Priest, Professor of Anatomy and Surgery
Born in Valletta, Giuseppe was the son of Pietro Zammit and Caterina née Borg. He came from a land-owning family, possessing houses in Valletta and Balzan. They also had rural property in various parts of Malta. Fra Giuseppe also owned a slave donated to him by his sister Clara in 1707. We know nothing about his early upbringing though very probably he was sent to a school kept by a priest which was the custom at the time. In his adolescence he read Italian, Latin Classics and later Mathematics, at the Jesuits’ College in Valletta, where he later on he would study Philosophy and Theology.
Zammit’s entry into the priesthood was dictated by genuine vocational leanings. Documents show him as having been a deeply religious man. He was ordained priest in 1673 at the age of 23.
Giuseppe Zammit followed a course of medical studies abroad. In the seventeenth century Maltese young men who wished to take law, theology, and medicine as a career pursued academic courses abroad.
Following the plague of 1675 which killed about 10,000 of the Maltese population, a school for anatomy and surgery was instituted.
Fra Giuseppe Zammit emerges in the contemporary Maltese medical scene on 19 December 1676 when he was appointed the first holder of the Chair of Anatomy and Surgery which was set up in that year at the Holy Infirmary of Valletta by Grand Master Nicholas Cottoner. In spite of his young age his reputation of an excellent physician was indeed high, and at least five grandmasters in succession held him as their personal doctor. Fra Giuseppe Zammit served as a physician to five Grandmasters: Nicholas Cottoner, Gregorio Carafa, Raymond Perellos y Roccaful, Marc Antonio Zondadari ana Antoine Manoel de Vilhena.
The anatomical training imparted appears to have been purely theoretical, but Zammit was probably familiar with the practical dissection even though he was a physician rather than a surgeon since his belongings included a set of anatomical instruments.
As a practitioner Zammit was regarded ‘with reverence’ by patients from all walks of life. Zammit set up Malta’s first medicinal herbal garden in the ditch of Fort St Elmo and in 1679 founded Malta’s first medical academy.
He was also instrumental in establishing the first medical library in Malta. Infact in the National Library of Valletta there are some of Zammit’s self-inscribed copies of these works with the words ‘Fra Joseph Zammit dedit et donat’. These books are the survivors of his own private library which he donated to the Holy Infirmary on 29 January 1687 for the use of his colleagues and successors in the Chair of Anatomy and Surgery.
Another gift of Fra Giuseppe Zammit consisted of 139 portraits which he commissioned at his own expense and which he donated to the Jesuit College of Valletta with the aim of spurring Maltese students to follow the paths of their predecessors in the fields of medicine, literature, arts and culture. In 1705 he wrote a Latin inscription for every portrait: Elogia illustrium virorum melitensium. These were published posthumously – in 1855.
On 30 July 1722 Zammit was raised to the highest rank of the medical hierarchy when he was appointed Protomedico or Physician-in-Chief of the Maltese Islands – a post corresponding to that of Chief Government Medical Officer of to-day.
Apart from being a member of the Archconfraternity of the Most Holy Crucifix, based at the church of the Friars Minor Observants of Valletta, he had a special devotion to St Paul the Hermit who was venerated in the church of the Annunciation at Balzan.
In June 1677 Zammit applied to be admitted a member of the Order of St John’s as Chaplain of Magisterial Obedience and to be assigned the benefice of the Church of St Paul by the Sea. Zammit was accepted as Chaplain of Obedience on 17 June 1677.
Inspite of a long medical and academic career, it seems that Zammit left no publications.
Zammit died at Balzan, and is buried at the Balzan Parish church. A tomb slab with a latin inscription was laid over his grave in 1741. Zammit is considered as a national figure as he played a fundamental role in the initiation and development of medical education in Malta.
This biography is part of the collection created by Michael Schiavone over a 30-year period. Read more about Schiavone and his initiative here.