style reflecting not simply aItistic competence or contemporary conventions but also the current perception of the magistracy in terms of what it stood for. The portraits thus illustrate in the most vivid way the gradual move from the late sixteenth- The Communicative Role of Visual Media in Malta 1700-98 329 century image of sombre Catholic piety to the mid-eighteenth century one of opulence and absolutist pretensions. As elsewhere, the official portrait of the ruler was hung together with those of his predecessors in his palace. Hence, to an even greater extent than the magistral mausoleums within the conventual church, the viewing of the grand master's official effigy was mainly restricted to the privileged elite having access to the ruler's residence. This was an elite which would normally have enjoyed direct access to the grand master's person and so did not require any form of iconographical representation of what their ruler actually looked like. The depiction of the ruler's physical characteristics - although necessary for purposes of identification - was certainly not more important than the symbolism and posture adopted in official portraiture. Familiar as they were with the ruler's appearance, the official portrait conveyed to the courtiers an image of power and dignity few rulers could actually sustain in everyday life. Increasingly so during the eighteenth century, the magistral portrait conveyed a powerful message of sovereign regality irrespective of what the physical and emotional characteristics of the grand master happened to be. The move towards the depiction of regality culminated in the Pinto portrait - a dazzling apotheosis of sovereignty - executed by Favray in 1747. By 1700 all the stereotyped religious symbolism characteristic of most portraits down to that of Grand Master Carafa, comprising hour glass, crucifix, rosary beads, and prayer book, had disappeared completely from the official magistral portraits. As in the case of the mausoleums, the official portraits publicly pronounced what has been described as 'the process of secularization of the magistracy' .26 Even if lacking the glittering robes and the more flamboyant settings of the Pinto and Hompesch official portraits, those of Ximenes and de Rohan are no less potent in their depiction of dignified sovereignty. Particularly revealing is the portraiture of sixteenth-century grand masters executed during the eighteenth centUly. In his portraits depicting Grand Master L'Isle Adam's entry in Mdina in 1530 and of de la Valette leading the knights during the Great Siege, Favray demonstrated his mastery of portraiture in avoiding gross anachronisms while endoWing the grand masters' figures with the setting and posture characteristic of eighteenth-century absolutism. While the inner circle of courtiers and the high-ranking dignitaries of the Order had access to the official portrait, the ruler's image reached the rest of the population in the form of identical copies or variations to the official depiction. The palace portrait thus selved as the prototype for others displayed in the Order'S edifices and in the private homes of knights and of the more affluent Maltese. Although the demand for such portraits is difficult to ascertain, it does not appear to have been inconsiderable, particularly from Pinto's rule onwards.27 On a lower social scale, the grand master's effigy was made accessible in the form of prints which were again mostly copies of the official portrait. Paintings increasingly became one of the most impressive and accessible vehicles for the reinforcing of Catholic beliefs and orthodoxy in eighteenth-century Malta. The Order, the Maltese diocese, and the locally-established religious orders and lay confraternities all vied with each other in the commissioning of a profusion of religious paintings. The flourishing of baroque painting on the island resulted primarily from the almost unintenupted sojourn of Mattia Preti between 1661 and his death in 1699. 2B Initially kept busy by the Order's commissions, notably by the painting of the vault of the conventual church, Preti eventually 330 Wi!liam Zammit executed various commissions from the local religious institutions. The Order's presence hence provided - in the field of baroque painting as in most others - the initial impetus which was only then taken up by the ecclesiastical establishment in its uphill struggle to maintain some form of equality with the ruling foreign elite. Post-Preti religious paintings were commissioned from a number of local artists influenced to varying degrees by Preti's rendering of baroque art. 29 A. Hauser's observation about the inherent qualities of baroque Catholic painting, that 'the sacred persons portrayed are to speak to the faithful as insistently as possible but under no circumstance to climb down to them' and that 'works of art are to make propaganda, to persuade, to overwhelm, but must do so in a choice and an elevated language' rendered such imagery particularly effective within the Maltese eighteenth-century rural setting in which religious art enjoyed an undisputed monopoly.3D Baroque religious painting - as in the case of sculpture and architecture - reached out from the urban to the rural areas predominantly via the parish church, the baroque transformation of which in its totality constituted a most explicit visual statement of Catholic power in practically every Maltese village of any size. Whereas in the urban areas, the political and ecclesiastical establishments held a delicate balance in the utilization of visual means for the communication of their power, in the rural areas the Catholic visual expression of assertiveness and grandeur in the form of a richly adorned parish church had little in the way of secular competition. On a much more humble artistic level were the depictions of religious figures or episodes for domestic adornment. Like practically all other items of domestic material culture for any period, the presence of religious paintings in Maltese homes has still t~e studied, mainly through a systematic analysis of inventories, wills and other documents of a legal nature which abound for the period. The available evidence in the form of denunciations to the Inquisition involving the desecration of religious imagery in homes, points out to the presence of religious paintings and other art forms even in the residences of the lower social echelons. More study has been devoted to popular religious painting in the form of ex-votos, commissioned by individuals hailing from different social strata as thanksgiving for some grace received. The visual reproduction featured in the ex-votos - often depicting nothing less than a dramatic rendering of the miracle taking place - would have made up for any effect lost in the generally poor artistic execution of the worksY A related form of depiction and one which is increasingly coming to light is graffiti. These, depicting a variety of scenes but especially ones relating to seafaring, may possibly have at times constituted a less financially demanding ex-voto practice. J2

Printed imagery The production of printed imagery during the eighteenth century was among the most widespread and effective vehicles of visual communication. Its relatively cheap mass production in a variety of sizes and formats made it widely accessible. The availability of prints provided an inexpensive alternative to the more awe-inspiring sculptured and painted imagery to be found in churches and palaces, which were indeed sometimes popularized through their reproduction in print form. Moreover, the characteristics of printed imagery made it the most suitable visual medium which could be employed as a weapon against the established political, religious, and social status quo. Though perhaps not to the extent prevalent in England,33 The Communicative Role of Visual Media in Malta 1700-98 331 Table 1 The production ofsingle-sheet printed imagery in Malta: 1756-81, 1791-93

Category Total commissions % Total % Total of all commissions Devotional imagery 88 59.0 4.9 Coats of alms 20 13.4 1.1 Unidentified imagery 19 12.8 1.1 Non-religious imagery 12 8.1 0.6 Scapulars 10 6.7 0.6 Totals 149 100.0 8.3 Source: AOM Libri Giornali della Stamperia cli Sua Altezza Serenissima 2038-65 this form of visual representation was a primary source of aesthetic experience in most European countries. Printed imagery was produced in single-sheet format, accompanied or unaccompanied by text, or else as illustration in published works. Of these, the first was by far the most Widely accessible and hence the more significant from the communicative point of view. The presence and dissemination of printed imagery in eighteenth-century Malta was greatly determined by the setting up of local printing facilities in 1756. Prior to that year all printed matter, including imagery, was imported. The type and availability of printed imagery in Malta prior to 1756 still requires study although its presence in single-sheet format has been ascertained. Specimens of imagery from available stocks were imported for commercial or private use. Prints were also specifically commissioned from abroad. After 1756 the facility for local production certainly made them much more readily available. Table 1 gives the figures for printing commissions of Single-sheet imagery submitted to the monopolistic state press between 1756-81 and 1791-93, for which the press records have survived. The total production amounted to 8.3 per cent of the entire press output, excluding imagery in Single-sheet advertisements and as illustrative material within books. Non-religious, Single-sheet printed imagery, produced locally or imported, consisted of portraiture and of other symbols of personal status, views, and maps and -least documented of all- pornography. The commissioning of print pOltraits of grand masters continued during the eighteenth century. These were produced both in series format, featuring all the grand masters down to the contemporary one as well as Single portraits depicting the current ruler. The publication of series portraits went back to at least the first decades of the seventeenth century. They were issued either on one single sheet or else as a set of larger, separate portraits.3; Their presence in Maltese homes is documented even prior to their local production. 3s The series engraved in Rome by Barbazza (763) and Cunego (776) were perhaps the most artistically refined, with portraits of individual grand masters from the series being subsequently utilised as frontispieces to books ..l6 Occasionally similar sets were reproduced in the local press, with payments for the local design and manufacture of a copperplate for a set of grand masters' portraits being recordedY In 1773, 30 sets of portraits 332 Wi!liam Zammit Table 2 Recorded sales of the 1773 and 1778 sets ofgrand masters' portraits

Production of30 sets in December 1773 1773 1774 1775 1776 1777 1778 1779 1780 1781 1791 1792 1793 12 8 3 2

Reprinting of50 sets in November 1778 1773 1774 1775 1776 1777 1778 1779 1780 1781 1791 1792 1793 4

Source: AOM Libri Giornali della Stamperia di Sua Altezza Serenissima 2038-65 were produced locally, these being financed by the press itself to be sold with other press publications. In 1778, a further 50 copies of the set were printed, presumably using the same plates. 3H Never intended for mass circulation, these sets were produced in limited quantities and sold at ten seudi, the price charged for the two-volume, over 1500-page Malta Illustrata, the largest publication of the Maltese eighteenth-centUlY press. Surviving press documentation provides data on the pattern of sal~f the 1773 set (Table 2). Peak sales were reached in 1773 and 1776, coinciding with a change m the magistracy. By 1778, 25 sets are documented as having been sold, motivating the further printing of 50 sets in late 1778. The lack of press records for the periods 1782-90 and 1794-98 does not allow the identification of the pattern of sales of the 1778 reprints, although sales are known to have continued during the 1790s. Neither can the possibility of further reprints during the 1780s and 1790s be excluded. Aimed towards wider dissemination were the print portraits of ruling grand masters in single-sheet format. As in the case of series, the commissioning of these portraits had a long­ standing tradition. 39 The extent of their availability and dissemination prior to their local production can, however, hardly be ascertained. The accession and death of Grand Master Ximenes motivated the local printing of over 1,300 portraits of him, 60 of which were coloured and printed on silk. 4o The same plate, engraved by the Maltese artist Francesco Zimelli, was used for the portrait of the grand master featured on a Single-sheet theological dissertation, printed in 240 copies.41 Upon the accession of de Rohan, the press, on its own initiative, printed an unknown number of portraits of the new grand master to be sold at two tarl (Table 3). Another Single-sheet portrait of de Rohan is known to have been produced locally in 1786 (Table 3; Plate 1). The latter is known only through a surviving copy since the press records for 1786 are 10stY The production of the Ximenes and de Rohan Single-sheet portraits certainly occurred in substantial quantities and these were cheap enough for their acquisition by a wide spectrum of the population. As in the case of magistral painted portraiture produced for public consumption, their printed counterparts provided a relatively faithful image of the ruler within the all­ important regal setting. Plate l- The de Rohan p01trait (Malta, 1786) 334 William Zammit Table 3 Portraits of individual grand masters commissioned from tbe state press: 1756-81, 1791-93

Date Commissioned Description Record References/ of commission by ofportrait ofsales Remarks

