Mazzini and the early Maltese printers : the Naudi episode of 1850

Abstract

The liberal leanings and the political role played by the Maltese politicians who successfully strove to obtain press freedom for the Maltese islands during the early decades of British rule have been the subject of considerable research and are now quite well known. The same, however, cannot be said about those individuals who were actually to transform that outstanding legal achievement into practice: the Maltese printing press owners of the late 1830s and 1840s. Far from being politically passive and solely motivated by commercial considerations, the latter were for the most part committed to the liberal political ideal, a commitment which was often and for obvious reasons not made so outwardly manifest and which as yet still awaits in-depth study.