Description
The book breaks new ground in so far as it brings together the information from extensive archival research into a variety of primary sources, such as notarial contracts and court proceedings, proving once more (if proof is required) the seminal importance of these sources for our social history. The author’s findings, embracing and grounded on an exhaustive data base on Naxxar and its satellite villages and hamlets covering the period between 1546 (when Naxxar parish records start) and 1610, shed insightful light on such diverse aspects of village life as life expectancy, child labour, migration, defence strategy, trade, morality, place-names, agriculture, land ownership, religious practices, and other patterns of behaviour and, last but not least, a masterly etching of the central figure around whom village life revolved and who dominated the parish scene, Don Juliano Borg (1544-1610), parish priest of Naxxar (1570-1610). The chosen years under consideration were formative years for the parish. Two major filial parishes – Mosta and Għargħur – were erected and dismembered from the Naxxar matrix, Għargħur in 1598 and Mosta ten years later in 1608. The book is a major contribution to Malta’s social history since, together with other studies, it provides important insights and essential tesserae in the building up of the mosaic of our island’s past.
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