| CODE | HST1054 | ||||||||
| TITLE | Hospitaller Malta: The Island of the Knights | ||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 01 - Year 1 in Modular Undergraduate Course | ||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 5 | ||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 4 | ||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | History | ||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | This unit offers an analytical and critical account of the major features of Hospitaller Malta, that is the history of Malta under the rule of the Order of the Hospital from 1530 to 1798. It aims to show what Malta looked like immediately before the Hospitallers’ arrival and how it changed by the time they were forced to leave, 268 years later. The change was quantitative and qualitative, structural and permanent, and it occurred in practically every sphere of life — social, economic, cultural. The Order of the Hospital was the driving force behind this radical change. The study-unit will discuss this slow but consistent process of transformation. This study-unit will discuss through lectures the following themes: • What was the Order of the Hospital? • Why and how did it come to settle on Malta? • The state of late-medieval Malta • The Mediterranean in early modern times • The first 35 years of Malta’s Hospitaller rule • The Ottoman siege of Hospitaller Malta, 1565, and its long-term historical significance • The building of Valletta and the fortification of the island • Hospitaller Malta’s economy • Hospitaller Malta’s social & cultural development • Hospitaller Malta’s relations with Europe and the Mediterranean • The end of the Order of the Hospital on Malta. Study-Unit Aims: • To offer students a clear idea of how history is written, and how the past is reconstructed; • To make students aware of the historical process of continuous change; • To help students understand and appreciate the Order of the Hospital’s legacy for Malta. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: • describe such concepts as short- and long-term changes; • list the determining forces behind the process of change and the role of people in this; • discuss the character of the Order’s rule compared to previous and later foreign dominations of the Island; • characterize the debate about the concept of decline in history; • recognize the fact that nobody can claim the last word in history; • express clearly the need to approach the written word critically. 2. Skills By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: • review, approach and critically read historical sources; • establish the ability to establish a historical fact; • reconstruct an aspect of the past. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Main Texts: • V. Mallia-Milanes (ed.), Hospitaller Malta: Studies on Early Modern Malta and the Order of St John of Jerusalem 1530–1798, (Malta, 1992). • E. Schermerhorn, Malta of the Knights, (London, 1929). • L. Boisgelin, Ancient and Modern Malta, 3 vols, (London, 1805) [Facsicimile edition, 1988]. Supplementary Readings: • B. Blouet, The Story of Malta, (Malta, 2004). • A. Hoppen, The fortification of Malta by the Order of St. John, 1530-1798, (Malta, 1999). |
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| ADDITIONAL NOTES | This study-unit is solely offered to Undergraduate Diploma in Maltese History in Context students. | ||||||||
| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture | ||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Victor Mallia Milanes |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2024/5. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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