a classic example of chiaroscuro technique. Ittar later designed the Church of San Placido, which has a facade adorned by a central Sicilian bell tower surmounted by statuary. Following Vaccarini's death some years later, Ittar was invited by the governors of Catania to produce a contemporary plan of the city, highlighting the new straight streets an example of Baroque town planning. This map was later made into an engraving and mass-produced. By 1783, his long term project designing the Benedictine monastery came to an end. Ittar was by this time one of Catania's most respected and influential architects and town planners. However, this was the year his life was to change completely. He was invited to Malta to design a new library for the Order of St. John of Malta, whereupon Ittar and his family seem to have moved immediately to Valletta. Here began a period of works created in a different style of architecture. The new library was of a classical design, complete with columns, arches, windows and pediments, and not a broken pediment or curved facade in sight. The vast library, reminiscent of a huge classical palace, was finally completed in 1796, five years after Ittar's death. It was said, at the time, that Ittar had committed suicide because of errors of architectural judgement leading to structural problems with the library; however, while the profusion of vast windows make the library a cold and draughty place of work, there is no evidence of severe structural error or other problems in the design. Records of his death show him dying in communion with the church, and as having received the last rites, a sacrament which would not have been administered in the case of a suicide. Two of his sons, Enrico and Sebastiano, also became architects who achieved some notability. References Sources 1724 births 1790 deaths People from Ovruch Architects of the Sicilian Baroque Italian Baroque architects