Struggling against isolation communication lines and the circulation of news in the Mediterranean : the case of seventeenth-century Malta

Abstract

Communication with the outside world is vital for the survival of any community, regardless of time and geography. This is particularly so for an island community. Lying uncomfortably on the North-South, East-West, Muslim-Christian divide of the Inland Sea in the Early Modern era, and forever wary of the threat from Barbary to the South and the Ottomans to the East, Hospitaller Malta lived in a constant state of readiness for war and in a perpetual state of dependence for subsistence on Sicily and beyond. The need to maintain open the lines of communication with the mainland of Europe, and to be constantly updated on the maritime movements of the enemy was absolutely essential for the survival of the island.

The present study, based mostly on the outgoing correspondence of the various Hospitaller magistracies throughout the seventeenth century, will attempt to analyse the Knights’ endeavours to keep open communication lines with foreign states and territories.