Everyday life during the Hospitaller period : sources and approaches

Abstract

To set the parameters for this paper, three episodes from the records of the Magna Curia Castellaniae ,will be cited by way., of examples of the 'everyday'. The first example takes us to Gozo. In late August 1680, at around 6 pm, Maestro Juliano Muscat, who ran a barber shop in Rabat, was on his way home to Xewkija, riding a donkey. He was not alone because his six-year old son Mariutto was riding along with with. It is an almost idyllic image from a simpler time: a man,Juliano, working as a barber in Rabat, Gozo, going home after a hard day's work. The young Mariutto, presumably, had spent the day in his father's barber shop, listening to men's tales and subtly learning the trade he ,would be expected to carry on. And when the working day, was over, father, son and donkey, were heading back home. Suddenly, this picture of harmony was torn asunder when Michaele Mercieca burst out of his house with a stick in his hands, hit Juliano with it and threw him off the donkey, toppling also the young Mariutto, who ended up ,with a bad bruise to his right eye.