Description
With Carthusian patience Andre Zammit, an architect and civil engineer turned historian, distils 60.000 pages of a private archive into a fascinating story of Periti in his family – their lives and times. Starting from the last decades of the Order of St John these include Michele Cachia, a Maltese leader against the French, Salvatore Xerri, a kinsman of Dun Mikil, Francesco and Giovanni Sammut, prominent in the early British times, Giuseppe and Francesco Zammit, mid and late eighteenth century, Alfred Zammit, early nineteenth century and a host of others. He dercribes not just their works and their clients, but their tools, their books, their virtues and their foibles, their household effects, even a wedding mennu. He gives his account a historical and social context, tracing the evolution of the perit profession and his own stint at university. He outlines the development of the public service including the early Anglo-Maltese ideological clashes. With 200 illustrations, 2 Timelines, 2 Genealogical charts and an Index of over 2.000 Names, this book breaks new ground and is a definite must for all collectors of Melitensia.
