Ray Bondin, the chair of the Malta National Commission for UNESCO and a world heritage expert, has donated more than 900 books, around 700 of which are on Sicily, together with a very large collection of magazines, to a library in the small town of Buscemi in the province of Siracuse.

The library is housed in the basement of a former church.

In his speech detailing 25 years of activity in Sicily, during which he was closely involved in five of the region’s world heritage sites, Bondin said he wanted to give the greater part of his Sicilian library to a library in a small but beautiful town where Sicilian researchers could access them more easily.

The books include many editions that are unavailable today.

Bondin is a renowned researcher on Sicily. During the donation, he said his work in Sicily had given him great satisfaction but also a lot of disappointments. He noted that Sicily’s heritage is beyond any other area in the Mediterranean but there is still so much which is not given the attention it needs.

The library was inaugurated by him and the mayor of Buscemi, Rossella La Pira.