VISITING THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF ARCHAEOLOGY

Today, The Grandma has received a great surprised. Joseph de Ca'th Lon has arrived to Valetta to join her in her searching of Corto Maltese.

 

Joseph, a great expert in archaeology, has taken profit of his arrival to go to the National Museum of Archaeology with The Grandma to know the Maltese history, especially the Prehistorical age, and see the Sleeping Lady of Malta, a national treasure.

The National Museum of Archaeology is a Maltese museum of prehistoric artifacts, located in Valletta. It is managed by Heritage Malta.

The National Museum of Archaeology is housed in the Auberge de Provence, in Republic Street, Valletta. The building, an example of fine Baroque architecture, was built in 1571 and followed a plan by local architect Ġilormu Cassar, who directed the building of most important buildings in the early days of Valletta. The building’s façade is imprinted with Mannerist characteristics usually associated with Cassar.

The Auberge de Provence was house to the Knights of the Order of St John originating from Provence, and displays beautiful architectural features. Of particular note is the Grand Salon, with its richly painted walls and wooden beamed ceiling.

The Auberge de Provence was opened as the National Museum in 1958 by Agatha Barbara, then the Minister of Education. 

The museum originally included the archaeological collection on the ground floor and fine arts on the first floor. The first curator was Captain Charles G. Zammit, the son of the eminent Maltese archaeologist Sir Themistocles Zammit.

The Grand Salon on the first floor is the most ornate room in the building. The Knights used it for business discussions, and as a refectory and banqueting hall, where they sat at long tables according to seniority.

When Napoleon expelled the Knights from Malta in 1798 the Auberge was leased to the Malta Union Club. Though the lease was to expire in 2002, on 12 August 1955 the Auberge was assigned to house Malta's National Museum.

In 1974, the fine arts collection was moved to the National Museum of Fine Arts, newly established in the Admiralty House building in South Street, Valletta, and the National Museum was renamed the National Museum for Archaeology.

 

More info: Maltese History & Heritage

The museum was refurbished and upgraded in 1998. Artifacts were placed in climate-controlled displays so that the exhibition met with current conservation standards. The Museum exhibits a spectacular range of artefacts dating back to Malta’s Neolithic Period (5000 BC) up to the Phoenician Period (400 BC). On display are the earliest tools used by the prehistoric people to facilitate their daily tasks and representations of animal and human figures; elements which not only show the great artistic skills of the first dwellers of the island but also gives us an insight of their daily lives.

 

Highlights include the Sleeping Lady, from the Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum, the Venus of Malta, from Ħaġar Qim, bronze daggers, recovered from the Bronze Age layers at Tarxien Temples, the Horus & Anubis pendant and the anthropomorphic sarcophagus, both belonging to the Phoenician Period.

The Museum provides the visitor with a good introduction to the prehistory and early history of the Maltese Island and acts as a catalyst to the other archaeological sites in Malta.

 

Works are currently in progress to include another hall dedicated to the Punic period and others dedicated to the Roman and Byzantine periods in Malta.

There are some important reasons to visit this amazing museum:

-There are unique display of renowned valuable artefacts such as the Sleeping Lady, the Venus of Malta and the Horus and Anubis pendant.

-It serves as a good introduction to prehistory and early history in Malta.

-It's housed in one of the most elaborately decorated Baroque buildings in Valletta.

 

-It puts Malta’s archaeological sites in context.

The ground floor of the museum exhibits prehistoric artefacts from the Maltese islands, from the Għar Dalam phase (5200 BC), the earliest appearance of settlement on the island, up to the Tarxien phase (2500 BC).

 

The museum is divided in two important periods: the Early Neolithic Period Room (5200–3800 BC) and the Temple Period Rooms (3800–2500 BC).

The Early Neolithic Period Room (5200–3800 BC) exhibits artifacts from the early Neolithic Period, including decorated pottery from the Għar Dalam, Grey Skorba, Red Skorba and Żebbuġ phases. Of particular importance are the Red Skorba figurines, the earliest local representations of the human figure and the predecessors of the statues of later temple periods. The exhibition features a reconstruction of the rock-cut tombs that were a characteristic of the early Neolithic period in Malta. Rock-cut tombs reached their climax in burials like the Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum and the Xagħra Stone Circle; photographs of both sites are displayed in the museum.

The Temple Period Rooms (3800–2500 BC) show examples of architecture, human representation and other items that date from the Mġarr, Ġgantija, Saflieni and Tarxien phases of Maltese prehistory. The temples that were built at this time are considered to be the world’s first free standing monuments and are listed in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

 

More information: Heritage Malta

The museum exhibits numerous corpulent statues representing human bodies unearthed from temple excavations, along with phallic representations. 

Until recently the statues were called Mother Goddesses, Fat Ladies, Deities and Priests among other names, but it is now argued that these statues were probably asexual and represented a human being, irrespective of whether it was male or female. The representations vary in size and shape, with the largest being as tall as 2.7 m and the smallest 4 mm.

The discovery of temple altars and corpulent human representations suggests that some type of cult existed on the islands of Malta and Gozo in prehistory. Given the corpulency of the statues it may be that the cult was tied to a fertility rite. Fertility at this time must have been very important since, apart from family growth, it also meant the reproduction of crops and animals.

The exhibition includes altars excavated from the Tarxien Temples that were probably used for animal sacrifices. They were brought to the museum for conservation reasons.

 

More information: Jaunting Jen

 

Iż-żmien hu l-akbar għalliem.
Time is the greatest teacher. 

