M.A. Vassalli's commercial activity

Abstract

Vassalli's biographers express doubts as to how he was able to procure enough money for his stay in Rome, for his travels, and even to publish his books. Ninu Cremona, helieves that Mikiel Anton might have been helped by his mother or some other close relative. Fortunato Panzavecchia says that "although the resources of Vassalli's fortune were small, this man found means to publish in Rome a Maltese grammar in Latin and a Maltese lexicon translated into Latin and Italian." Carm Sant, when discussing Vassalli's sojourn in Rome, asks a direct question, "Did he indulge in some other gainful occupation?" Some years ago, whilst researching on Vassalli at the Palace Archives (now transferred to the Banca Giuratale in Mdina) I came across a court case which may offer a partial answer to the above questions. Vassalli was involved in litigation with Giuseppe Caruana and they appeared in front of the Supreme Court of Justice in 1797