Treasures of Malta, No 97, Vol. XXXIII, No 1, Christmas 2026

Description

Editorial
Giovanni Bonello

Malta vetus et nova: A Book and its History

Thomas Freller examines how Burchard Niederstedt’s 1656 journey with the young Christoph Caspar von Blumenthal combined inherited antiquarian knowledge with first-hand observations to produce a revealing portrait of Malta in the mid-seventeenth century

The Neapolitan Painter who came to Malta: The Story of Pasquale Mazzacano (1870–1942)

Edward Mazzacano D’Amato traces the little-known Maltese sojourn of his great-grandfather, reconstructing his artistic training, family life, and subsequent transition from art to photography in North Africa

Bells that Ring a Bell in Maltese History: A Spanish Armada Connection

Giovanni Bonello explores the possible Venetian origins of the early bells of St John’s Co-Cathedral, and the enduring mysteries surrounding their fate

Doreen Micallef (1949–2001): A Voice of Divine Eroticism and Feminine Rage

Nathan Anthony Pace

Exhibition Focus 

Francesca Balzan and Caroline Tonna

From Our Digitisation Studio

Raffaella Zammit

My Favourite Object

Joseph Schirò

The Lunzjata Church in Siġġiewi: What Five Centuries Left Behind

Ivana Farrugia, Tabitha Dreyfuss, Natalie Fenech, Adrian Mifsud, Norbert Gatt, and Mark Azzopardi

Under the Maternal Gaze: Antoine Favray’s Titular Altarpiece for the Chapel of Our Lady of Manresa, Floriana (1748)

Nicholas Joseph Doublet examines an altarpiece in relation to the Ignatian spirituality that inspired it, exploring its iconography, composition, and place within the artist’s early Maltese production

Material History Recovered:The Conservation Treatment of the Altarpiece of the Chapel of Our Lady of Manresa

Michael Pace Ross and Amy Sciberras

Bookshelf

Nicholas Joseph Doublet [Il-Furjana: Knejjes, Kult, u Tradizzjoni by Martin Micallef];

Jean Noel Cutajar [Lazarus by Richard England]

The Cover

Antonia Critien

Cultural Review

Cecilia Xuereb

Calendar Highlights

Antonia Critien

A subject index to the illustrations in Treasures of Malta, Vol. XXXII

Antonia Critien

Index: Treasures of Malta, Vol. XXXII