Maltese Proverbs

THE PHOENICIAN SETTLERS IN L-IMDINA, THE SILENT CITY

The Grandma loves silent places. She is visiting L-Imdina, the silent city in Malta.

Mdina, in Maltese L-Imdina, also known by its titles Città Vecchia or Città Notabile, is a fortified city in the Northern Region of Malta, which served as the island's capital from antiquity to the medieval period. 

The city is still confined within its walls, and has a population of just under 300, but it is contiguous with the town of Rabat, which takes its name from the Arabic word for suburb, and has a population of over 11,000. The city was founded as Maleth in around the 8th century BC by Phoenician settlers, and was later renamed Melite by the Romans. Ancient Melite was larger than present-day Mdina, and it was reduced to its present size during the Byzantine or Arab occupation of Malta. During the latter period, the city adopted its present name, which derives from the Arabic word medina. 

More information: Malta

The city remained the capital of Malta throughout the Middle Ages, until the arrival of the Order of St. John in 1530, when Birgu became the administrative centre of the island.  

Mdina experienced a period of decline over the following centuries, although it saw a revival in the early 18th century. At this point, it acquired several Baroque features, although it did not lose its medieval character.

Mdina remained the centre of the Maltese nobility and religious authorities, and property continues to largely be passed down from families and from generation to generation, but it never regained its pre-1530 importance, giving rise to the popular nickname the Silent City by both locals and visitors. Mdina is on the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and it is now one of the main tourist attractions in Malta.

More information: UNESCO

The plateau on which Mdina is built has been inhabited since prehistory, and by the Bronze Age it was a place of refuge since it was naturally defensible. The Phoenicians colonized Malta in around the 8th century BC, and they founded the city of Maleth on this plateau. 

It was taken over by the Roman Republic in 218 BC, becoming known as Melite. The Punic-Roman city was about three times the size of present-day Mdina and it was extending into a large part of modern Rabat.

According to Early Modern interpretation the Acts of the Apostles, when Paul the Apostle was shipwrecked on Malta in 60 AD, he was greeted by Publius, the governor of Melite, and he cured his sick father. According to tradition, the population of Melite converted to Christianity, and Publius became the first Bishop of Malta and then Bishop of Athens before being martyred in 112 AD.

More information: Visit Malta

Very few remains of the Punic-Roman city survive today. The most significant are the ruins of the Domvs Romana, in which several well-preserved mosaics, statues and other remains were discovered. Remains of the podium of a Temple of Apollo, fragments of the city walls and some other sites have also been excavated.

At some point following the fall of the Western Roman Empire, a retrenchment was built within the city, reducing it to its present size. 

This was done to make the city's perimeter more easily defensible, and similar reductions in city sizes were common around the Mediterranean region in the early Middle Ages. Although it was traditionally assumed that the retrenchment was built by the Arabs, it has been suggested that it was actually built by the Byzantine Empire in around the 8th century, when the threat from the Arabs increased.

In 870, Byzantine Melite, which was ruled by governor Amros, probably Ambrosios, was besieged by Aghlabids led by Halaf al-Hādim. He was killed in the fighting, and Sawāda Ibn Muhammad was sent from Sicily to continue the siege following his death. 

More information: Heritage Malta

The duration of the siege is unknown, but it probably lasted for some weeks or months. After Melite fell to the invaders, the inhabitants were massacred, the city was destroyed and its churches were looted. Marble from Melite's churches was used to build the castle of Sousse.

According to Al-Himyarī, Malta remained almost uninhabited until it was resettled in 1048 or 1049 by a Muslim community and their slaves, who built a settlement called Medina on the site of Melite. 

Archaeological evidence suggests that the city was already a thriving Muslim settlement by the beginning of the 11th century, so 1048–49 might be the date when the city was officially founded and its walls were constructed. 

The layout of the new city was completely different to that of ancient Melite. Mdina still has features typical of a medina, a legacy of the period of Arab rule.

The Byzantines besieged Medina in 1053–54, but were repelled by its defenders. The city surrendered peacefully to Roger I of Sicily after a short siege in 1091, and Malta was subsequently incorporated into the County and later the Kingdom of Sicily, being dominated by a succession of feudal lords. A castle known as the Castellu di la Chitati was built on the southeast corner of the city near the main entrance, probably on the site of an earlier Byzantine fort.

More information: Malta Guide

The population of Malta during the fifteenth century was about 10,000, with town life limited to Mdina, Birgu and the Gozo Citadel. Mdina was comparatively small and partly uninhabited and by 1419, it was already outgrown by its suburb, Rabat. 

Under Aragonese rule, local government rested on the Università, a communal body based in Mdina, which collected taxation and administered the islands' limited resources. At various points during the fifteenth century, this town council complained to its Aragonese overlords that the islands were at the mercy of the sea and the saracens.

More info: Malta Intercontinental

The city withstood a siege by Hafsid invaders in 1429. While the exact number of casualties or Maltese who were carried into slavery is unknown, the islands suffered depopulation in this raid.

When the Order of Saint John took over in Malta in 1530, the nobles ceremoniously handed over the keys of the city to Grand Master Philippe Villiers de L'Isle-Adam, but the Order settled in Birgu and Mdina lost its status as capital city. In the 1540s, the fortifications began to be upgraded during the magistracy of Juan de Homedes y Coscon, and in 1551 the city withstood a brief Ottoman attack.

