By Order of Napoleon: The Taking of Malta

By Joe Scicluna

Bonaparte issued thousands of dispatches directives and orders during the many campaigns of his military career. This e-book is a chronological compilation of his orders concerning the taking of Malta in 1798. They include orders to capture Gozo, Mdina and of course the city of Valletta. Napoleon’s orders were very specific in terms of how the French were to treat the Knights, the Maltese, and the clergy. They included radical health and education reforms intended to align Malta’s administration to the new revolutionary ideology of the French republic. He abolished nobility and slavery. He reorganized the clergy and redefined its sphere of influence. He also ordered the pillaging of the Order’s silver and precious stones from St. John’s Cathedral in Valletta. The goal is not to judge, praise or criticise the French occupation of Malta, but to give the reader access to source documents and hopefully give some perspective to those momentous events that changed the course of Malta’s history.

The documents in this e-book were translated from French by the author.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joe Scicluna
• Release date: Mar 5, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311834409

Joe Scicluna

Born and raised on the island of Malta, Joe Scicluna has spent most of his life in the southeast of France, in the town of Grenoble nestled in the Alps. He draws a sense of balance from the stark contrast between this mountainous region and the sun-baked Mediterranean island which he still calls home. "As I get older, the more passionate I am becoming about the culture and the heritage of the Maltese islands" says Joe. It is precisely this passion that motivated him to publish his first two books which were translations from French of eyewitness accounts during the period of Napoleon's invasion and the subsequent occupation in 1798. Following on this same theme, Joe Scicluna has just launched his latest book which is a historical novel set in the early 19th century during the first years of Malta's British rule. The book, titled Ricasoli Soldier was inspired by true, but little-known, events that took place in 1807. Joe wants his readers to learn about Malta and what the Maltese lived through during those years of tumultuous change by means of this true but gripping story packed with suspense.

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