1773 Antonio 1,255 portraits No data AOM 2054, Crespi of grandmaster available f. 19, item 55 Ximenes, including (not a press 60 coloured portraits, publication) printed on silk

25.5.1775 Salvatore 250 theological No data AOM 2056, Imbert dissertations in single- available f. 4, item 7 sheet format, comprising (not a press a pOltrait of grandmaster publication) Ximenes

1775 The press 104 portraits of the late An unknown AOM 2056, grandmaster Ximenes number of f. 15, item 41 copies sold in 1776. Priceun~wn

1776 The press Portrait of grandmaster 1776777879 AOM 2057, de Rohan. Quantity 8081919293 f. 22, item 49 unknown 1532 2764 8 11 --- Sold at 2 tari each

1786 No data Portrait of grandmaster No data Known available de Rohan. Quantity available through unknown a traced copy

Source: AOM Libri Giornali della Stamperia di Sua Altezza Serenissima 2038-65

Besides magistral portraiture, the local production of non-religious imagery in single-sheet was rather limited. Of the seven known commissions for the periods 1756-81,1791-93, four consisted of maps or plans and the other three of similarly politically-neutral material. Paucity in this case was probably due to a limited demand for prints depicting purely Maltese subjects, while the demand for non-Maltese themes was adequately satisfied through importation. The generally not very competent quality of local prints may also have resulted in the commissioning of material from abroad, although the extent of this practice is difficult to gauge. The twenty-odd known commissions for the printing of coats of arms consisted of requests for escutcheons of grand masters and bishops for their inclusion in publications and in the production of personal stationery. The latter practice was mostly restricted to members of the The Communicative Role of Visual Media in Malta 1700-98 335 Table 4 Commissions of non-religious single-sheet imageJY from the state press: 1756-81, 1791-93*

Date Commissioned Description References! of commission by ofportrait Remarks

20.2.1761 Giuseppe d'Angelo, 6 portraits of the AOM 2042, on request king of Savoy f. 2, item 9

27.5.1763 Gioacchino Farrugia Figures for playing cards. AOM 2044, Quantity unknown f. 3v, item 18

26.11.1766 Federico Vella, 50 plates for the AOM 2047, on request harbour master f. 8, item 42

10.7.1769 Federico Vella, 15 copies of the AOM 2050, on request map of the Maltese islands f. 10, item 28."

1770 Federico Vella, 61 plates for the AOM 2051, on request harbour master f. 4v, item 20

1776 No data available 6 degree certificates AOM 2057, f. 17, item 37

1777 Antonio Crespi 110 plans of the town AOM 2058, of Licata in Sicily f. 9, item 40

'Excluding magistral portraiture (Table 3) "The same map as featured in G.A. Ciantar's Malta Illustrata (Vo!. I, Malta, 1772) Source: AOM Libri Giornali della Stamperia di Sua Altezza Serenissima 2038-65

Order in their private or official capacities. Undoubtedly, the most heavily printed and impressively deSigned was that used for the Single-sheet bills of health. These were commissioned annually with print runs varying from 350 to 2,500 copies after 1756. The elaborately designed bills, featuring prominently the ruling grand master's escutcheon within a panoply of baroque decorative elements, were issued to all those leaving the island as an attestation of their freedom from contagious diseases. Their use went back decades prior to 1756, as attested by surviving examples.43 Far more widespread was the availability of printed Single-sheet imagery depicting religious themes. Marian, Christological, and depictions of the more locally popular saints and devotions were regularly commissioned from the state press. The local popularity of printed imagery of a devotional nature reflected the reality in southern European Catholic states during the period.4i The majority of devotional prints commissioned locally depicted Marian titles. Of these, the most popular were those of Our Lady of Good Counsel, the Immaculate Conception, and of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Most of the commissions, especially the more substantial ones, were submitted by religious Orders or confraternities, with a tradition of devotion to that Plate If: 1beTal-Nerba print (Malta, 1781) The Communicative Role of VisllalMedia in Malta 1700-98 337 Table 5 The production ojscapulars by the State press: 1756-81, 1791-93

A. The Immaculate Conception Year Commissioned by Print run Remarks References

1756 G. d'Angelo, on request 250 Printed on parchment 2038, f. 6v 1759 The Confraternity of 400 Printed on parchment 2040, f. 7v the Immaculate Conception

1761 G. d'Angelo, on request 300 Printed on parchment 2042, f. 13 1763 The Confraternity of the No data Printed on parchment 2044, f. 6v Immaculate Conception available

1768 The Confraternity of the 200 Printed on parchment 2049, f. 5 Immaculate Conception

1769 The Confraternity of the 300 Printed on parchment 2050, p. 7 Immaculate Conception

B. Other devotions Year Commissioned by Pri1lf run Remarks References

1761 Revd. F. Grech, on request 400 Printed on parchment 2042, f. 13

1762 Revd. F. Grech, on request No data available 2043, f. 4

1767 The procurators of the 180 + 57 Printed on silk 2048, f. 6v confraternities of the Conception and of Mount Carmel

1781 No data available 150 Printed on parchment 2062, p. 11

Source: AOM Libri Giornali della Stamperia di Sua Altezza Serenissima 2038-65 particular Marian title. Other commissions were submitted through the pressmen and so those requesting them are unknown. Thus, the Augustinian friars ofValletta commissioned a substantial amount of imagery depicting Our Lady of Good Counsel. These included orders for 3,375 and 1,500 images in 1761 and 1762 respectively. In 1763, the Marian title was declared patron and protector of the Augustinian province which comprised Sicily and the Maltese islands. Accordingly, an image of Our Lady of Good Counsel was venerated in evelY Augustinian church and a feast held in its honour:" During this celebration, devotional material in the form of medals and especially of devotional imagelY is known to have been distributed. Imagery was printed locally or at times imported, as in 1778 and 1781 when 1,400 copies were printed in Catania for their distribution in Malta. 16 Imagery depicting the 338 William Zammit Immaculate Conception was mostly commissioned by the confraternity of that devotion erected in the church of the Franciscans Minor Conventual in Valletta in 1637. As in the case of the Good Counsel imagery, Immaculate Conception prints were distributed to the faithful during its feast-day:i7 Similarly, imagery depicting Our Lady of Mount Carmel was mostly commissioned by the confraternity bearing that title:i8 Apart from the three major Marian titles, other imagery comprised that of Our Lady of Sorrows, of the Holy Rosary, and Tal­ Herba. Printed scapulars also reflected the same pattern of commissions, consisting almost exclusively of Immaculate Conception, Good Counsel, and Mount Carmel iconography (Table 5). The most frequently commissioned imagery depicting Christ consisted of the Crucifixion and the Holy Sacrament. As in the case of its Marian counterpart, it was mostly requested by confraternities for distribution during feast-days. Prints depicting various saints and other devotions were regularly_ commissioned from the Maltese press by the secular and regular clergy, religious associations and lay individuals. The popularity of religious prints and scapulars point towards a widespread distribution among the population at large. Their acquisition by individuals hailing from both urban and rural areas and peltaining to different social classes is attested to by references to it in inquisitorial denunciations, particularly where blasphemy was involved. At times, prints reproduced and hence popularized paintings of particular cultic significance venerated in Maltese churches, as the Tal-Herba Marian print of 1781 (Plate II). The di~tribution of printed devotional imagelY to children during the teaching of catechism, doc~nted for the 1780s, was probably also practised during other decades:19 A somewhat different genre of printed imagery was that used for the illustration of the written text. The local production of broadsheets containing both text and illustration was, in comparison with the production of single-sheet imagelY, very limited. Few examples of locally-produced devotional pieces of this type are, in fact, known. Their production by a modestly-equipped press and the higher costs involved probably played an important part in this. The non-utilization of printing for the commissioning of advertisement material in eighteenth-century Malta moreover resulted in the absence of a major category of printed product for which textual illustration was most convenient. The dearth of locally-produced printed advertisement literature contrasted with its widespread use in Western Europe and was probably due to the relative smallness of local urban and rural communities in which practising tradesmen and merchants were known well enough without their having to resort to the use of printed promotional materiapo Very occasionally this was made use of by foreigners visiting the island, in the hope of attracting business. These included street entertainers, theatre companies, and medical practitioners (Plate HI). More common, although reaching only a restricted audience, was printed imagery included in books in the form of illustrated title-pages, frontispieces, and other pictorial representations illustrating the text. Both imported and locally-printed books incorporated illustrative material, with the latter being included under some form in practically all the major local eighteenth­ centUlY publications. SI Illustrative material in books mostly depicted individuals, allegorical symbolisms of a political or religiOUS inspiration and the representation of remains, maps, and plans. What the portraits lacked in terms of dissemination they usually compensated in terms of artistic quality. They were usually commissioned from foreign, highly competent U mirnbi/i Optrauoni tltl/If Pa­ It in Romlt. Con Priviitgio tItl ~f,,"~~"';i naeta Bdlfomitll, I) fid Chim;­ Dt{umo Sommo Po11ttfiu B E­ CllptrD, attto 1:o/SIIrmtntt OLIO NEDETTO XIV. dirt­ DELLO STRACCIONEdi R .. liu mtm. Erl ancht ten Prit:iA ml1, auo !3tonfin:llrti corpi Umllll;. Itgio tltl ]}ldgijlraro E(u/lw'i[­ Di/pmfo,. .la m, G I A C 0- fimo tItl/a Jimila di MO MUGNAI, .bilan- VENEZIA. In ]tom:!, Venezia, ed in Pavia del Pal.no di S. A. S. '759.