During the Great Siege of Malta in 1565, Mdina was the base of the Order's cavalry, which made occasional sorties on the invading Ottomans. On 7 August 1565, the cavalry attacked the unprotected Ottoman field hospital, which led in the invaders abandoning a major assault on the main fortifications in Birgu and Senglea. 

 More information: Malta Uncovered

The Ottomans attempted to take Mdina in September so as to winter there, but abandoned their plans when the city fired its cannon, leading them to believe that it had ammunition to spare. After the siege, Maltese military engineer Girolamo Cassar drew up plans to reduce Mdina's size by half and turning it into a fortress, but these were never implemented due to protests by the city's nobles. The fortifications were again upgraded in the mid-17th century, when the large De Redin Bastion was built at the centre of the land front.

Mdina suffered severe damage during the 1693 Sicily earthquake, although no casualties were reported. The 13th-century Cathedral of St. Paul was partially destroyed, and it was rebuilt by Lorenzo Gafà in the Baroque style between 1697 and 1703.

On 3 November 1722, newly elected Grand Master António Manoel de Vilhena issued orders for the restoration and renovation of Mdina. This renovation was entrusted to the French architect and military engineer Charles François de Mondion, who introduced strong French Baroque elements into what was still a largely medieval city. 

More information: Malta Info Guide

At this point, large parts of the fortifications and the city entrance were completely rebuilt. The remains of the Castellu di la Chitati were demolished to make way for Palazzo Vilhena, while the main gate was walled up and a new Mdina Gate was built nearby. 

Several public buildings were also built, including the Banca Giuratale and the Corte Capitanale. The last major addition to the Mdina fortifications was Despuig Bastion, which was completed in 1746.

On 10 June 1798, Mdina was captured by French forces without much resistance during the French invasion of Malta. A French garrison remained in the city, but a Maltese uprising broke out on 2 September of that year. The following day, rebels entered the city through a sally port and massacred the garrison of 65 men. These events marked the beginning of a two-year uprising and blockade, and the Maltese set up a National Assembly which met at Mdina's Banca Giuratale. The rebels were successful, and in 1800 the French surrendered and Malta became a British protectorate.

From 1883 to 1931, Mdina was linked with Valletta by the Malta Railway. Today, Mdina is one of Malta's major tourist attractions, hosting about 750,000 tourists a year. No cars, other than a limited number of residents, emergency vehicles, wedding cars and horses, are allowed in Mdina, partly why it has earned the nickname the Silent City. The city displays an unusual mix of Norman and Baroque architecture, including several palaces, most of which serve as private homes. 

More information: Adventurous Kate

Iż-żmien hu l-akbar għalliem.

Time is the greatest teacher.

Maltese Proverb

MALTA & THE ORDER OF THE KNIGHTS OF SAINT JOHN (II)

In 1301, the Order was organized in seven languages; by order of precedence, Provence, Auvergne, France, Aragon, Italy, England, and Germany. In 1462, the Langue of Aragon was divided into Castile-Portugal, (Castilian) and Aragon-Navarre (Catalan).

The English Langue went into abeyance after the order's properties were taken over by Henry VIII in 1540. In 1782, it was revived as the Anglo-Bavarian Langue, containing Bavarian and Polish priories. The structure of languages was replaced in the late 19th century by a system of national associations.

When the Knights first arrived, the natives were apprehensive about their presence and viewed them as arrogant intruders. The Maltese were excluded from serving in the order. The Knights were even generally dismissive of the Maltese nobility. However, the two groups coexisted peacefully, since the Knights boosted the economy, were charitable, and protected against Muslim attacks.

More information: IEC

Not surprisingly, hospitals were among the first projects to be undertaken on Malta, where French soon supplanted Italian as the official language, though the native inhabitants continued to speak Maltese among themselves. The Knights also constructed fortresses, watch towers, and naturally, churches. Its acquisition of Malta signalled the beginning of the Order's renewed naval activity.

The building and fortification of Valletta, named for Grand Master la Valette, was begun in 1566, soon becoming the home port of one of the Mediterranean's most powerful navies. Valletta was designed by Francesco Laparelli, a military engineer, and his work was then taken up by Girolamo Cassar. The city was completed in 1571. The island's hospitals were expanded as well. 

The Sacra Infermeria could accommodate 500 patients and was famous as one of the finest in the world. In the vanguard of medicine, the Hospital of Malta included Schools of Anatomy, Surgery and Pharmacy.

Valletta itself was renowned as a centre of art and culture. The Conventual Church of St. John, completed in 1577, contains works by Caravaggio and others.

More information: Saint John of Jerusalem-Eye Hospital Group

In Europe, most of the Order's hospitals and chapels survived the Reformation, though not in Protestant or Evangelical countries. In Malta, meanwhile, the Public Library was established in 1761. 

The University was founded seven years later, followed, in 1786, by a School of Mathematics and Nautical Sciences. Despite these developments, some of the Maltese grew to resent the Order, which they viewed as a privileged class. This even included some of the local nobility, who were not admitted to the Order.

In Rhodes, the knights had been housed in auberges, inns, segregated by Langues. This structure was maintained in Birgu (1530–1571) and then Valletta, from 1571.

The auberges in Birgu remain mostly undistinguished 16th-century buildings. Valletta still has the auberges of Castille, 1574; renovated 1741 by Grand Master de Vilhena, now the Prime Minister's offices, Italy, renovated 1683 by Grand Master Carafa, now the Malta Tourism Authority, Aragon/Catalonia, 1571, now Ministry for EU Affairs, Bavaria, former Palazzo Carnerio, purchased in 1784 for the newly formed Langue, now used as the Government Property Department, and Provence, now National Museum of Archaeology. In the Second World War, the auberge d'Auvergne was damaged, and later replaced by Law Courts, and the auberge de France was destroyed.

