That great English writer Samuel Johnson is at times remembered not for his valuable contribution to literature but for an anecdote about an unusual encounter with a lady who blurted out to the refined scribe: “Sir, you smell.” To this verbal accusation, Dr Johnson retorted: “Madame. You smell. I stink.”
The learned man of letters was playing with words at a time when the verb “smell” was intransitive, thus lacking an object. Smell then meant detecting such an odour and not the whiff that a person’s body emits.
I recalled this incident when I came across – in the summer edition of Treasures of Malta now on the shelves at booksellers – a fascinating article by Lisa Attard and Joseph Galea Naudi called An Exhibition Of Scent Bottles at Palazzo Falson in Mdina.
The authors follow the sce--nt of these bottles from the earliest recorded samples where perfume was beyond the reach of most of the populace to the time when manufacturers spread their wings to reach a wider market.
In a finely crafted piece, the authors note that “Perfume has also long been a powerful weapon in the art of seduction. Scents quicken memory in ways that elude all the other senses… ” Scents are still used in religious rituals and were used in burials, which brings the reader to another gem in Treasures compiled by Godwin Vella on three friaries in Gozo and their peculiarities.
The friary in Victoria like the one in Floriana had underground spaces for the mummification of deceased monks.
Speaking about the dead, architect Conrad Thake looks back at the history of Ta’ Braxia Cemetery and focuses on the Lady Rachel Hamilton-Gordon Memorial Chapel. The author calls for greater recognition not only of this splendid monument but also for its architect, John Loughborough Pearson.
As usual Treasures of Malta presents a chestful of polished gems, among them the intricate and laborious process involved in the conservation of three volumes of Hortus Romanus from the National Library. The books feature 18th century hand-coloured engravings of botanical specimens.
The editor of Treasures, Giovanni Bonello, goes the extra mile as is his wont and charts the detective work which led him to conclude that a portrait of military engineer Fra Carlos Grunenburgh was by Mattia Preti. The painting was sold at a Belgravia Auction Gallery in St Julians in 2003.