Exploring and examining the works of Joseph Demarco

Abstract

Joseph Demarco was an 18th-century Maltese physician and intellectual. The National Library of Malta holds 21 volumes of mostly Latin manuscripts of which he was the author. While the available literature explores this facet of his work, the contents of the manuscripts may still be observed in further depth. This project gathers information about Demarco himself and about medicine in 18th-century Malta, and comparatively reviews the literature focused on him. Following this, an in-depth catalogue of all the manuscripts, including both a description of their contents and of their physical condition, is built. The data from the catalogue is interpreted - partly graphically - to reveal important points in Demarco’s career, and themes pertaining to his work, such as their links with his publications, are discussed. Finally, three notable findings are discussed in detail, namely that his publication, Tractatus Mechanicus de Non-Naturalibus (1748) (i), is a translation from English, that he translated another work: Tractatus de Multiplicis Ven[a]e Sectionis (ii), from French, and that a member of the Order of St. John, Don Josepho de Duenas, is revealed as his patron through Epistola Dedicatoria (iii).