More information: Museum Saint John (United Kingdom)

Charity begins at home, 

and justice begins next door. 

Charles Dickens

Their Mediterranean stronghold of Malta was captured by Napoleon in 1798 during his expedition to Egypt. Napoleon demanded from Grand Master Ferdinand von Hompesch zu Bolheim that his ships be allowed to enter the port and to take on water and supplies. The Grand Master replied that only two foreign ships could be allowed to enter the port at a time. Bonaparte, aware that such a procedure would take a very long time and would leave his forces vulnerable to Admiral Nelson, immediately ordered a cannon fusillade against Malta. The French soldiers disembarked in Malta at seven points on the morning of 11 June and attacked. After several hours of fierce fighting, the Maltese in the west were forced to surrender.

Napoleon opened negotiations with the fortress capital of Valletta. Faced with vastly superior French forces and the loss of western Malta, the Grand Master negotiated surrender to the invasion. Hompesch left Malta for Trieste on 18 June. He resigned as Grand Master on 6 July 1799.

The Knights were dispersed, though the order continued to exist in a diminished form and negotiated with European governments for a return to power. The Russian Emperor, Paul I, gave the largest number of Knights’ shelter in Saint Petersburg, an action which gave rise to the Russian tradition of the Knights Hospitaller and the Order's recognition among the Russian Imperial Orders. 

The refugee Knights in Saint Petersburg proceeded to elect Tsar Paul as their Grand Master, a rival to Grand Master von Hompesch until the latter's abdication left Paul as the sole Grand Master. 

Grand Master Paul I created, in addition to the Roman Catholic Grand Priory, a Russian Grand Priory of no fewer than 118 Commanderies, dwarfing the rest of the Order and open to all Christians. Paul's election as Grand Master was, however, never ratified under Roman Catholic canon law, and he was the de facto rather than de jure Grand Master of the Order.

By the early 19th century, the order had been severely weakened by the loss of its priories throughout Europe. Only 10% of the order's income came from traditional sources in Europe, with the remaining 90% being generated by the Russian Grand Priory until 1810. This was partly reflected in the government of the Order being under Lieutenants, rather than Grand Masters, in the period 1805 to 1879, when Pope Leo XIII restored a Grand Master to the order. This signalled the renewal of the order's fortunes as a humanitarian and religious organization.

 

More information: Foreign Policy 

On 19 September 1806, the Swedish government offered the sovereignty of the island of Gotland to the Order. The offer was rejected since it would have meant the Order renouncing their claim to Malta.

In 1834, the order settled in Rome. Hospital work, the original work of the order, became once again its main concern. The Order's hospital and welfare activities, undertaken on a considerable scale in World War I, were greatly intensified and expanded in World War II under the Grand Master Fra' Ludovico Chigi Albani della Rovere, Grand Master 1931–1951.

 

The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta, better known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), is a Roman Catholic lay religious order and the world's oldest surviving order of chivalry. Its sovereign status is recognised by membership in numerous international bodies and observer status at the United Nations and others.

The Order maintains diplomatic relations with 107 countries, official relations with 6 others and with the European Union, permanent observer missions to the United Nations and its specialised agencies, and delegations or representations in many other international organizations. 

It issues its own passports, currency, stamps and even vehicle registration plates. The Sovereign Military Order of Malta has a permanent presence in 120 countries, with 12 Grand Priories and Sub-Priories and 47 national Associations, as well as numerous hospitals, medical centres, day care centres, first aid corps, and specialist foundations, which operate in 120 countries. 

Its 13,500 members and 80,000 volunteers and over 42,000 medical personnel, doctors, nurses and paramedics, are dedicated to the care of the poor, the sick, the elderly, the disabled, the homeless, terminal patients, lepers, and all those who suffer. 

The Order is especially involved in helping victims of armed conflicts and natural disasters by providing medical assistance, caring for refugees, and distributing medicines and basic equipment for survival.

The Sovereign Military Order of Malta established a mission in Malta, after signing an agreement with the Maltese Government which granted the Order the exclusive use of Fort St. Angelo for a term of 99 years. Today, after restoration, the Fort hosts historical and cultural activities related to the Order of Malta.

More information: Independent

 

True charity is the desire to be useful 

to others with no thought of recompense. 

Emanuel Swedenborg

MALTA & THE ORDER OF THE KNIGHTS OF SAINT JOHN (I)

Today, The Grandma wants to talk about one of the oldest European orders: The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem whose history in Malta has left lots of footprints in these islands. It's an amazing part of our history that The Grandma wants to share with her family in a two-parts story.

The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, also known as the Order of Saint John, Order of Hospitallers, Knights Hospitaller, Knights Hospitalier or Hospitallers, was a medieval Catholic military order that became the modern Sovereign Military Order of Malta, which remains a sovereign subject of international law, as well as the Protestant members of the Alliance of the Orders of Saint John of Jerusalem. It was headquartered variously in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, on the island of Rhodes, and in Malta, and it is now headquartered in Rome.

The Hospitallers arose in the early 11th century, at the time of the great monastic reformation, as a group of individuals associated with an Amalfitan hospital in the Muristan district of Jerusalem, dedicated to John the Baptist and founded around 1023 by Gerard Thom to provide care for sick, poor or injured pilgrims coming to the Holy Land. 

