Gozo after the Siege of Malta : a study of the acts of notary Tomaso Gauchi, 1566-68

Abstract

Being an island in the Mediterranean sea, Malta absorbed a lot of what, during the centuries, took place in the region. The most prominent example is the command of the Maltese islands by all those people who, at one point or another, dominated the Mediterranean world. In this Malta has always been in the shadow of Sicily but in the sixteenth century Malta steered off this path and began to carve its own history and identity influenced by an Order which was European and Mediterranean. This article seeks to follow the path taken by the Maltese islands, especially Gozo, after the Siege of 1565, through a small window which is opened when studying the notarial acts of Tomaso Gauci, a notary who worked in Gozo in the sixteenth century.