Fel uardiae col sceber raba iesue vquiae : sale of plots of land in Valletta, 1569

Abstract

Giacomo Bosio so describes the value of land in the New City, citing the old Maltese proverb: Iegi zimen en fel uardiae / Col sceber raba iesue vquiae. Following the resolution by the Council of the Order to build an Urbs ad montem S. Elmi sive vulgo Sceberras construenda cui impositum est nomen Valletta, and the laying of the foundation stone on the 28th March 1566 by Grand Master Jean de Valette, various other important mile-stone decisions were taken, starting in September 1566 with the election of Fra Raimondo Fortuin and Fra Pietro Filippo della Cornia as Commissioners for the building of the new city, the appointment of Commissioners to discover who had property rights on the Xiberras Peninsula, and the entrusting of the same Commissioners with the task of determining the value of the land. In less than four years from the lifting of the Great Siege on the 8th September 1565, work on the Valletta fortifications was sufficiently advanced to permit the start of the construction of edifices within the enceinte according to the plan of Francesco Laparelli. A list of contracts, street names, regulations and plot numberings is given in the following work.