The 1551 siege of Gozo and the repopulation of the island

Abstract

I have already considered the depopulation of Gozo of 1551 and its aftermath - a central event in Gozitan history - in an earlier paper published in Melita Historica of 1986. In that work the principal primary sources utilized have been the notarial and the parochial records. I have since had the opportunity to look into another important source - the Courts records - information which both corroborates the picture that has already emerged as well as supplements it with important details. The Acta of the various Curie on these islands are not in the best of states of preservation and are very patchy for the period under consideration. Fortunately, however, the Bishops' Curial records are available and a number of cases that involved clerics on Gozo came to be settled in, or had transcripts made for, that tribunal, affording thereby valuable information.