Some scholars, however, consider that the Amalfitan order and hospital were different from Gerard Thom's order and its hospital. 

After the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099 during the First Crusade, the organisation became a religious and military order under its own Papal charter, charged with the care and defence of the Holy Land.

 

More information: Order of Malta

Following the conquest of the Holy Land by Islamic forces, the knights operated from Rhodes, over which they were sovereign, and later from Malta, where they administered a vassal state under the Spanish viceroy of Sicily. The Hospitallers were the smallest group to colonise parts of the Americas; at one point in the mid-17th century, they acquired four Caribbean islands, which they turned over to the French in the 1660s.

The knights were weakened in the Protestant Reformation, when rich commanderies of the order in northern Germany and the Netherlands became Protestant and largely separated from the Roman Catholic main stem, remaining separate to this day, although ecumenical relations between the descendant chivalric orders are amicable. 

The order was disestablished in England, Denmark, Sweden and elsewhere in northern Europe, and it was further damaged by Napoleon's capture of Malta in 1798, following which it became dispersed throughout Europe and Russia. 

It regained strength during the early 19th century as it redirected itself toward religious and humanitarian causes. In 1834, the order, by this time known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, acquired new headquarters in Rome, where it has since been based.

More information: Sovereign Order of Saint John of Malta

In 603, Pope Gregory I commissioned the Ravennate Abbot Probus, who was previously Gregory's emissary at the Lombard court, to build a hospital in Jerusalem to treat and care for Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land. 

In 800, Emperor Charlemagne enlarged Probus' hospital and added a library to it. About 200 years later, in 1005, Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah destroyed the hospital and three thousand other buildings in Jerusalem. 

In 1023, merchants from Amalfi and Salerno in Italy were given permission by the Caliph Ali az-Zahir of Egypt to rebuild the hospital in Jerusalem. The hospital, which was built on the site of the monastery of Saint John the Baptist, took in Christian pilgrims traveling to visit the Christian holy sites. It was served by the Order of Saint Benedict.

The monastic hospitaller order was founded following the First Crusade by Gerard Thom, whose role as founder was confirmed by the papal bull Pie Postulatio Voluntatis issued by Pope Paschal II in 1113. 

After centuries from place to place in Europe, the knights gained fixed quarters in 1530 when Charles I of Spain, as King of Sicily, gave them Malta, Gozo and the North African port of Tripoli in perpetual fiefdom in exchange for an annual fee of a single Maltese falcon, the Tribute of the Maltese Falcon, which they were to send on All Souls' Day to the King's representative, the Viceroy of Sicily.

The Hospitallers continued their actions against the Muslims and especially the Barbary pirates. Although they had only a few ships they quickly drew the ire of the Ottomans, who were unhappy to see the order resettled. In 1565 Suleiman sent an invasion force of about 40,000 men to besiege the 700 knights and 8,000 soldiers and expel them from Malta and gain a new base from which to possibly launch another assault on Europe. This is known as the Great Siege of Malta.

 

 

Take this sword:

In Brightness Stands for Faith

Its point for hope,

Its guard for Charity,

Use it well...

Hospitaller Rite of Profession

At first the battle went as badly for the Hospitallers as Rhodes had: most of the cities were destroyed and about half the knights killed. On 18 August the position of the besieged was becoming desperate: dwindling daily in numbers, they were becoming too feeble to hold the long line of fortifications. But when his council suggested the abandonment of Birgu and Senglea and withdrawal to Fort St. Angelo, Grand Master Jean Parisot de Valette refused.

The Viceroy of Sicily had not sent help; possibly the Viceroy's orders from Philip II of Spain were so obscurely worded as to put on his own shoulders the burden of the decision whether to help the Order at the expense of his own defences. 

A wrong decision could mean defeat and exposing Sicily and Naples to the Ottomans. He had left his own son with La Valette, so he could hardly be indifferent to the fate of the fortress. 

Whatever may have been the cause of his delay, the Viceroy hesitated until the battle had almost been decided by the unaided efforts of the knights, before being forced to move by the indignation of his own officers.

On 23 August came yet another grand assault, the last serious effort, as it proved, of the besiegers. It was thrown back with the greatest difficulty, even the wounded taking part in the defence. The plight of the Turkish forces, however, was now desperate. With the exception of Fort Saint Elmo, the fortifications were still intact. 

More information: Medieval Warfare

Working night and day the garrison had repaired the breaches, and the capture of Malta seemed more and more impossible. Many of the Ottoman troops in crowded quarters had fallen ill over the terrible summer months. Ammunition and food were beginning to run short, and the Ottoman troops were becoming increasingly dispirited by the failure of their attacks and their losses.

The death on 23 June of skilled commander Dragut, a corsair and admiral of the Ottoman fleet, was a serious blow. 

The Turkish commanders, Piali Pasha and Lala Mustafa Pasha, were careless. They had a huge fleet which they used with effect on only one occasion. They neglected their communications with the African coast and made no attempt to watch and intercept Sicilian reinforcements.

On 1 September they made their last effort, but the morale of the Ottoman troops had deteriorated seriously and the attack was feeble, to the great encouragement of the besieged, who now began to see hopes of deliverance.

More information: St John's Co Cathedral

The perplexed and indecisive Ottomans heard of the arrival of Sicilian reinforcements in Mellieħa Bay. Unaware that the force was very small, they broke off the siege and left on 8 September. The Great Siege of Malta may have been the last action in which a force of knights won a decisive victory.