Ra gli Arcani maggiori defcritti dai piu r;lgguardevoli FHofofi, ottiene in vera uno de'primi luoghi quefi'Olio, come ne fa tellimonianza BucJero, quando dice: Inur 1rcanl1 mdjura priltlllm nJtr;/~ Irxum oAtintt, per eHer egli un rimedio prtj/a­ F fI't'O, t ftrl1lC11tl11t , che penetr;l in un'inflante I'Archeo, Ii fermenta ::lffieme eoll'umor peccante per debellatio, Quindi e che nd {ho operare, non ammette 3.1- tra dilazione, che di momenti, non folo ne'mali qUI fotto regifirati, ma in una quan­ tita . inn!-,merevoli. Potel1~o!i ~ir qllello: Omnu fixor mortar p'.:lIit, filJt~ radicl1/;­ Itr Immifitt, I/t loro mor!" firnttl1S fiuudat, & ftfJul1tur. Si adopera ellernamente, ed ~ tanto J;lenetrativo, che Cana molti mali interni ; 11 ragione la pub due Para­ cdfo: /iinu/ir ~jl mim 4tr;, 9ui omnil potl!ntia p~rm1nfir, pm(trllt &r. In fJt ti non fi puo dire, quanto fi dovrebbe pur connnend:ue abbafianz.1 la virtu, I'en er-. gia, ed efficacia di queUo Spirito, che per effer penetrante, rifolventc, e voJari· Jizante, e di natuu. Alcantina, opera di tal maniera, che porta «co I' ammirnio~ ne. Vale per farma, Hrettura di petto, difficoldt di refpiro, toffe, flemme, ed :tltro fimil male? come pure male di colle, e 6anchi ungendo, rende la lalute Per dolod freddl, ed umidi , com~ fcno le gc:::fie22e, fi adopri che &na • Sana iI male della milu, ugendo bene la parte per noV'e fere, 12n2 . Vale :l, tutt'i catani, e dolod di gionture ungendo la pute offera, ponendovi fopra panni caldi, fpezz' i f1ati, rifolve le p:tffioni ipocondriache applicandofi alla parte del cuore, fana. Ammazu i vermi alle creature ungendo 10 flomaco, tem­ pie, e fontanella della gola, in breve gli fa e\'acuare 0 per hocc.l 0 per fecef­ Co. Vale per i geloni, unrandoli, fnbito rende b [:dllte. Per tagli ft:rite, am­ maccature, e contllfioni, llntandofi Cana. Giova :lIb fordita caulata Ja ulllidit:\, fi nnta attorno I'orecchia, fana. Per prOvocare iI mentlruo 311e Donne, Ii unse la pianta de'pitdi, fopel iI pefti­ snone, a Illna crdcente, e la fera andando a letto. Sana le piaghe umide, e frigidc, tacendo un bollcttinodi tela ufata, fiendendovi fopra il deft'Olio, unt:mdo manina, e fera. E' mirabiJe per le Scrore, Spine venwfe, cd umori freddi. Vllle alia retenzion d'orina, renella, calcoli, e vifcofita, ungendo iI pettignone tra I'uno e I'altro fianco1 con un to\fa­ gliolo caido, l:ma. Vale per la mingrania, vcrtigini, e dolod di tella" ungrndo la Udra. Vale per gli dretti matricali :tlle Donne, ungendo iJ corpo, racendo un tumenta alla p:lr­ te da barro con dett'Olio. E' mirabile ancora per Reumatilini, e dolori articolati. Giova al­ le Sciatiche nuove, e vecchie, u"gendo ben la pane dolorofa per dodici feTe, rana. Per li moroidi, ungendo bene fopra la parte I rana. Per dolori colici, fi unge iI corpa con deu'Olio, fana. Per Je fcottature Ii adoperi, che fu~ bito opera. Pe r dolori di denti e mirabile, the leva iI dolore. Per tutti li fopradetd m,1i V.l (empre adoperaro C11do. l'aft"n Carli11D R(m. if Vafiue. LE MARAVIGLIOSE VIRTV' DEL cERorro UNJVERSALE. He ferve per Ii Calli, ed Occhipollini, Unghie incarnate, e mlle fono le pilnte, e C per le TOUure del primo, e fecondo pannicolo, e ~er tutti Ii mali nafcenti vecchi, e nuovi, avvertendo eru, che bifogna metter i piedi nrll acqU:l tepidt:) tiranJo via la Ihperfi­ de "occhiopollino, facendo iI bollettino com'e grande it c:alJoJ mutando­ e, per tre giom!; e per le unghia incarnate, bfciandolo per 24- ore, e incarnata; e per Je rotture, facendo quattro bollettini per Olto giorni, e mutan 0 0 ogni ono giorn!, reHcranno Jiberi, t rani in trentadue giorni •

Plate Ill: iVledicinal advertisement (Malta, 1759) 340 William Zammit engravers, as was the case with the set of grand masters' portraits included in Vertot's histOlY of the Order (1726, quarto edition). Other competently-executed print portraits were those of de Vilhena, featured in the published code of laws of 1726 and those of de Rohan (1780, 1784). Some illustrative material contained within local publications, notably Giovanni Antonio Ciantar's Malta IlIustrata (1772, 1780) and Carlo Antonio Barbaro's Degli Avvanzi d'aJcuni Antichissimi Edifizi (1796) reinforced the printed texts' implicit affirmation of Malta's claimed vintage culture and civilization, independent of its connection with the Order. It may thus be regarded as having constituted a visual reflection of nascent Maltese eighteenth-century patriotism. In the symbolic representation of Malta in Giovanni Francesco Abela's standard history of Malta, published in 1647, the island derived its grandeur almost exclusively from its connection with the Order, with the allegorical figure being loaded with the Order's staple symbolism (Plate IV). In Ciantar's eighteenth-century revision of Abela's work, however, Malta's glory is visually depicted as being derived from the memories of its past, independent of its present ruling regime (Plate V)Y

Coinage Undoubtedly coinage was the most widely disseminated art form in Malta, being owned and handled daily by all, even if in grossly unequal amounts. In contrast with the other three major forms of iconographical representation discussed above, the ~luction of coinage was exclusively the prerogative of the state, as embodied in the person of the grand master. The symbols of state power engraved on coinage in the form of the ruler's effigy, coats of arms and regal crown must have indeed been the only visual depiction of political power familiar to a substantial part of the rural population. What was standard practice in Europe since practically the adoption of coinage - that is the featuring of the ruler's image - was only adopted as a regular practice by the grand masters from about 1697 onwards. As in the case of other forms of iconographical representation, the Order's essentially religious character traditionally precluded its head from overt manifestations of secular power on coinage. Perellos' magistracy thus proved to be a turning point in this regard - as well as in others - where the communication of the ruler's political status to his subjects was concerned. An appreciable improvement in the artistic quality of the coinage was also achieved during this period. This reached its climax under Grand Master Manoel de Vilhena who had at his disposal the services of the renowned Maltese engraver Pietro Paolo Troisi. 53 Table 6 provides a breakdown of the iconographical designs featured on all of the Order's coinage, minted between 1697 and 1798. The regular and increasingly common depiction of the grand masters' effigy on the higher value gold and silver denominations (Column 2) was the most dramatic development in the iconographical design of the Order's coinage during the eighteenth century. Prior to Perellos, only Grand Masters L'Isle Adam and Lascaris are known to have had their effigy featured on some of their coinage.54 From Perellos' modest 3.4 per cent of all denominations featuring his effigy, the figure went up to 46.9 per cent under Hompesch. The relatively modest figures of 12.4 per cent and 17.8 per cent under Pinto and de Rohan respectively resulted from the vast amount of copper denominations and Table 6 The Visual Representation ojSovereignity on Coinage: 1697 -1798

Total Denominations/ Grand Masters Grand Master's Religiolls Orders Symbols Other Depictions Known Variants Effigy Coats ofAlms/Part of Iconography All Ag Cll' Total Au Ag Cu Total All Ag Cu Total All Ag Cll Total All Ag Cu Total Au Ag Cu Total Grand Master (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) Perellos 17 5 37 59 4 4 17 5 9 31 9 2 25 36 3 26 29 4 14 18 (1697 - 1720) 118*' 3.4 26.3 30.4 24.6 15.3 Zondadari 8 12 20 6 6 7 6 13 2 3 5 6 6 9 - 10 (1720 - 1722) 40 15.0 32.5 12.5 15.0 25.0 De Vilhena 45 73 24 142 37 64 - 101 45 50 24 119 8 - - 8 - 9 10 19 - 23 14 37 (1722 - 1736) 284 35.6 41.9 2.8 6.7 13.0 Despuig - 21 22 43 - 19 - 19 - 20 22 42 - 1 1 - 2 11 13 - - 11 11 (1736 - 1741) 86 22.0 48.8 1.2 15.1 12.8 Pinto 55 95 84 234 28 30 58 43 94 70 207 27 63 14 104 7 2 42 51 5 42 48 (1741 - 1773) 468 12.4 44.2 22.2 10.9 10.3 Ximenes 11 18 29 11 15 26 13 13 --- 5 3 8 6 5 - 11 (1773 - 1775) 58 44.8 22.4 13.8 19.0 De Rohan 14 51 70 135 14 34 - 48 - 44 71 115 7 7 - 7 10 17 14 21 48 83 (1775 - 1797) 270 17.8 42.6 2.6 6.3 30.7 Von Hompesch 15 16 - 15 - 15 - 15 15 1 1 - 1 -- - (1797 - 1798) 32 46.9 46.9 3.1 3.1 Totals 151 290 237 678 100 177 - 277 112 247 196 555 47 69 46 162 13 32 99 144 30 59129 218 1356 20.4 40.9 12.0 10.6 16.1 Grand Totals: 1356

• Au = Gold; Ag = Silver; Cu = Copper "Obverse and reverse. Source: F. Restelli, J. Sammut, The COinage o.lthe Knigbts ill Malta, II Vols., (Malta, 1977), as follows: Perellos: R/S I, 121 - 127; R/S n, Plates XXXVIII - XL Pinto: R/S I, 157 - 182; R/S II, Plates LX - LXXV Zondadari: R/S I, 128 - 130; R/S n, Plates XLI - XLII Ximenes: R/S I, 183 - 187; R/S II, Plates LXXVI - LXXVIII De Vilhena: R/S I, 131-150; R/S II, Plates XLIII - LV De Rohan: R/S I, 188 - 203; R/S II, Plates LXXVI - LXXXVl Despuig: R/S I, 151 - 156; R/S n, Plates LVI - LIX Von Hompesch: R/S I, 204-206; R/S II, Plates LXXXVlI - LXXXVIII 342 William Zammit variants minted during the period and which never featured the mler's portrait. Besides providing all subjects with a commonly available and reasonably faithful depiction of what their mler actually looked like, the grand masters' image on the coinage acted as yet another reinforcer of the claim to sovereign power in a commonly available medium and one which overcame social class and physical barriers. Even if the gold coinage may not have actually been handled by all, the ruler's portrayal on silver would have reached the vast majority of the population. 55 The featuring of the grand masters' coat of arms, or parts of it, though not in itself innovative, increased sharply during the centUlY (Column 3). The arms were normally surmounted by the magistral hat with a ducal coronet and - from Pinto's rule onwards - by a royal closed crown. The prominent featuring of the closed crown on the grand master's escutcheon constituted the most far-reaching announcement of the adoption of absolutist sovereignty on the part of the Order's mlers. The gradually increasing presence of the grand masters' symbols of power on coinage was carried out mainly at the expense of religiOUS iconography (Column 4). Figures of StJohn the Baptist, Christ, and the Paschal Lamb, customarily featured on the Order'S sixteenth-and seventeenth-century coinage, became much less frequently utilized. Of the 96 different denominations and variants stmck under de Vilhena, only a mere four depicted a religious theme, showing St John the Baptist handing the Order'S colours to a kneeling grand master. Less dramatic but also appreCiable was the decline in the use of the Order's traditional symbols, namely its coat of arms and the eight-pointed cross (Colump 5). Moreover, the practice of relegating these symbols to the lower denomination silv~nd copper coinage, leaving the higher value pieces to the grand master's bust and escutcheon may also be discerned. Miscellaneous designs (Column 6) continued to comprise primarily the Joined Hands' symbol, used intermittently on copper coinage since the mle of de Valette in the sixteenth century. The lower copper denominations also occasionally featured the coin's value and its date on the reverse as its only design. Miscellaneous decorations featured on the higher denomination coinage consisted almost exclusively of the joined escutcheons of the Order and of the grand master, surmounted by a single closed crown. A parallel development with the increasing representation of absolute sovereignty on the coinage was the issue of medals commemorating the grand masters' achievements. Their striking, particularly from Pinto's rule onwards, became a much more frequent practice, with the medals invariably emphasizing the ruler's sovereign image.56

