Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/667669
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 17 APRIL 2016 News 17 So how did corsairs differ from pirates, exactly? Beyond the fact that of course, pirates plundered for their own gain and would never be expected to place their loot for public auction, Gauci explains that corsairs were bound to the law in a very real way. "If, say, a Maltese corsair cap- tured a Greek and brought him back to Malta as a slave – the Greeks could actually take him to court. And we have evidence of a particular case when the cor- sair Giuseppe Scolaro captured something illegally and wasn't just taken to court – he was taken to the cleaners: he was thrown into prison and had to be bailed out by other fellow corsairs." Lucrative and adventurous this business may have been, but the corsair's life wasn't an easy one. Neither was it guaranteed that, wealth and rich patrons notwith- standing, the corsair had any form of coherent social standing within Maltese society at the time. Admitting that further research could shed more – and necessary – light on this particular aspect of the subject, Gauci figures that even the corsairs who gained great wealth may have been looked on as ostentatious pretenders. "It's a terrible cliché, but basi- cally… these guys wanted to get rich or die trying. And probably, those who succeeded would not be looked upon too kindly by the populace at large." It appears that, in the social hier- archy, corsairs were outliers at the very best. But this is precisely why Gauci sees them as such tantaliz- ing research subjects. Growing out of an MA dissertation and bol- stered by documents culled from the Notarial Archives, the subject gave Gauci a glimpse into histori- cal Malta as it was lived at the time. "Don't get me wrong, it's nice to read about the Grandmaster… but grand- masters were the excep- tions to social rules at the time. Corsairs were actu- ally professionals trying to make a living in Malta, and looking through their notarial deeds one gets a sense of their daily dealings and struggles." Gauci's se- lection of protagonists also points to a Malta that assimilated foreigners into its social fabric – ones that, like the Montenegrin Pi- etro de Giovanni Zelalich and the Corsican-born Guglielmo Lorenzi, made Malta their home base – and that paint a vivid and telling pic- ture of the island at the tail-end of the Order's grasp over Malta. "These guys were really bringing in an international flavour to the island!" But speaking of international flavour, Gauci's publication also belies another, more explicitly 'academic' purpose: that of set- ting the record straight on some misconceptions regarding Maltese corsairs, most of which happen to have been propagated by foreign academics who had taken an inter- est in the subject over the years: such as the idea that Corsairs are Catholic pirates, or that they were attacking Greek merchants ("There was a huge business in fake Maltese passports – and we have evidence of this"). Gauci assures me that he's not railing against pesky foreigners meddling into "my subject" – if anything, these misconceptions are more often than not borne out of the fact that there's such a vast amount of historical documents from the relevant period available locally – too much, perhaps, for an international researcher who's only capable to carve out time for a short visit. "What we need is healthy dis- cussion of our history. This is the approach I take, even in this book. There's a reason why everything is clearly referenced. I want to be challenged, so that we can contin- ue having a discussion." In the Name of the Prince: Mal- tese Corsairs (1760-1798) is pub- lished by Heritage Malta, with photography and design by Daniel Cilia treljic@mediatoday.com.mt Triq id-Dolmen, Qawra. Tel: 2158 3434 Email: dbistro@dbhotelsresorts.com Pizza, Pasta, Salads & Grills istro "It's nice to read about the Grandmaster… but grandmasters were the exceptions to social rules at the time"