The French invasion of Malta : an unpublished account

Abstract

In June 1798, the Order of St. John surrendered Malta to Napoleon Bonaparte. Hitherto students of French Malta have mostly made use of two contemporary accounts - by Felice Cutajar and Bosredon Ransijat. Another contemporary unpublished version is that of the Syracusan man of letters, the Rev. Giuseppe Maria Capodieci. He was among the first, if not the very first, to write the history of those turbulent days. According to Serafino Privitera, the writer of the Storia di Siracusa Antica e Moderna, Capodieci had dedicated his life to learning, collecting all relevant information from old manuscripts and books in private and public archives to write the history of his town. Capodieci died in 1828. The account which is being published in the original form, is Ms. Qq. F. 231 preserved in the Biblioteca Comunale of Palermo. It was written in Syracuse on the 24th July 1798 and addressed to Don Giovanni D' Angelo. In the covering letter to D' Angelo, Capodieci wrote about the care and attention he devoted to this account. It was written with the sincerity and objectivity that it merited though perhaps not in the style that it deserved. Capodieci had, as his source for this account, a number of Syracusan knights of the Order and others who have passed through Syracuse after their expulsion from Malta. They were all eyewitnesses and had a role to play in the events described.