The presence of anti-establishment imagery As elsewhere, artistic media could also be harnessed for tlle production of visual manifestations of protest. The four major media of visual communication utilized for the reinforcing of tile prevailing eighteenth-century political, religiOUS, and social milieux could tilus also, to varying extents, be adopted as potent weapons for its desacralization by the ever-growing number of contemporary critics. Of the four, the characteristics of printed imagery made it the most suitable visual medium to be harnessed for the onslaught throughout much of ancien regime Europe. The production of satirical prints after 1750 was particularly common in England, where greater political and press liberty existed.57 On the continent, anti-establishment prints were produced clandestinely by private presses. Elaborate networks for the production and Plate IV- Allegorical depiction ofMalta (Abeia, 1647) 344 WiIliam Zammit distribution of the material existed, perhaps the most notable being that run by the Swiss Societe Typographie de Neuchatel. In the more controlled areas of southern Europe, particularly in the Italian states and the Iberian peninsula, the presence of satirical imagery was more limited. The utilization of the other media of visual communication for attacking the establishment was generally more risky, expensive and, moreover, with less potential for dissemination. This did not, however, totally prevent their use. In pre-revolutionary France for instance, even the state coinage was tampered with by the addition of cuckold horns to the portrait of Louis XVI. The Maltese eighteenth-centl11Y context was much more similar to that prevailing in southern European states where the political and ecclesiastical controls, coupled with a more rigid social structure, presented formidable obstacles for the production and dissemination of all visual forms of criticism. The lack of private printing facilities, together with limited geographical size, made the exercise of control even more possible. The production of anti-establishment imagery was, given its nature, more difficult than that of its written counterpart. Constant contact with Europe and the permanent presence of Europeans familiar with, and having access to, prohibited printed imagery - notably the French - compensated for this only to a limited extent. Illicit imagery in eighteenth-centUlY Malta led a limited, precarious existence and may be subdivided into two major groups. These consisted of imagery specifically created to serve as criticism and the use of sanctioned imagery in a way as to transfo{m)t into a weapon of protest against the establishment. Manifestations of the first, much rater type of prohibited imagery in eighteenth-century Malta, comprised the use of political and ecclesiastical caricature and pornography. Grand Master Zondadari's (1720-22) attempts at enforcing observance and discipline within the Convent and his co-operative stance with the diocesan and inquisitorial authorities to achieve this objective, were subjected to what may possibly be the earliest recorded instance of political caricature in Malta. The image of an ox wearing the magistral hat flanked by a donkey wearing a mitre and a lamb wearing an ecclesiastical hat was discovered in a Valletta square in December 1720. sH The impersonification of ecclesiastics was also resotted to, not without adverse consequences. 59 The presence of pornographic imagery was increasingly recorded, particularly during the second half of the eighteenth centUly. Such imagety was locally available both as loose sheets as well as in the form of book illustrations. The utilization of the vast array of available sanctioned imagery for the expression of protest constitutes an interesting phenomenon. The practice seems to have been mostly limited to religious representations. Going back centuries, it remained among the most frequently reported offence to the inquisition down to the end of the eighteenth century and was resOlted to particularly by lower-class Maltese and foreigners. The practice involved the use of religious imagery in magical and superstitious practices by both Catholics and non­ Catholics, for the invocation of the devil, and - more commonly - imagety which became the subject of mockety in moments of intense anger and desperation. In all three cases religious statuaty, rosaries, and painted and printed imagety were used. The Communicative Role of Visual Media in Malta 1700-98 345 NON-ICONOGRAPHICAL VISUAL REPRESENTATION - Architecture Maltese eighteenth-centUlY baroque architecture, especially the ecclesiastical and secular palatial edifices, has been extensively studied from a stylistic point of view.60 Their role as an expression of power and as examples of what has been succinctly described as 'consumption as a form of communication'61 has also recently been subject to scholarly attention. Roman baroque, the major source of inspiration for its Maltese counterpart,

had a specific mission to fulfil, using in the process a language similar to that of a poem or a musical drama but on a more public level ... the power of the papal establishment, based as it was on a rare blend of religious and secular power of international dimensions, had to be communicated to one and all in no unclear language by the new baroque buildings and works of art ... In the context of contemporary dreams of universal dominance, this power had to be extended beyond the boundaries of the Papal States to Catholic lands outside Italy, particularly so when such countries were, as in the case of Malta, ruled by religious princes owing direct allegiance to the Pope in Rome."2

The process of re-building or at least modifying most of the existing ecclesiastical and secular buildings, together with the construction of new ones, was certainly not limited to eighteenth-century Malta. It was part of a wider trend of asserting the glory and might of the powerful, whether these were the state, the Church, or the high-ranking members of society. Elaborate architectural projects certainly constituted one of the strongest statements of power and social prestige, the costly construction and upkeep of which was obvious to all and which the masses, employed in their construction, could not but compare them with their own humble abodes. The process of baroque re-building was initiated by the Order in Valletta after it obtained the services of Romano Carapecchia between the 1680s and his death in 1738. Carapecchia has been attributed to have 'single-handedly ... transpolted the rich legacy of Roman baroque ... to what must be the southernmost centre of its manifestation in this continent'.63 Other foreign architects responsible for the propagation of baroque architecture included Charles Fran~ois de Mondion, active in Malta between 1715 and 1733. Followers of these two proceeded to transform the local architectural environment in the baroque style. This lasted until the late 1770s, after which neo-classical architecture was gradually introduced. They were responsible forthe neartotal transformation of Valletta as well as for tlle proliferation of baroque throughout the island. Valletta was gradually transformed from a fortress-city housing a military Order to a microcosm of the European eighteenth-century ancien regime. The Order's conscious effort at re-building Valletta in tlle baroque style, as well as its commissioning of new building types, notably the theatre and gardens, constituted visual expressions of the adoption of the absolutist political philosophy increasingly present on the continent. Architecture thus furnished the Order and its individual members with a highly effective visual instrument announcing to all the transition from the traditional 'cloister' mentality to one in line with that of secular, aristocratic Europe. The baroque re-building of Mdina was carried out by Grandmaster de Vilhena between 1722 and 1736 with the political aim of dominating the city at the expense of the Maltese 346 William Zammit ecclesiastical and municipal authorities. M The 1693 earthquake had necessitated a programme of reconstruction of ecclesiastical edifices, notably the cathedral church, in a style no less awe-inspiring than the Order's own buildings in Valletta. De Vilhena's baroque projects for Mdina may be interpreted as a successful attempt at preventing the old city's architectural domination by the local ecclesiastical establishment.6) On the more strictly political level, de Vilhena's projects were intended as yet another means for the subjection of the Maltese nobility and municipal institution. The grand master's penetration into the last bulwark of Maltese political particularism and haughty aloofness was symbolized by the sumptuous baroque re-building of the grand master's palace just inside the city as well as by the profusion of the grand master's symbols of power dominating the city's reconstructed gate. Even more indicative was the omission of any symbol of the Maltese Universitas on its reconstructed municipal palace, with its architectural decoration consisting of military trophies more representative of the Order than of the Maltese. This symbolic taking-over of the physical seat of the Maltese Universitas had already been carried out in the case of the Valletta municipal palace by Zondadari, de Vilhena's immediate predecessor. The palace of the Gozo Universitas suffered a similar fate when it was reconstructed by de Vilhena in 1733, having the arms of the Order and of the grand master surmounted prominently on top of the edifice. Rather than 'extending the patronage of the Order to the old seat of Maltese nationalistic aspiration and in this way securing the allegiance of the native clerical and aristocratic establishments',66 de Vilhena's Mdina architectural projects may be in~rl1reted as specifically aimed towards the subjection of the last Maltese stronghold. Henceforth the grand masters' hold over the old Maltese capital was not to be limited to the traditional initial visit following their accession to the magistracy: it remained permanently present through architectural symbolism. Mdina, as much as Valletta, was thus claimed and successfully taken over by the Grandmaster. The Order's military architecture also increaSingly reflected the omnipresent might of the ruling elite. The ever expanding fortifications, notably the Floriana, Cotton era, and the string of harbourside forts had, by the eighteenth century, created an impregnably fortified complex primarily for defence against Muslim invasion, but also ominously pointing out towards the Maltese villages outside the Order's harbour headquarters. The baroque entrances to these fortifications, comprising written and visual expressions extolling the sovereign's virtues and power, were as much triumphal arches as they were military gateways. The Order's lead in the adoption of baroque architecture was very rapidly taken over by the Maltese ecclesiastical establishment as well as by the upper classes. The Maltese Church was indeed mainly responsible for what has been described as 'a rural version of Baroque culture through the building of a number of temples which now became larger and more ornamented internally'.67 The attraction of baroque permeated down to the lower classes of society who, impressed by the edifices of the cities which they themselves would have actually constructed, gradually adopted the style for their humble village abodes, giving rise to two-storey houses in the villages. 68 An interesting expression of power through the adoption of baroque was the utiliZation of architectural scenography by both the political and religious authorities. Increasingly elaborate ceremonial triumphal arches were used in ceremonies of possession by grand masters and, on a more modest extent, by bishops.69 A cappeJJa ardente was commissioned in 1726 for DEITA LA VERlTt LA STORI."\ ScRIV£ LE M£MORIE..1 ONDE ]\;IALTA' lU..uSTRf.. \llv£'~ . .

