Disaster management in late seventeeth-century hospitaller Malta (c.1675-c.1700)

Abstract

Security was probably the main benefit the Order of St John brought to these islands during its Maltese phase. Economic well-being was another, and equally important. Historians generally agree that Malta saw considerable progress in the seventeenth century. The coastal defence was strengthened, a permanent Lazzaretto was built in 1643, the Holy Infirmary was enlarged, the vault of the Conventual Church was embellished with Mattia Preti’s paintings, and the Order’s small fleet kept its momentum and was active in its campaigns against the infidel. Valletta was a thriving city. Resident consular representatives from at least fifteen states, kingdoms, cities and ports looked after the interests of their countrymen. However, as in any period, Malta was threatened by or actually suffered from natural or man-provoked disasters. Four such disasters are found in the well-known invocations in the Litany of the Saints, ‘a flagello terraemotus’ and ‘a peste, fame et bello, libera nos Domine’ (‘from the scourge of earthquake’ and ‘from plague, famine and war, deliver us O Lord’). One could have chosen to deal with one particular disaster only, or with all the disasters known to have happened over a short or a longer period of time. Neither approach was chosen. Instead, two major disasters were selected that happened in less than twenty years during the last quarter of the seventeenth century so that points of similarity and divergence in the Order’s reaction to them, and its recovery from them, could be studied and assessed. While the plague of 1676 and the earthquake of 1693, the two disasters to be analysed in this dissertation, both left an indelible mark on Maltese society, the primary and secondary sources available for the study of each calamity are so disproportionate in number and content that inevitably the dissertation dedicates much more space to the plague than to the earthquake. Clarification on the use of some sets of nomenclature is considered appropriate. The phrase ‘the Maltese islands’ or ‘the islands’ and the word ‘Malta’ are used interchangeably, unless it is clear from the context that the island of Gozo is being excluded. The phrases ‘the Order’ or ‘the Order of St John’ are deemed sufficiently clear and have been preferred to longer titles. Although the plague started in the last days of 1675 and continued till September 1676, it is generally known as ‘the plague of 1676’ and so will it be indicated in this dissertation. However, to avoid repetition, ‘the plague of 1676’ and ‘the earthquake of 1693’ are very often referred to simply as ‘the plague’ or ‘the earthquake’ or ‘the two calamities’ or other very obvious designations. ‘The Church’ is synonymous with ‘the Roman Catholic Church’. With regard to the relevant manuscripts in Italian or Latin at the National Library of Malta, the Notarial Archives, the Archives of the Cathedral in Mdina and other repositories, and with regard to printed primary sources in the Latin, I trust to have made faithful translations that convey in English the content as clearly as possible while generally retaining the style of the known or unknown authors.