Cleardo Naudi : the University's first professor of chemistry and materia medica : a Delphian and enigmatic academic

Abstract

Cleardo Naudi, who hailed from a well-connected Maltese family, began his tertiary education at the University of Malta and completed his medical studies at the University of Naples. Naudi went on to further his postgraduate education in London.

During the first decades of British rule in Malta, he managed to contact a number of English missionary societies, and did his best to persuade them to establish footholds on the island.

When in London, he met and forged important connections and conversances with some of the leading chemists of the day, which at times blossomed into useful friendships. Particularly close was his relationship with the Quaker, William Allen. In the meantime, he occupied the first Chair of Chemistry and Materia Medica at Malta’s University.