Plate V: Malta deriving its glO1y from History (Ciantar, 1780) 348 William Zammit use in St John's at solemn requiems following the demise of grand masters, popes, Catholic sovereigns, and other dignitaries./o The Mdina cathedral altar of repose was constructed between 1751 and 1752 and is a masterpiece of baroque scenographic art.?1 Less permanent than actual buildings, these scenographical compositions nevertheless contributed towards the projection of power and provide further strength to the assertion that 'the presence of baroque architecture in Malta in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, was nothing else but the result of a subtle political building exercise'.72

Public spectacle, entertainment and theatrical activity The reinforcing of the established authorities through visual manifestations was also achieved through ceremony and entertainment. Innovation in this regard was twofold. First was a steady increase in the pomp with which all ceremonies were held, whether of a political, religious, public, or private nature, heralding what has been described as 'the shift from thrift to magnificence'.7J Running parallel with this was the gradual secularization of existing forms of spectacle and entertainment as well as the introduction of new, non-religious ones. Ostentatious and expensive displays impressed locals and visitors alike. The rituals performed in the conventual church appeared to a Protestant observer in 1770 'to be more overcharged with parade and ceremony than what I have ever observed even in any Catholic country'.?4 The affirmation of the grand masters' political power was regularly manifested through the performance of various rituals. Of these, the most impressive inclll,fle~ the anniversaty of election (Compieannos), solemn entries in towns and villages (Posses'sf), and the granting of the papal stock and pilier. While the first two were hardly eighteenth-centuty innovations, the lavish way in which they were celebrated was. Perellos' admission of the Maltese elite to the hand-kissing ceremony held on his election anniversary was a public statement of his 7 status as secular prince over the island and all its inhabitants. ; The increasingly rich baroque setting within which these celebrations were held further added moreover to their magnificence.76 The granting of the stock and pilier to the ruling grand master first took place under de Vilhena in 1725, with the honour being subsequently accorded to most of his successors. The celebration of this occasion was aimed to reach all strata of society. In 1747, three days of merry-making were announced, allowing the use of masks, carnival floats, and a coccagna.77 Moreover descriptions of such celebrations were often published. The exaltation of tlle powerful was not restricted to the grand master's person. Foreign rulers and local personalities were similarly accorded ostentatious displays on occasion of their achievements and demise./s Religious forms of public celebration remained of course as impressive as ever. Papal jubilees, blessings, consecrations, episcopal celebrations, thanksgivings, the arrival of relics, and the granting of indulgences all remained familiar forms of local celebrations, indeed performed with increasing elaboration. Voltaire's observation that the masses attended for religiOUS ceremonies for the same reason they went for public executions - in that they were free of charge - may, at least in part, explain local massive participation. While the presence of non-Catholics posed a challenge to religious orthodoxy, public spectacles of conversions to Catholicism, whether genuine or induced, provided awesome manifestations of Catholic triumphalism, at times bordering on the surreaJ.79 The gradual secularization of public forms of entertainment also resulted in further manifestations of political power. The celebration of May (Caiendimaggio) assumed greater The Communicative Role of Visual Media in Malta 1700-98 349 political significance, particularly with the regular incllision of cantatas in praise of the ruling prince. As in the case of the stock and pilier function, the texts of the Calendimaggio cantatas were almost regularly published from the 1720s onwards.HO The celebration of essentially religious feasts such as Carnival also increasingly assumed secular elements, such as the use of decorated floats and the coccagna. H1 The religious authorities were relieved when the celebration of Carnival retained more of its religious character.H2 The regular utilization of the public theatre from the 1730s onwards was to result in an irreversible process of secularization of Carnival. By the close of the seventeenth century, theatres and theatrical performances in Europe - particularly in the Italian peninsula - had moved away from being restricted to courtly circles and become an increasingly widespread means of entertainment, more so witl1 the evolvement of the impresarial systell1. H3 This development could not but be eventually reflected in Malta. In 1732 the first purposely-built and state-owned theatre was erected on the island. A permanent temple of lay entertainment was thus established for the first time. It was to harness an amalgam of artistic media for providing leisure of a secular, at times indeed of an anticlerical inspiration and, both directly and indirectly, constitute a new means for the celebration of political power. Local theatrical activity following the establishment of the Teatro Pubblico down to the end of the Order's rule has been the subject of a number of studies.IV' To the ever-expanding list of known performances held at the public theatre between 1732 and 1798, Il Temistocle (1740), Astiage (1741), and Il Padre di Famiglia (1759) can now be added.s> Much less, however, is known about local theatrical activity in the decades immediately preceding 1732. A study of the regular flow of correspondence between the apostolic delegate on the island and the Roman secretariat of state has, however, proved particularly fruitful where stage performances and indeed other forms of spectacle and entertainment in eighteenth-centUIY Malta are concerned. It is indeed this source which not only provides new information regarding tl1eatrical activity in Malta before 1732, but it also sheds light upon a major motivation for Grandmaster de Vilhena's decision to establish a public theatre. Besides the holding of balls and other fOIms of spectacle, members of the Order - particularly the Italian knights - took an active interest in the organization of stage performances, notably serious and comic opera, as well as drama. This interest is known to go back to at least the first decades of the seventeenth century. The performance, during January and Februaty 1702, of an unnamed comedy by Italian knights, on the initiative and expense of the general of the galleys Prior Viani, throws light upon one possible motivation for the establishment of a fully-fledged public theatre three decades later. The comedy was initially to be performed at Viani's own private residence. S6 Viani had evidently spared no expense to provide an impressive spectacle which he hoped to be patronized by the presence of the grand master himself. This, however, could not take place since it was not customary for the grand master to visit the private residences of members of the Order. Viani's determination, however, resulted in the setting up of an alternative theatre - presumably of a temporary nature - in the palace of the generals of the galleys on Vittoriosa quay, which was Viani's official residence.B7 This resulted in the holding of a gala performance in Perellos' presence on the afternoon of Sunday, 12 Februaty. The elaborate and expensive ceremony marking the grand master's visit to Vittoriosa and his patronage of the performance were sufficiently impressive 350 WiIliam Zammit to have them reported in detail to Rome by Inquisitor Messerano.88 The episode is not only the earliest known recorded attendance of a reigning grand master at a theatrical performance, but also constitutes an example of the increasing manifestation of the grand masters' emphasis upon their status of secular princes rather than merely heads of an austere religious and militalY Order. FUither performances of the comedy continued throughout February, probably in Viani's private residence, with considerable expense but hardly anything approaching success.89 Viani's interest in the theatre is known to have continued in 1703. The pelformance of a comedy by Sienese knights in the auberge of Italy in February of that year was followed up by sumptuous refreshments proVided at Viani's expense. As in 1702, the spectacle was held in the grand master's presence.90 Subsequent theatrical activity during the first decades of the eighteenth century is reasonably well documented. The 1704-05 season witnessed the staging of the earliest known opera identified by name, Apostolo Zeno's La Caduta dei Decemviri. The performance was preceded by much preparation and expectation on the part of the Order's members.91 The performance proved successful, with numerous knights attending.92 Unfortunately the theatre where the opera was staged is not identified. During the 1707-08 season no fewer than three different operas are known to have been performedY3 Local enthusiasm for the theatre was reflected not only in the interest taken in performances held on the island, but also in those staged elsewhere, as in the case of those being prepared in Messina during late 1712.9' That same season saw the performance of no less than two operas in Malta, La ~f:Jlda and Venceslao. The first, performed in JanualY in what was described as questo pIccolo teatro, enjoyed reasonable success. Venceslao was staged during the following month and enjoyed even greater popularity (Plate VI).9) Such theatrical spectacle, although not known to have been specifically reserved for members of the Order, was evidently intended primarily for their entertainment.96 Maltese interest in the theatre was also not absent. In February 1703 a group of unidentified Maltese staged a comedy which enjoyed some successy7 In 1721, the musicians of Mdina staged an opera in the theatre of that city for two weeks. Subsequently the actors had the opera performed in VallettaYs Information regarding the language in which these early theatrical spectacles by Maltese were performed is frustratingly unavailable. The foundation of the Teatro Pubblico in 1732 was effectively to result in the permanent establishment of the impresarial system on the island, guaranteeing the holding of stage performances on a reasonably professional and regular basis. Other theatres of a more or less temporary nature did, however, continue to host performances both within and outside the capital. The tracing of the original contracts drawn up between the Fondazione ManoeJ, which was responsible for the administration of the public theatre, and the impresarios down to 1798 enables a better understanding of the way in which the institution functioned within the local eighteenth-century context. (see page 291) The fact that no impresario for the first two years of the theatre's functioning has been traced raises the possibility that between January 1732 and April 1734 the theatre did not have an impresario, but performances were staged on the initiative of members of the Order or visiting companies. Indeed, the very first performance held, Scipione Maffei's La Merope, is known to have been acted out by members of the Order.99 This and other gaps may also, The Communicative Role of Visual Media in Malta 1700-98 351 DR A M A PER MUSICA DA RAPPRESENT ARSI Nel Teatro Giufiiniano di S. Mosc.

Nei Cainovak dcli'Anno I72-3.

IN VEN EZI A , MDCCXXUI. \ Prdfo Carlo Buonarrigo. In Spaderia . C;oN LICENZA. PE' SUPERIORI.

Plate VI: Title-page ofVenceslao libretto (Venice, 1723)

however, be due to untraced contracts. In January 1770, for instance, it is known that a celtain Natala Farrugia was impresario even though her contract has not been traced.lOo

The communicative role of visual elements, given the prevailing political, religious, and social controls in ancien regime Europe essentially served as a fundamental reinforcer of the prevailing power structures. In the Maltese case, it was nothing less than a process of institutional aggrandizement through art. The observation that 'images can be as powerful when they attempt to defend or exalt the status quo as when they seek to change or reshape the outlook of their age'lOJ describes in a nutshell the Maltese eighteenth-century context. Increasingly throughout that century, the spectrum of public visual experience and lifestyles communicated to local society the new ideas of political absolutism and worldly grandeur arrogated by the ruling political and ecclesiastical regimes. In their entirety, they constituted nothing less than an ongoing theatrical spectacle, the most widely intelligible vehicle announcing to the island's population at large the transformation of the seventeenth century post-Reformation power structures into yet another manifestation of European ancien regime. By contrast, the visual communication of protest - persecuted as always -led an underground but not irrelevant existence, contributing towards the creation of a class sceptical of those ideas which provided the justification for the existence of the prevailing ruling regimes. Appendix

