A manuscript of an eighteen century clinical history of the illness of a patient in Malta

Abstract

I have often been asked by foreign medical colleagues interested in the medical history of Malta whether any physicians practising in the island in the 18th century have left us any manuscript clinical registers of the medical patients treated by them. I am not aware that such case files existed as no trace of such penned documents have come to light. The discovery, therefore, of a clinical history and post mortem examination recorded in manuscript by two Maltese physicians of the early 18th century deserves recognition. This documentation is, in fact, no less than the clinical history of the last illness of an eminent personage, i.e. Grand Master Marcantonio Zonadadari who, as head of the Order of St. John ruled over the Maltese Islands between 1720 and 1722. The document is written in Latin - the "scientific" language of the time - and bolstered up by an independent lay account in Italian (1).