When the Ottomans departed, the Hospitallers had but 600 men able to bear arms. The most reliable estimate puts the number of the Ottoman army at its height at some 40,000 men, of whom 15,000 eventually returned to Constantinople. 

After the siege a new city had to be built: the present capital city of Malta, named Valletta in memory of the Grand Master who had withstood the siege. In 1607, the Grand Master of the Hospitallers was granted the status of Reichsfürst, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, even though the Order's territory was always south of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1630, he was awarded ecclesiastic equality with cardinals, and the unique hybrid style His Most Eminent Highness, reflecting both qualities qualifying him as a true Prince of the Church.

More information: Malta Uncovered

Having gained Malta, the knights stayed for 268 years, transforming what they called merely a rock of soft sandstone into a flourishing island with mighty defences and a capital city, Valletta, known as Superbissima, Most Proud, amongst the great powers of Europe. However, the indigenous islanders had not particularly enjoyed the rule of the Knights of St John. Most Knights were French and excluded the native islanders from important positions. They were especially loathed for the way they took advantage of the native women.

To be continued... 

 

 

 In Malta, the Wars of Religion reached their climax. 

If both sides believed that they saw Paradise 

in the bright sky above them, 

they had a close and very intimate knowledge of Hell.

Ernle Bradford

THE GRANDMA WAITS FOR THE FOSTERS IN VALLETTA

The Grandma has just arrived to Valetta where The Fosters are going to arrive today to spend some days before their A2 Cambridge Exam. 

Meanwhile, The Grandma has decided to travel to Malta to search Corto Maltese, her great lover.

The Grandma loves Malta and she is taking profit of this travel to visit the island again and enjoy one of the most beautiful places around the world.

Valletta is the capital city of Malta, colloquially known as Il-Belt, The City, in Maltese. Geographically, it is located in the South Eastern Region, in the central-eastern portion of the main island of Malta having its western coast with access to the Marsamxett Harbour and its eastern coast in the Grand Harbour. 

The historical city has a population of 6,444, while the metropolitan area around it has a population of 393,938. Valletta is the southernmost capital of Europe and the second southernmost capital of the European Union after Nicosia.

Valletta contains buildings from the 16th century onwards, built during the rule of the Order of St. John also known as Knights Hospitaller. The city is essentially Baroque in character, with elements of Mannerist, Neo-Classical and Modern architecture in selected areas, though the Second World War left major scars on the city, particularly the destruction of the Royal Opera House. 

The City of Valletta was officially recognised as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1980.

More information: Visit Malta

The official name given by the Order of Saint John was Humilissima Civitas Valletta—The Most Humble City of Valletta, or Città Umilissima in Italian. The city's fortifications, consisting of bastions, curtains and cavaliers, along with the beauty of its Baroque palaces, gardens and churches, led the ruling houses of Europe to give the city its nickname Superbissima—Most Proud.

The peninsula was previously called Xaghret Mewwija. Mewwija refers to a sheltered place. The extreme end of the peninsula names Xebb ir-Ras of which name origins from the lighthouse on site. A family which surely owned land became known as Sceberras, now a Maltese surname as Sciberras. At one point the entire peninsula became known as Sceberras.

From 1566 to 1798 the Island was under The Order of Saint John. In 1798, the Order left the islands and the French occupation of Malta began. After the Maltese rebelled, French troops continued to occupy Valletta and the surrounding harbour area, until they capitulated to the British in September 1800. 

More information: UNESCO

In the early 19th century, the British Civil Commissioner, Henry Pigot, agreed to demolish the majority of the city's fortifications. The demolition was again proposed in the 1870s and 1880s, but it was never carried out and the fortifications have survived largely intact.

Eventually building projects in Valletta resumed under British rule. These projects included widening gates, demolishing and rebuilding structures, widening newer houses over the years, and installing civic projects. 

The Malta Railway, which linked Valletta to Mdina, was officially opened in 1883. It was closed down in 1931 after buses became a popular means of transport.

In 1939, Valletta was abandoned as the headquarters of the Royal Navy Mediterranean Fleet due to its proximity to Italy and the city became a flashpoint during the subsequent two-year long Siege of Malta.

 

More information: The French Occupation-Visit Malta

 

German and Italian air raids throughout the Second World War caused much destruction in Valletta and the rest of the harbour area. The Royal Opera House, constructed at the city entrance in the 19th century, was one of the buildings lost to the raids.

The entire city of Valletta has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1980, along with Megalithic Temples of Malta and the Hypogeum of Ħal-Saflieni.

The architecture of Valletta's streets and piazzas ranges from mid-16th century Baroque to Modernism. Buildings of historic importance include St John's Co-Cathedral, formerly the Conventual Church of the Knights of Malta. It has the only signed work and largest painting by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. 

The Auberge de Castille et Leon, formerly the official seat of the Knights of Malta of the Langue of Castille, Léon and Portugal, is now the office of the Prime Minister of Malta. 

More information: World War II-Visit Malta

The Grandmaster's Palace, built between 1571 and 1574 and formerly the seat of the Grand Master of the Knights of Malta, used to house the Maltese Parliament, now situated in a purpose-built structure at the entrance to the city, and now houses the offices of the President of Malta.

The National Museum of Fine Arts is a Rococo palace dating back to the late 1570s, which served as the official residence of the Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet during the British era from the 1820s onwards. The Manoel Theatre was constructed in just ten months in 1731, by order of Grand Master António Manoel de Vilhena, and is one of the oldest working theatres in Europe.