lm.oresarios of the Public Theatre· Z7)4-gS

Impresario Period References/Remarks

Francesco Paulucci of Valletta 8.4.1734 to Carnival 1735 NAV R.182/36, Not. G.D. Chircop, f. 448", dated 8.4.1734 Anna Maria Bonfili of Milan, 10.10.1735 to Carnival 1736 NAV R.182/38, Not. G.D. Chircop, currently residing at Valletta ff. 156'-8, dated 10.10.1735 Melchiore Prevost Lapparella Autumn 1736 to Carnival 1737 NAV R.182/38, Not. G.D. Chircop, [sic] of Valletta ff. 262'-4, dated 10.11.1735 Melchiore Prevost Lapparella Autumn 1737 to Carnival 1738 NAV R.182/38, Not. G.D. Chircop, [sic] of Valletta ff. 731'-3, dated 29.5.1736 Andrea Belli of Valletta 1.9.1738 to Carnival 1739 NAV R.182/40, Not. G.D. Chircop, ff. 483'-5, dated 22.4.1738 Vincenzo Gam on behalf of 1.9.1739 to Carnival 1740 NAV R.182/41, Not. G.D. Chircop, his brother-in-law, ff. 516'-8, dated 22.4.1739 Andrea Belli of Valletta Andrea Belli of Valletta 28.3.1742 to last day NAV Not. G. Callus; of Carnival 1743 AOM Treas. A 29, ff. 2'-4, dated 28.3~2 Alessandro de Vita and First day ofLent 1743 to last NAV Not. G. Callus; AOM Filippo Leone, both of Valletta day of Carnival 1745 Treas. A 29, ff. 23-5, dated 6.12.1742. Leone became involved on 15.12.1742 Filippo Leone and Alessandro 12.1.1745 to last day NAV Not. G. Callus; AOM de Vita, both of Valletta of Carnival 1745 Treas. A 29, f. 36', dated 12.1.1745 Alessandro de Vita of Valletta 1.9.1745 to last day NAV Not. B.M. Callus; AOM Treas. of Carnival 1746 A 29, ff. 42-3, dated 1.9.1745 Grazia, widow of Michele 22.11.1749 to last day NAV Not. B.M. Callus; AOM Treas. Geraci of Calabria and her of Carnival 1750 A 29, ff. 66'-7', dated 21.11.1749 son-in-law Michel'Angelo Potenza of Fasano Giuseppe Bonanno, 24.12.1750 to last day NA V Not. B.M. Callus; AOM Treas. Gaetano Giglio, Giovanni of Carnival 1751 A 29, ff. 80-1, dated 24.12.1750. Artuffo, Nicodemo Calcino, Contains reference Michel'Angelo de Franco and to Giulio de Santis Isidoro Lupachini, from various countries Giovanni Artuffo of Piedmont 9.1.1751 to last day NA V Not. B.M. Callus; AOM of Carnival 1752 Treas. A 29, ff. 81'-2, dated 30.8.1751. Giacobo Nelua of Bologna 16.2.1752 to last day NA V Not. B.M. Callus; of Carnival 1754 AOM Treas. A 29, ff. 83'-5, dated 17.1.1752 Giulio de Santis of Valletta 1.12.1753 to last day NA V Not. B.M. Callus, of Carnival 1754 AOM Treas. A 29, ff. 91-2, dated 29.11.1753 Giulio de Santis of Valletta 5.11.1754 to last day NA V Not. B.M. Callu~, of Carnival 1755 AOM Treas. A 29, ff.101'-2" dated 9.11.1754 Giulio de Santis of Valletta 1.9.1755 to last day NAV Not. B.M. Callus, of Carnival 1756 AOM Treas. A 29, ff. 106'-7" dated 1.10.1755 Francesco Masgumieri of 18.11.1757 to last day NA V Not. B.M. Callus, Venice, currently residing of Carnival 1758 AOM Treas. A 29, ff. 120-1', on the island dated 18.11.1757. Contains reference to Giulio de Santis Francesco Masgumieri of 14.10.1758 to last day NAV Not. B.M. Callus, Venice, currently residing of Carnival 1759 AOM Treas. A 29, ff. 132-3', on the island dated 14.10.1758. Contains reference to Giulio de Santis Giulio de Santis of Valletta 1.9.1759 to last day NA V Not. B.M. Callus, AOM Treas. of Carnival 1760 A 29, ff. 137'-9, dated 10.10.1759 Baldassare Grech of Valletta 1.4.1765 to last day NA V Not. B.M. Callus, AOM Treas. of Carnival 1766 A 29, ff. 178-80, dated 21.5.1765 Giulio de Santis of Valletta 1.4.1766 to last day NAV Not. V. Grillet, AOM Treas. of Carnival 1767 A 30, ff. 13'-5" dated 10.5.1766 Francesco Mancini of Naples 1.9.1770 to last day NA V Not. V. Grillet, AOM Treas. of Carnival 1771 A 30, ff. 73-4" dated 26.10.1770 Pasquale Quintavalle of Ancona 19.10.1776 to last day NA V Not. V. Grillet; AOM Treas. of Carnival 1777 A 30, ff. 104-6, dated 19.10.1776 Angiolo Panacci of Venice, Autumn 1777 to last day NAV Not. V. Grillet; AOM Treas. on his behalf and on that of a of Carnival 1778 A 30, ff. 106'-9, dated 20.12.1776. comic and dance performing Contract made subject to the company of 20 persons grandmaster's continued approval not on the island Francesco Piccoli of Crema 21.9.1777 to 31.10.1777 NAV Not. V. Grillet; AOM Treas. and Pasquale Almirante A 30, ff. 109-11, dated 20.9.1777 of Naples Pasquale Almirante of Naples 1.9.1778 to last day NA V Not. V. Grillet; AOM Treas. of Carnival 1779 A 30, ff. 111-4, dated 3.9.1778 Pasquale Almirante of Naples 1.9.1779 to last day NAV Not. V. Grillet; AOM Treas. of Carnival 1780 A 30, ff. 114'-7, dated 14.9.1779 Pasquale A1mirante of Naples 27.9.1780 to last day NAV Not. V. Grillet; AOM Treas. of Carnival 1781 A 30, ff. 142'-7, dated 27.9.1780 Pasquale Almirante of Naples 25.9.1781 to last day NA V Not. V. Grillet; AOM Treas. of Carnival 1782 A 30, ff. 171'-6', datecl25.9.1781 Pasquale A1mirante of Naples 24.9.1782 to last day NA V Not. V. Grillet; AOM Treas. of Carnival 1783 A 31, tT. 3-7, dated 24.9.1782 Pasquale Almirante of Naples 29.4.1784 to last day NA V Not. V. Grillet; AOM Treas. of August 1784 A 31, ff. 16-9, dated 29.4.1784. Note regarding the withdrawal of Almirante from the contract Angelo Nani of Valletta 22.9.1783 to last day NA V Not. V. Grillet; AOM Treas. of Carnival 1784 A 31, ff. 11-6, dated 22.9.1783 Angelo Nani of Valletta 9.10.1784 to last day NAV Not. V. Grillet; AOM Treas. of Carnival 1785 A 31, ff. 19-24" dated 9.10.1784 Angelo Nani of Valletta and 18.6.1785 to last day NAV Not. V. Grillet; AOM Treas. Francesco Mancini of Naples of Carnival 1786 A 31, ff. 24'-7" dated 18.6.1785 Angelo Nani of Valletta 24.9.1785 to last day NA V Not. V. Grillet; AOM Treas. of Carnival 1786 A 31, ff. 27'-33, dated 24.9.1785 Angelo Nani of Valletta 28.9.1786 to last day NAV Not. V. Grillet; AOM Treas. of Carnival 1787 A 31, ff. 39'-44, dated 28.9.1786 Francesco Mancini of Naples 27.9.1787 to last day NAV Not. V. Grillet; AOM Treas. of Carnival 1788 A 31, ff. 44'-9, dated 3.10.1787 Giuseppe La Leta of Valletta 17.9.1788 to last day NAV Not. V. Grillet; AOM Treas. of Carnival 1789 A 31, ff. 63'-9, dated 17.9.1788 Giuseppe La Leta of Valletta First day of Lent to last day NA V Not. V. Grillet; AOM Treas. of Carnival 1790 A 31, ff. 69"-73" dated 31.3.1789 Angelo Nani of Valletta 16.5.1791 to last day NAV Not. G.N. Monreal; AOM Treas. of Carnival 1792 A 31, ff. 102'-8" dated 16.5.1791 Angelo Nani of Valletta 1.5.1792 to last day NAV Not. G.N. Monreal; AOM Treas. of Carnival 1793 A 31, ff. 109-12', dated 4.6.1792 Francesco Mancini of Naples 1.4.1793 to last day NAV Not. G.N. Monreal; AOM Treas. of Carnival 1794 A 31, ff. 112v-6, dated 5.4.1793 Francesco Mancini of Naples 1.5.1794 to last day NAV Not. G.N. Monreal; AOM Treas. of Carnival 1795 A 31, ff. 1~1', dated 24.5.1794 Domenico Caissler of 3.3.1795 to last day NAV Not. G.N. Monreal; AOM Treas. Germany, residing of Carnival 1796 A 31, ff. 132-7, dated 3.3.1795 on the island Domenico Caissler of 27.3.1796 to last day NAV Not. G.N. Monreal; AOM Treas. Germany, residing of Carnival 1797 A 31, ff. 170'-4, dated 26.9.1796 on the island Rosario di Maio of Palermo, For three years starting from NAV R.368/16, Not. G.N. Monreal, currently residing at Valletta last of Lent 1797 ff. 703-12', dated 15.11.1796.* Rosario di Maio of Palermo and For three years starting from NAV R.368/16, Not. G.N. Monreal, Domenico Bianco of Catania, last day of Lent 1797 ff. 715-9', dated 16.11.1796. both currently residing at Valletta See also above Calcedonio Mizzi of Valletta 25.1.1797 to end NAV R.368/17, Not. G.N. Monreal, and Diego Cannizzaro of of Carnival 1798 ff. 263'-8, dated 25.1.1797 Catania, currently residing at Valletta and others acting as procurators for Di Maio and Bianco

