The luxurious garden of Sa Maison in Floriana has attracted the nib of various writers, foremost among whom Comm. Edgar Montanaro and Ġużè Cassar Pullicino. They start with an early owner Chevalier Caille Maison who, presumably in the 18th century, used the site as his hunting lodge, and from whom the name of Sa Maison was derived.
From various sources, it can be established that the history of Sa Maison goes much further back. It was founded in the 17th century by Fra Giovanni Minucci, who entered the Italian Langue of the Order of St John on November 6, 1670. Not long after, he acquired a tract of land bordered on three sides by stately bastions overlooking from Floriana the harbour of Marsamscetto. In order to enjoy the beauty of the site in his restful repose, he built a house ‘casamento’ in his large garden. It seems that he owned the land on an emphyteutical lease for a number of years.
When Great Britain took over Malta in 1813, it inherited a country in which censorship was the rule, and the rule had no exceptions. The Order of Malta was generally a benign but wholly autocratic sovereign which exercised total control over anything the people were authorised to know and repeat. The ruler only allowed the public to know what the state believed it should be allowed to. Within Malta, the Order achieved this by licensing only one printing press, and permitting this to print solely what the Grand Master, the Bishop and the Inquisitor jointly certified to be harmless and printable.
By Alan Riach Professor of Scottish Literature at Glasgow University
Essay
King James VI of Scotland, before he became James I of the abruptly United Kingdom in 1603
A new anthology of Scottish Latin poems centred on the reign of King James VI of Scotland, before he became James I of the abruptly United Kingdom in 1603, raises deep questions about that union, the centrality of the monarch and what “royalty” means. Alan Riach addresses them. Corona Borealis: Scottish Neo-Latin Poets on King James VI and his Reign, 1566–1603, edited by Steven J Reid and David McOmish (Glasgow: Association for Scottish Literary Studies, 2020)