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Medieval and Early Renaissance Architecture in Malta

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2012

J. B. Ward Perkins
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Extract

The architectural history of Malta has yet to be written. The thought is a depressing one at a moment when the work of centuries is being blasted to fragments, but it may serve as an excuse for publishing a few illustrations of medieval architecture in the island. At best they will furnish a reminder of the work that remains to be done; at worst they will serve as a record of what has gone. My own photographs and notes are in Valetta, and I owe the illustrations to the courtesy of the Colonial Office and of H.M. Government of Malta. I have also to thank Mr. G. L. M. Clauson, who in 1938 showed some of these pictures before a meeting of the Society, and Lt.-Col. A. V. Agius, Trade Commissioner for Malta; also my many friends in Malta and, in particular, Chev. H. P. Scicluna, librarian of the Royal Library, Valetta, and Mr. J. Galea, who gave me every possible help and assistance. I would like to make it clear from the start that this is in no sense a finished study of the medieval remains in Malta, but rather the desultory jottings of one who had hoped one day to make such a study.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 22 , Issue 3-4 , October 1942, pp. 167 - 175
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1942

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References

page 167 note 1 Since this paper was written, rather more than half the buildings illustrated or referred to in the text have been destroyed or damaged by enemy action. The author is on service, and has been unable to ascertain the present street-names, many of which have been altered since the outbreak of war.

page 168 note 1 See Country Life of 22nd June 1940. The interior is heavily restored.

page 169 note 1 Cf. the painted ceiling of the fourteenth-century Palazzo Chiaramonte in Palermo, Arata, L., L'Architettura arabo-normanno e il rinascimento in Sicilia (Milan 1914), p. 16.Google Scholar

page 170 note 1 Sicilian practice was often strikingly conservative. Thus the mouldings of the column-bases of the porch of the late-medieval church of S. Maria della Catena in Palermo are almost precisely those of the twelfth-century Capella Palatina in the same city. On the other hand, many new forms were introduced in the fourteenth century and found their way into use side by side with earlier fashions.

page 171 note 1 Arata, op. cit., pl. 83.

page 171 note 2 Arata, op. cit., pl. 114.

page 171 note 3 The Sicilian evolution of this feature is well illustrated on Palermo Cathedral, which presents specimens ranging from the twelfth century with Muslim ‘honeycomb’ detail to Gothic arcading of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. See Arata, op. cit., pl. 68, top and bottom.

page 171 note 4 It is one of the few medieval decorative devices which are found also in the country districts of Malta, e.g. on No. 4 Piazza Maggiore, Zurriek.

page 172 note 1 A drawing of such a door with elaborate crockets, which formerly stood in Vittoriosa, is preserved in the Royal Library at Valetta.

page 174 note 1 Cf. also the original Auberge d'Italie in Vittoriosa, built before 1565, which embodies the same mouldings as de la Sengle's Palace.

page 174 note 2 A window of this form in number 21 Trieq Mesquita, Rabat, is precisely dated to the year 1556. Another interesting example can be seen on the sixteenth-century tower, which formed the nucleus of the later Palazzo Stagno.

page 174 note 3 See Jean Pratt, ‘Valletta and its Architecture’ in the Builder, 28th February and 7th March 1941, 221, 243. These brief articles are of value as the only accessible, illustrated account of some of the work of the Order in Valetta.

page 175 note 1 Grateful acknowledgement is made to General Sir William Dobbie for help in checking these details.