At the end of the year that commemorated the 450th anniversary of the Great Siege, it was fitting that someone could come up with a study day to point out what has emerged recently on such a subject.
This duty and honour fell to Palazzo Falson who in conjunction with Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti and following the publication of the Great Siege issue of Treasures in Malta held this study day.
This was held at Palazzo Santa Sofia, rather than the announced Palazzo Falson rooftop room across the road, last month.
Giovanni Bonello, panel chair and editor of Treasures in Malta, kicked off the seminar.
Things are still being discovered which have a relation with the Great Siege, he said. Palazzo Falson itself has a set of unique engravings about the Great Siege which are fundamental to us as we try and understand the dynamics of the siege.
There is also a portrait of a woman who was the wife of a soldier who came to Malta with the Gran Soccorso. No one knows how this portrait ended up in Malta.
Another link between Palazzo Falson and the Great Siege is the surname Balbi. The founder of Palazzo Falson, Captain Olof Gollcher's maternal uncle was Major Henry Alexander Balbi, who translated from Spanish The Siege of Malta 1565. This eyewitness account was written by Francisco Balbi da Correggio, a soldier who participated in the Great Siege under the Knights. Major Balbi was a noted researcher who published studies on the Order of St John.
We may think of the Great Siege as a fight between the godly and the ungodly, but it was not so. There was a man, a warrior, who was languishing in the papal dungeon in Rome because he was found guilty of rape, corruption and fighting in a duel. He regained his freedom on condition he came to Malta to help in the siege. Thus a very unlikely saviour of Christianity was born.
Spain conserves an unlikely relic of the Great Siege. This is the mummified body of a knight who fought and died in the Great Siege and whose body is exposed in a Spanish church.
Alex Vella Gregory spoke about the music that was composed on account of the Great Siege. A motet Congregati Sunt spoke of the massing armies. This was composed in Cordoba, which shows how the news travelled and how people were interested in the outcome of the siege.
Another composition Pro Victoria in Turcos Melitae obsidionis is interesting because in it two sacred texts are sung contemporaneously. There is a copy in the Mdina archives and also in a church in Augsburg. Polyphony entered Malta only after the conclusion of the siege.
The latter composition was sung by the all-male Cappella Sanctae Catharinae last year.
Robert Attard, whose hobby is historical research, explained some recent discoveries. A breastplate, whose owner has hitherto been unidentified could in fact be the breastplate that was worn by Grand Master de Valette, as shown in the Perez d'Aleccio frescoes in the Palace and in the Vatican.
This can be traced to an almost invisible coat of arms on the breast plate which shows the coat of arms of the de Valette family, not the coat of arms later adopted by the grandmaster.
There may also be a link with de Valette in a torn suit of armour that is part of the Odescalchi collection in the Museo di Palazzo Venezia in Rome.
Anna Borg Cardona described to the gathering the sounds and accompanying music the Turks brought with them as they came to fight. One can still see a demonstration of these sounds and sights in specialized museums in Turkey which pay tribute to the Turkish prowess in fighting.
The sounds of war, alla Turca, bolstered up the spirits of the combatants and created fear in those who heard them.
Matthew Micallef spoke and displayed some of the medals and coins issued during the Great Siege and after the victory. Their issuing did not just have a commemorative value but also to raise funds both for the siege and later for the building of Valletta.
Winston Zammit compared how the Great Siege is treated in an 1886 poem Hilsa tal-Maltin mit-Toroc, a long poem which sees divine intervention in the way the Turk invaders were repulsed; and the Outlines of Maltese history by Mgr Salv Laspina which was the staple history book at all secondary schools and which went through no less than 12 editions from 1934 to 1971.
One may think the successive editions were copies of the preceding ones but in fact some gory scenes were deleted in the later editions.
Theresa Vella spoke of a painting depicting the Great Siege which used to hand in the Oratory of St John's on top of the Caravaggio masterpiece. Even then, when the Oratory and the church were being redecorated under the guidance of Mattia Preti in the 1660s, it was already in a bad state.
Its presence there was therapeutic: the Oratory was the place where the new Knights were inducted and it showed them the courage they needed to have as Knights, just as the Great Siege knights had. It prepared them to be ready to die as martyrs if need be.
However, it was removed to make way for the lunettes that adorn the Oratory and it was given away by the Order to the Franciscan Convent in Rabat where it still is.
It has had at least one restoration done to it in 1711 by a member of the Erardi family.