Insights into social life on Hospitaller Malta and Gozo : seventeenth- and eighteenth-century petitions to the Grand Master

Abstract

The main purpose of the present dissertation is to offer a few insights into the social life on Malta and Gozo in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a time when the Maltese Islands were under the government of the Hospitaller Order of St. John. The main archival sources that have been consulted for this study are the hitherto unedited collections of original suppliche or petitions to the Grand Master that are kept at the National Library of Malta in Valletta and at the National Archives in Gozo. Most of these documents have survived in very good condition; others are somewhat difficult to read or are damaged. I have consulted a substantial number of these suppliche and, with the information they provide, I have endeavoured to reconstruct a few aspects of social life on Malta and Gozo at the time of the Knights Hospitaller. Within the constraints of the required word limit, I could only discuss what I considered to have been the main social groups. The Introduction provides a general picture of the social situation on the Maltese Islands to serve as the contextual framework to the four subsequent chapters. The first chapter deals with petitions submitted to the Grand Master by the Hospitallers themselves. These were mostly concerned with administrative matters, but there were others that shed light on the social interaction between members of the Order and the local inhabitants. Chapter 2 relates to the clergy and the religious orders. Both social groups played a significant role in the everyday social life of the Maltese and Gozitans. In early modern times the lives of the natives depended quite considerably on the secular clergy and the religious orders. Chapter 3 discusses the role of women in the family. The fourth and final chapter deals with other social groups — the nobility, the medical professionals, the notaries, and the merchants and consuls. As a final note, I would like to thank and express my deepest gratitude to all individuals who have helped me in any way when I was working on this dissertation. First and foremost, I wish to thank my tutor, Prof. Victor Mallia-Milanes for his constant support and guidance throughout my research and the writing of this work. I would also like to thank the staff of the National Library of Malta in Valletta and of the National Archives in Gozo. Finally, a special thanks goes to my family and my boyfriend for their moral support and encouragement.