'm Maio was leased the theatre from Domenico Caissler. The latter had been, in late 1795, promised the granting of the lease for a five-year period through a magistral rescript. Caissler was however unable to honour his obligations. Source: Contracts drawn between 8.4.1734 and 1.9.1739 as well as those drawn on 15.11.1796, 16.11.1796 and 25.1.1797 are only known through the original NAV records. Copies of the other contracts are available in the AOM Treas. volumes, as indicated. The Communicative Role of Visual Media in Malta 1700-98 355 References E. Panofsky, Meaning nnd the Visual Arts (New 10 M. Galea, More Historical Sketches (Malta, 1971), York, 1955); G. Hermeren, Representation and 16-23. A5V SS Malta 78, f. 122v, Inquisitor Durini­ Meaning in the Visual AI1S (Lund, 1969). For a SS, dated 16.6.1736: 'Il Signor Gran Maestro ha recent collection of studies, E.H. Gombrich, The fatta costruire una bella statua cli Bronzo Uses of Imnges: Studies in the Social Function of rappresentante la sua Persona, affine di farla AI1 and Vislwl Communicntion (London, 1999). eriggere al mezzo della Piazza del nuovo Forte 2 Art and HistOJY: Images and their Menning, ed. Emanuel, dove fa anche lavorare una mostosa R.!' Rotberg and T.K. Rabb (Cambridge, 1986), 2. Base di manno per collocarvela cH sopra·. 3 For a comprehensive history of Maltese painting, 11 Le Vim) in gara per innalzar la staWa immorwle di M. Buhagiar, The Iconogmphy of the Mnltese Sua Altezza Eminentissima Amonio Manoel cle Islands, 1400-1900: Painting (Malta, 1988); for Vilhena, Gran Maestro clelfOrdine Geroso1imitano: architecture, L. Mahoney, A History of Maltese Serenata cia cantarsi fultimo giomo cI'Aprile clel Architeclllre from Ancient Times up to 1800 (Malta, 1735, dedicata dal Commendatore Carlo Agostino 1988); for silverware,]. Farrugia, Antique Maltese Bnrixllltane ... (n.p., 1735). The identical serenata Domestic Silver (Malta, 1991); Id., Antique Maltese text was used for the 1736 celebration, with only Ecclesiastical Silver (Malta, 2001); for costume, the introduction being changed. Costume in Malta: A History of Fnbric, FOllll 8: 12 J. Gash, 'Painting and Sculpture in Early Modern Fashion, ed. N. de Piro and V.A. Cremona (Malta, Malta'. in Hospitaller Mnlta. 1530-1798: SWdies on 1998); for furniture,]. Galea-Naudi and D. Micallef, Early Moclem Malta and the Order of St. John of Antique Maltese Furniture (Malta, 1989). Jerusalem, ed. V. Mallia-Milanes (Malta, 1993), 581. 4 V. Mallia-Milanes, 'The Maltese Environment' in 13 ASV SS Malta 56, f. 238, Inquisitor Spinola-SS, Maltese Baroque: Proceedings of a Seminar on dated 13.9.1704, providing a contemporary 'The Baroque Route in Maltn', ed. G. Mangion description of the Perellos mausoleum. (Malta, 1989), 58-9. 14 M. Galea, Grand M,1ster Anton Mnnoel de 5 P. Burke, The Historical Anthropology of Early Vilhena, 1722-1736 (Malta, 1992),61. Modem Italy: Essays on Perception and 15 For an in-depth study of Roman baroque sculpture Communication (Cambridge, 1987), 132-49. in Malta, K. Sciberras, Roman Baroque Sculpwre 6 A[rchivio] S[egreto] V[aticano] S[egreteria] S[tato] for the Orcler of Malta, unpublished Ph.D. thesis Malta 52, f. 226, Inquisitor Messerano-SS, dated presented to the University of Malta, 2000. 3.9.1701: 'Sono giunti gli Arazzi, che questo Signor 16 Serracino Inglott, 7. Gran Maestro ha fatto fare a proprie spese in 17 C. Testa, The French in Malta, 1798-1800 (Malta, Fiandra per donargli alla Chiesa Conventuale di 1997), 802. In July 1800 the French ruler Vaubois San Giovanni, e sono riusciti di una bellissima ordered the removal of the French tricolor covering apparenza, e colorito, e di un buonissimo disegno. the coats of arms on the grand masters' mausoleums. Se ne espongono alla pubblica vista due pezzi il 18 For a general discussion of religious statuary in giorno nel palazzo di Sua Eminenza, e gia fin ora eighteenth-century Malta, E. Montanaro, 'Popular si sono veduti i dodici pezzi, ne quali sono Statuary', in Mangion (ed.), 41-5. rappresentati i Misteri dell'lncarnazione, e della 19 Montanaro, 42. Passione di Nostro Signore Giesu Cristo, e 20 R. Farrugia Randon, 'The Statue and Pedestal of s'incominciano a vedere gli altri, dove e effigiato il St Paul at St Paul Shipwrecked Church in trionfo della Chiesa. Il costo di essi ascende alla Valletta', Me1ita HislOrica, xii, 1 (996), 43-6. somma di 52 mila lire di quella moneta'. 21 On the development of the Maltese parish feast 7 lvlallia-Milanes, 59. during the eighteenth centtllY, A. Bonnici, 'Il-Festi 8 For a brief philosophical analysis of the concept of tal-Knejjes Parrokkjali ta' Malta matul iz-zmien', in baroque in Malta, P. Serracino Inglott, 'The Concept Il-Knejjes Parrokkja1i la' Malta 1I l-Festi taghhom, i, of Baroque' in Mangion (ed.), 5-7. For the ed. MJ. Schiavone (Malta, 1993), xxii-xxiii. manifestation of baroque in various artistic fields in 22 Various authors, Il-Purdssjonijiet tal-Gimglw 1- Malta, J. Tonna, 'The Ramified Route' in ibid., 25-31. Kbira fMalm u GllawcJex (Malta, 1992); B. 9 On the grand masters' mausoleums in 51. John's Bonnici, Il-Gimglla l-Kbim fMalta (Malta, 1998); church, G. Psaila Cumbo, 'I Mausolei dei Gran J. Grech, JI-Vari wl-Gimglw l-Kbiril ta' M;lita u Maestri nel Tempio cli S. Giovanni', Rivista clel Ghawclex (Malta, 1999). SOVnlno MiJitare Orcline di Malta, iii, 12 (939), 23 Various authors, The Story of Cribs and Pas1l1ri in 17-23; iv, 1 (940), 16-23. the Maltese Islands (Malta, 1997), passim. For a 356 WilIiam Zammit

brief contemporary description of a late 36), Notary Giuseppe Callus, f. 316, inventory eighteenth-century Maltese crib, Malw, 1796- dated 6,7,1736: 'un altro [quadro] di cal1a 1797: Thorvaldsen's visit based on the unpub- rappresentante la recente cronologia de' Gran lished diary of PedeI' Pavels, ed, S. Sorensen and Maestri della Sagra Religione Gerosolimitana J Schiro (Malta, 1996), 59, della larghezza cH quattro palmi in circa', 24 Nieee' fGllawdex: StOlja, Religjon, Folklor, ed, S, 36 Toffolo, 85-7, Borg and A. Bonnici (Malta, 1987), For a history 37 N[ational] Wlmuy] M[alta], A[rchives of the] of the Maltese devotion to the souls of purgatory, O[rder 011 M[alta] 2040, f. 65v, 2041, f. 63v, P.G, Pisani, The Holy Souls of Purgatory 38 AOM 2054, f. 20, item 58: 'La serie di tutti i Gran devotion, folklore and iconography', The Sunday Maestri in carta reale grande'; AOM 2059, f. 16, Times, 31.10.1999, 48-50. item 63: 'Cronologie dei Gran Maestri'. 25 For a collection of published eighteenth-century 39 Toffolo, 23-57. Maltese portraits, many of them in private 40 A copy of this portrait was published by Toffolo, collections, see de Piro and Cremona; N, de Piro, 33. from the collection of the Museum of the The Language of Symbols'. Tre;1.5lJres of Malta, iv. 1 Order of St. John, Clerkenwell. (1997),49-53, 41 A copy of this dissertation is owned by Chev, Dr 26 Mallia-Milanes, 58, Albert Ganado, 27 Besides the known contemporary portraits of 42 Portrait in AOM Treas, B, 304, insel1ed as a grand masters from Pinto onwards in state, frontispiece to the manuscript volume, private, and ecclesiastical collections, other 43 P. Cassar, 'An Eighteenth-Century Bill of Health contemporary portraits feature with some of the Order of St. John from Malta', Medical regularity in local auctions, History, xxi (1977), 182-6; 'Four Bills of Health 28 For a collection of studies on Preti, Mattia Preti, eeL issued from Malta by the Order of St John', E, Corace, trans, L Butters-Caleffi (Rome, 1989), Journal of Hygiene, lxxxii (1979), 419-23, In the 29 On painters active in eighteenth-century Malta and latter article, cassar~oduces a bill of health on their religious paintings, Buhagiar, 108-56, from Perellos' magist ,cy, dated 1713. 30 A. Hauser, The Socinl History of Art. ii, Renaissance, 44 For a study of devotional imagery in southern Mannerism. Baroque (London, 1989 reprint), 170, Europe, G, Angiolino, et nI.. S:mti e S:mtini: 31 On Maltese ex-votos, A,H,J. Prins, In Peril on the iconografia popolare sncnl el/rope;! dal sedicesilllo Sea: M;lrine Votive Paintings in the Maltese al ventesilllo secolo (n,p" 1985); A, Vecchi, 11 Culto Islands (Malta, 1989); L Borg, 'The Miraculous delle imnwgini nelle sWlllpe popoIari (Florence, Image and the Ex-Voto Tabella in Malta', 1968); On Sicily, G, Cocchiara, Le Illlmagini devote unpublished MA thesis presented to the del popolo siciliano (Palermo, 1982). University of Malta, 1994, 45 H. Schembri, 'Marian devotions and the 32 On Maltese graffiti, 1.. Muscat. 'Maltese Ship Augllstinians', in Marinn Devotions in the Islands of Gmffiti', in Medieval Ships ,1ncl the I3i1th of St Paul, 1600-1800, ed. v, Borg (Malta, 1983), 320. Technological SOcieties, ii, C. Villain-Grandossi, S, 46 Ibid,,324, Busuttil, and p, Adam (eds,), (Malta, 1991), 323-78. 47 A, Bonnici, 'Mary Immaculate in the churches of 33 p, Anderson, The Printed Image nnd the the Franciscans Minor Conventual in the XVII Transfonllation of Popular Cullllre. 1790-1860 and XVIII centuries, in Borg (eel.), 279-81. (Oxford, 1991), 17: 'Between 1790 and 1832, then. 48 V, Borg Gusman, 'Marian devotion in the Maltese it was not the establishments of high culture, nor Carmelite province during the 17th and 18th the physical environment, nor even popular centuries'. in ibid" 297-9, entertainment that provided English workers with 49 Eg. AOM Treas. A, 133/4, unfol., entry dated their most sustained source of aesthetic experi- 10.12.1781: 'Per le figure di carta da darsi a ence, visual information, and pictorial amusement. ragazzi della dottrina, scudi cinque', AOM Treas, Rather, such stimulus came mainly from the A, 133/5 to 133/10, similarly contain original imagery dispensed through the medium of print', receipts for the payment of devotional imagery 34 For a listing and description of known sets, 1', de distributed during the years 1782 to 1787, Hellwald, Bibliographic Mechodique de J'Ordre 50 On the popularity of this method of advertisement in Souv, de Se. Jean de Jerusalem (Rome, 1885), 137- eighteenth-century England, A, Heal, London 8; J Toffolo, Image of a Knight: Portrait Prints and Tradesmen's Cards of the XVIII Century: All Account of Drawings of the Knights ofSt. John in the Museum their Origin :11ld U\'e (Toromo, 1968), especially 1-38. of the OrderofSt John (s1, 1988), 10, 69-91. 51 On the illustration of books treating the Order of 35 Eg. N[otarial] A[rchive] V[alletta] R, 126/40 (1734- St John, Toffolo, 10-1. The Communicative Role of Visual Media in Malta 1700-98 357