The Mediterranean Conference Centre was formerly the Sacra Infermeria. Built in 1574, it was one of Europe's most renowned hospitals during the Renaissance. The fortifications of the port, built by the Knights as a magnificent series of bastions, demi-bastions, cavaliers and curtains, approximately 100 metres high, all contribute to the unique architectural quality of the city.

More information: Daily Mail

Min jistenna jithenna.

He who waits is rewarded. 

Maltese Proverb

NOTTING HILL, THE FOSTERS SAY GOODBYE TO LONDON

Today, The Fosters and The Grandma have spent their last day in London. They are going to travel to Malta to spend some free days preparing their A2 Cambridge Exam in a peaceful environment.

Before leaving London, the family has visited William and Anna, some Grandma's old friends who lived in Notting Hill and own a bookshop. They have bought some books to read during their staying in Malta, and met one of the most wonderful suburbs of London.

Notting Hill is a district of West London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. 

Notting Hill is known for being a cosmopolitan and multicultural neighbourhood, hosting the annual Notting Hill Carnival and the Portobello Road Market. From around 1870, Notting Hill had an association with artists.

For much of the 20th century, the large houses were subdivided into multi-occupancy rentals. European, Caribbean (both African Caribbeans and White Caribbeans), African, Indian, Arab, Asian, South American, and other immigrants were drawn to the area in the 1950s, partly because of the cheap rents, but were exploited by slum landlords like Peter Rachman and also became the target of white Teddy Boys in the 1958 Notting Hill race riots.

By the early 21st century, after decades of gentrification, Notting Hill had gained a reputation as an affluent and fashionable area, known for attractive terraces of large Victorian townhouses and high-end shopping and restaurants, particularly around Westbourne Grove and Clarendon Cross.

Notting Hill is in the ceremonial county of Greater London although it was formerly a hamlet on rural land until the expansion of urban London during the 19th century.

As late as 1870, even after the hamlet had become a London suburb, Notting Hill was still popularly referred to as being in Middlesex rather than in London.

More information: Visit London

The origin of the name Notting Hill is uncertain though an early version appears in the Patent Rolls of 1356 as Knottynghull, while an 1878 text, Old and New London, reports that the name derives from a manor in Kensington called Knotting-Bernes, Knutting-Barnes, or Nutting-barns, and goes on to quote from a court record during Henry VIII's reign that the manor called Notingbarons, alias Kensington, in the parish of Paddington, was held of the Abbot of Westminster. For years, it was thought to be a link with Canute, but it is now thought likely that the Nott section of the name is derived from the Saxon personal name Cnotta, with the ing part generally accepted as coming from the Saxon for a group or settlement of people.

The area in the west around Pottery Lane was used in the early 19th century for making bricks and tiles out of the heavy clay dug in the area. The clay was shaped and fired in a series of brick and tile kilns. The only remaining 19th-century tile kiln in London is on Walmer Road. In the same area, pig farmers moved in after being forced out of the Marble Arch area. Avondale Park was created in 1892 out of a former area of pig slurry called the Ocean. This was part of a general clean-up of the area which had become known as the Potteries and Piggeries.

By the 1980s, single-occupation houses began to return to favour with families who could afford to occupy them, and because of the open spaces and stylish architecture Notting Hill is today one of London's most desirable areas. Several parts of Notting Hill are characterised by handsome stucco-fronted pillar-porched houses, often with private gardens, notably around Pembridge Place and Dawson Place and streets radiating from the southern part of Ladbroke Grove, many of which lead onto substantial communal gardens. There are grand terraces, such as Kensington Park Gardens, and large villas as in Pembridge Square and around Holland Park. There is also new construction of modern houses tucked away on backland sites.

Since at least 2000, independent shops in Portobello such as Culture Shack have lost out to multinational standardised chains such as Starbucks.

In 2009, Lipka's Arcade, a large indoor antiques market, was replaced by the high-street chain AllSaints. Reflecting the increasing demise of one of the most culturally vibrant parts of central London, the 2011 Census showed that in the borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in which Notting Hill is situated, the number of Black or Black British and White Irish residents, two of the traditionally largest ethnic minority groups in Notting Hill, declined by 46 and 28 percent respectively in ten years.

The district adjoins two large public parks, Holland Park and Kensington Gardens, with Hyde Park within 1.6 km to the east. The gentrification has encompassed some streets that were among the 1980s' most decrepit, including the now expensive retail sections of Westbourne Grove and Ledbury Road, as well as Portobello Road's emergence as a top London tourist attraction and Chamberlayne Road as a local shopping street with its boutique independent shops. Notting Hill has a high concentration of restaurants, including the two Michelin-rated The Ledbury and Core by Clare Smyth.

More information: Roger Ebert

 You are lovelier this morning

than you have ever been.

William Thacker

1609, W. SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS ARE FIRST PUBLISHED

Today, The Fosters & The Grandma have been reading one of the most universal authors of all time, William Shakespeare, whose sonnets were published on a day like today in 1609.

Shakespeare's sonnets are poems written by William Shakespeare on a variety of themes. When discussing or referring to Shakespeare's sonnets, it is almost always a reference to the 154 sonnets that were first published all together in a quarto in 1609. However, there are six additional sonnets that Shakespeare wrote and included in the plays Romeo and Juliet, Henry V and Love's Labour's Lost. There is also a partial sonnet found in the play Edward III.

