Petitions to the Grand Master : the ‘suppliche’ documents as a major source for social history on Hospitaller Malta

Abstract

The present dissertation has been mainly based on seventeenth and eighteenth-century 'suppliche', a large collection of petitions submitted to the Grand Master from all strata of Maltese society. They are original archival documents preserved at the Order of St John’s archives at the National Library of Malta in Valletta. There are 14 volumes of these petitions. Each petition is an original, authentic document which sheds invaluable insight into the daily social life and needs of practically every sector of the population living on Hospitaller Malta, from the highest and the noblest to the lowest and the most wretched. Due to my limited word count, I have chosen to discuss the following themes — Insights into Hospitaller Lifestyle on Malta, Slavery, Corsairing and Trade. Each of these offered valuable insights into the social life on Hospitaller Malta. These themes stood out, as they contain large amounts of hitherto undiscovered information which would be very useful in the eventual general reconstruction of everyday life on early modern Malta. Hospitaller lifestyle on Malta consolidated the Order’s power on the island and emphasized how noblemen tried to hold on to this power in petitions supplicating, for example, to have one’s title either recognized or reconfirmed.