52 G.F. Abela, Delhi Descyittione di Malta Isola nel 63 J. Tonna and D. De Lucca, Romano Campecchia mare Siciliano con le slle antichit;l ed altre (Malta, 1975), 33. See also De Lucca, notitie, libr. qtwttro (Malta, 1647); G.A. Ciantar, Clrapecchia: Master of Baroqlle Architecwre in Malta Illllstmw (Malta, 1772, 1780). Early Eighteenth-Centwy Malta. 53 On Troisi, G. Bonello, 'Pietro Paolo Troisi: the 64 For a description of these works, D. De Lucca, quest for a gifted sculptor', The SlInday Times, 'Architectural Interventions in Mdina following the 29.8.1993,32-3; 5.9.1993, 32-5. Earthquake of 1693', in Mdina and the Earthqtwke 54 F. Restelli and J,c. Sanll11ut, The Coinage of the Knights of 1693, ed. J. Azzopardi (Malta, n.d.), 45-76. of Malta (Malta, 1977), i, 30, 97; ii, Plates I, XXVIII. 65 M. Buhagiar and S. Fiorini, Mdina: The Cnthedral 55 Vilhena's highly-artistic gold twelve and ten City of Malta, i (Malta, 1996), 215-6: 'That the zecchini denominations were never intended for new building, [i.e. the cathedral] when C0111- circulation, Restelli and Sammut, i, 12. pleted, had the desired effect, can be gauged 56 On the grandmasters' eighteenth-century medals, from the fact that the Knights felt the need to P.M. Paciaudi, Medaglie mppresentanti i pill make their power felt in the old citadel of gloriosi avvenimenti del Magistero di S.A.E. Fra D. Maltese ecclesiastical and aristocratic interests ElllIlwIllleJe Pinto (Naples, 1748); P.G.F. Furse, I1 through a politically inspired programme of Medagliere GerosolimitaIlo, ossia raccolra delle urban redesign and palatial new buildings'. Illedaglie e monete coninte ciai Gran Maestri 66 Buhagiar and Fiorini, ii, 485. delJ'Oreline Gerosolimirano in Rodi eel in Malw 67 De Lucca, 'Baroque Architecture', 279. (Malta, 1864); H. Calleja Schelllbri, Coins iwd 68 D. De Lucca and E. Procida, 'Appunti sui Illednls. of the Knights of Mnltn (London, 1908). Architettura Religiosa a Malta in eta Barocca', 57 D. Donald, The Age of Caricntllre: SatiIical Prints MeJira Historicn, xi, 4 (1995), 390. in the Reign of George JJJ (London, 1996), 1-21. 69 C. Thake, 'Architectural scenography in eighteenth- 58 ASV SS Malta 67, 1'1'. 424v-5v, Inquisitor Ruffo-SS, century Mdina' in Proceedings of History Week, dated 2.12.1720: .... che questi tre Tribunali 1994, S. Fiorini (ed.) (Malta, 1996), 63-76. deIl'Eminenza Sua, del Vescovo, e dell'Inquisitore 70 L. Zahra, 'The Cnppelb Ardente at St John's', vadino unite 0 almeno, che passi tra di loro buona Treasures of Malta, iii, 2 (997), 63-4. annonia per rendersi cOSl anche nella loro unione 71 J. Galea-Naudi and D. Micallef, 'Troisi's splendid piu forti, e pill temuti da sudditi per la pill esatta Altar of Repose at the Metropolitan Cathedral', ubbidienza ai loro voleri. .. e quello sfogo, che non Treasures of Malta, ii, 2 (996), 69-73. hanno potuto far con le voti hanno fatto con figure 72 De Lucca, 'Baroque Architecture', 279. rappresentanti in un cartello che si trovo la mattina 73 Burke, 147. On the development and forms of affisso in Piazza, un bue col Berrettone Magistrale Catholic baroque celebrations, M. Fagiolo in capo, significante in Gran Maestro, che sta in deIl'Arco, La festa barocca (Rome, 1997). mezzo, un asino con la mitra, che esprimeva 74 P. Brydone, A TOllr through Sicily and M;llta, i Monsignor Vescovo, ed un agnello bianco col (London, 1773), 319. cappello, che dimostrava l'Inquisitore, il che dalla 75 ASV SS Malta 60, f. 48, Inquisitor Caracciolo-SS, maggior parte vien considerato per un puro dated Il.ii.1708. monteggialllento della predetta unione" 76 Eg. ASV SS Malta 53, f. 37, Inquisitor Messerano-SS, 59 Egs. AIM Proc. Crim. 128B/94, dated 26.6.1769, dated 11.2.1702: 'Per il Compleannos del Gran case regarding the i111personification of a pope; Maestro tutta la Corte e anclata a baciar la mano di 136A!12, dated 18.2.1793, that of a bishop. Sua Eminenza, che la mattina assiste al Pontificale 60 For recent studies of baroque architecture in Malta, solenne nella Chiesa di San Giovanni, apparata con i D. De Lucca, 'Baroque Architecture in Malta', in nuovi arazzi, che Sua Elllinenza la fatti fabbricare in Collegium Melitense QuatercentemllY Celebrations Fiandf'd, quali facevano una vaghissima vista. Fu (1592-1992): Collected Papers contributed by anche scoperta quel giorno l'altar maggiore, venuta members of the academic staff of the University of da Roma, tutta cIi marmi fini e rami dorati, che riesce Malta, ed. R. Ellul-MicaIlef and S. Fiorini (Malta, assai bella. Tutto il necessario per il Pontificale era 1992), 245-81. See also various other publications nuovo, fatto fare da Sua Eminenza di broccato assai by Q. Hughes, D. De Lucca, L. Mahoney, S.c. ricco, et il Baldacchino sotto il quale egli stava Spiteri, C. Thake, and J. Tonna, among others. anch'esso era nuovo con bellissimi ricami d·oro'. 61 Burke, 132. 77 ASV SS Malta 114, f. 240'-', Inquisitor Passionei- 62 D. De Lucca, Cmlpecchia: Master of Baroque SS, dated 2.9.1747. Architectllre in Early Eighteenth-Centllry Malta 78 Eg. ASV SS Malta 51, f. 191', Inquisitor Messerano- (Malta, 1999), 6, 9. SS, dated 10.7.1700: 'Questa Illattina nella chiesa di 358 William Zammit

San Giovanni da questa Sagra Religione si sono fatti The Theatre in Malta (Malta, 1997), and A.G. Miceli, L- con grandissima pompa i funerali alIa defonta Regina istorja ta' l-opra fMalta, 1631-1866 (Malta, 1999), Maria Sofia Elisabetta di Portogallo'. 85 ASV SS Malta 80, f. 383, Inquisitor Gualtieri-SS, 79 Eg. ASV SS Malta 70, ff. 20'-21', Inquisitor Ruffo-SS, dated 16.2.1740; 108, f. 440', dated 7.11.1741 and dated 13.1.1725, describing the conversion of a AIM Processi 124C, case 518, dated 3.1.1759 Muslim slave condemned to death: ' ... dopo cli cio per respectively. tre giorni continui non cessano mai, secondo il solito, 86 ASV SS Malta 53, f. 5, Inquisitor Messerano-SS, alcuni padri spirituali d'andargli mostrando la strada dated 7.1.1702, '11 Signor Prior Viani fa fare in sua della vera Salute, e di persuaderlo per cio ad casa una comedia, che sara rappresentata da abbracciare in tal suo estremo la Santa Fede di Gesu cavalieri italiani, e gia e stato messo all'ordine il Christo; ma egli sempre costantissimo dispreggio ogni teatro, che riesce assai bene'. lume, e rigetto ogni persuasiva. Questa mattina alIa 87 Ibid., f. 28, Inquisitor Messerano-SS, dated 21.1.1702, fine dopo aver gia sofferto la pena delle tenaglie, 'Perch!! non!! solito che il Gran Maestro vada mai in giunto vicino al patibolo, toccato dalla Misericordia casa de' Cavalieri, percio il Signor Prior Viani non Divina, rivolto al Sacerdote, che 10 andava esortando poteva ricever l'onore che Sua Eminenza sentisse la 10 ricerco, se veramente 10 assicurava, esser vero tutto commedia ch'egli fa rappresentare in sua casa. Sta quello che gli predicava, e nelle forme pill proprie percio facendo fabricare un altro teatro alIa Citta accertatone dal buon Prete, gli diede fede, ed Vittoriosa, nella casa dove habitano i signori generali immediatamente dimando il santo battesimo, il quale di questa squadra, dove iI Gran Maestro non ha subito gli fu dato nello stesso luogo, mostrando in ripugnanza cli andare per esser casa della Religione'. realta segni di un ottima conversione, e di un sommo 88 Ibid., f. 37', Inquisitor Messerano-SS, dated 1702; f. contento, di modo che dopo aver pregato li sacerdoti 49, dated 18.ii.1702. assistenti di dire al popolo, che pregasse Gesu Christo 89 Ibid., f. 54, Inquisitor Messerano-SS, dated per l'anima sua, rivolto con grande intrepidezza ai 25.2.1702, '11 Signor Generale Viani seguita a far ministri della gillstizia, gli accellerava a dargli la rappresentare la C~clia in sua casa con morte; per poter, com'esso disse loro, andar presto a grossissima spesa, e h pochissimo applauso'. godere il santo paradiso, e che soffriva ben volontieri 90 ASV SS Malta 55, f. 35, Inquisitor Messerano-SS, una talmorte in penitenza di tante sue colpe dated 10.2.1703. commesse. per simili rimostranza di un vero penitente 91 ASV SS Malta 56, f. 335', Inquisitor Spinola-SS, si sollevo allora tutto il popolo per giubilo gridando dated 27.12.1704. ad alta voce = Viva la Fede di GeSll Cristo ='. 92 ASV SS Malta 57, f. 44, Inquisitor Spinola-SS, dated 80 The earliest reference to the inclusion of a cantata 7.2.1705. in calendiIllaggio festivities is dated 1706, ASV SS 93 ASV SS Malta 59, f. 342', Inquisitor Caracciolo-SS, Malta 58, f. 107, Inquisitor Spinola-SS, dated dated 19.11.1707. 1.5.1706. For a mostly complete bibliography of 94 ASV SS Malta 62, f. 300, Inquisitor D'Elci-SS, dated printed calendimaggio cantatas, V. L'1Urenza, 15.9.1712. 'Calendimaggio settecentesco a Malta', Arc!JivuIll 95 ASV SS Malta 63, f. 12, Inquisitor D'Elci-SS, dated J'v!elitense, iii (1913), 187-203. 14.1.1713; f. 28, dated 4.2.1713. 81 Egs. ASV SS Malta 67, f. 54, Pro-Inquisitor 96 Ibid., f. 6, Inquisitor D'Elci-SS, dated 7.1.1713. Napulone-SS, dated 17.2.1720; 80, f. 78', Inquisitor 97 ASV SS Malta 55, f. 35, Inquisitor Messerano-SS, Gualtieri-SS, dated 14.2.1741, respectively. dated 10.2.1703, 'anche i signori Maltesi hanno 82 Eg. ASV SS Malta 70, f. 72, Inquisitor Ruffo-SS, dato principio alIa recita cli una loro comedia, che dated 19.2.1725: 'Si!! fatto qui un ottimo riesce assai bene'. Carnevale ... si e fatta ogni sorte d'onesta allegria; 98 ASV SS Malta 67, f. 503, Inquisitor Ruffo-SS, dated senza lasciare le solite clevozioni, specialmente col 12.2.1721. tener quotidianamente esposto in varie di queste 99 NLM, Lib. MS. 20, G. Reboul diary, entry 19.1.1732, Chiese il Venerabile, dove e stato sempre e 'Terminato gia il nuovo Teatro, si fece per la frequente, e numeroso il Popolo, e sulli Teatri non prima volta in esso un'opera dai Cavalieri Italiani, si sono fatte che Rappresentazioni spirituali'. di notte tempo coll'intervento del Gran Maestro; e 83 L. Bianconi and G. PestelIi, eds., Opera l'opera intitolata l'Amerope'. production and its resources, trans. L.G. Cochrane 100 Farrugia's name is featured on the printed libretto (Chicago, 1998), 1-43. of a theatrical performance held in honour of 84 For studies on Maltese theatrical activity between Grand Master Pinto's accession anniversary on 18 1732and 1798, see]. Eynaud, Il te;ltro iWliano a Malta, January 1770, namely L';wJOre cosWnte d'Aci e 1630-1830 (Malta, 1979); P. Xuereb, The Manoel Galatea (Malta, 1770). Theatre; a short history (Malta, 1994); C. Xuereb, ed., 101 Rotberg and Rabb, 5.