Shakespeare's sonnets are considered a continuation of the sonnet tradition that swept through the Renaissance from Petrarch in 14th-century Italy and was finally introduced in 16th-century England by Thomas Wyatt and was given its rhyming metre and division into quatrains by Henry Howard. With few exceptions, Shakespeare's sonnets observe the stylistic form of the English sonnet-the rhyme scheme, the 14 lines, and the metre. But Shakespeare's sonnets introduce such significant departures of content that they seem to be rebelling against well-worn 200-year-old traditions.

Instead of expressing worshipful love for an almost goddess-like yet unobtainable female love-object, as Petrarch, Dante, and Philip Sidney had done, Shakespeare introduces a young man. He also introduces the Dark Lady, who is no goddess.

Shakespeare explores themes such as lust, homoeroticism, misogyny, infidelity, and acrimony in ways that may challenge, but which also open new terrain for the sonnet form.

The primary source of Shakespeare's sonnets is a quarto published in 1609 titled Shake-speare's Sonnets.

It contains 154 sonnets, which are followed by the long poem A Lover's Complaint. Thirteen copies of the quarto have survived in fairly good shape from the 1609 edition, which is the only edition; there were no other printings. There is evidence in a note on the title page of one of the extant copies that the great Elizabethan actor Edward Alleyn bought a copy in June 1609 for one shilling.

The sonnets cover such themes as the passage of time, love, infidelity, jealousy, beauty and mortality. The first 126 are addressed to a young man; the last 28 are either addressed to, or refer to, a woman. Sonnets 138 and 144 had previously been published in the 1599 miscellany The Passionate Pilgrim.

More information: No Weat Shakespeare

The title of the quarto, Shake-speare's Sonnets, is consistent with the entry in the Stationer Register. The title appears in upper case lettering on the title page, where it is followed by the phrase Neuer before Imprinted.

The title also appears every time the quarto is opened. That the author’s name in a possessive form is part of the title sets it apart from all other sonnet collections of the time, except for one -Sir Philip Sidney's posthumous 1591 publication that is titled, Syr. P.S. his Astrophel and Stella, which is considered one of Shakespeare's most important models.

Sidney's title may have inspired Shakespeare, particularly if the W.H. of Shakespeare's dedication is Sidney's nephew and heir, William Herbert. The idea that the persona referred to as the speaker of the Shakespeare's sonnets might be Shakespeare himself, is aggressively repudiated by scholars; however, the title of the quarto does seem to encourage that kind of speculation.

The first 17 poems, traditionally called the procreation sonnets, are addressed to the young man -urging him to marry and have children in order to immortalize his beauty by passing it to the next generation. Other sonnets express the speaker's love for the young man; brood upon loneliness, death, and the transience of life; seem to criticize the young man for preferring a rival poet; express ambiguous feelings for the speaker's mistress; and pun on the poet's name. The final two sonnets are allegorical treatments of Greek epigrams referring to the little love-god Cupid.

The publisher, Thomas Thorpe, entered the book in the Stationers' Register on 20 May 1609.

Whether Thorpe used an authorized manuscript from Shakespeare or an unauthorized copy is unknown. George Eld printed the quarto, and the run was divided between the booksellers William Aspley and John Wright.

The sonnets are almost all constructed of three quatrains (four-line stanzas) followed by a final couplet.

The sonnets are composed in iambic pentameter, the metre used in Shakespeare's plays.

The rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.

Sonnets using this scheme are known as Shakespearean sonnets, or English sonnets, or Elizabethan sonnets. Often, at the end of the third quatrain occurs the volta (turn), where the mood of the poem shifts, and the poet expresses a turn of thought.

More information: Shakespeare's Sonnets

There are a few exceptions: Sonnets 99, 126, and 145. Number 99 has fifteen lines. Number 126 consists of six couplets, and two blank lines marked with italic brackets; 145 is in iambic tetrameters, not pentameters. In one other variation on the standard structure, found for example in sonnet 29, the rhyme scheme is changed by repeating the second (B) rhyme of quatrain one as the second (F) rhyme of quatrain three.

Apart from rhyme, and considering only the arrangement of ideas, and the placement of the volta, a number of sonnets maintain the two-part organization of the Italian sonnet. In that case the term octave and sestet are commonly used to refer to the sonnet’s first eight lines followed by the remaining six lines. There are other line-groupings as well, as Shakespeare finds inventive ways with the content of the fourteen line poems.

When analysed as characters, the subjects of the sonnets are usually referred to as the Fair Youth, the Rival Poet, and the Dark Lady. The speaker expresses admiration for the Fair Youth's beauty, and -if reading the sonnets in chronological order as published- later has an affair with the Dark Lady, then so does the Fair Youth.

Current linguistic analysis and historical evidence suggests, however, that the sonnets to the Dark Lady were composed first (around 1591–95), the procreation sonnets next, and the later sonnets to the Fair Youth last (1597–1603).

It is not known whether the poems and their characters are fiction or autobiographical; scholars who find the sonnets to be autobiographical have attempted to identify the characters with historical individuals.

In his plays, Shakespeare himself seemed to be a satiric critic of sonnets -the allusions to them are often scornful. Then Shakespeare went on to create one of the longest sonnet-sequences of his era, a sequence that took some sharp turns away from the tradition.

The critical focus has turned instead, through New Criticism and by scholars such as Stephen Booth and Helen Vendler, to the text itself, which is studied and appreciated linguistically as a highly complex structure of language and ideas.

There are sonnets written by Shakespeare that occur in his plays. They differ from the 154 sonnets published in the 1609, because they may lack the deep introspection, for example, and they are written to serve the needs of a performance, exposition or narrative.

More information: Shakespeare MIT

To do a great right do a little wrong.

William Shakespeare