The Plague of 1676 and the Earthquake of 1693

Mario Sciriha was born in Sliema on 11 December 1956. He received his primary education at St Joseph School, Blata l-Bajda, and his secondary education at the Lyceum, Ħamrun. After obtaining a BA (Hons) in Maltese in 1979, he furthered his studies and completed the Diploma in the Teaching of Arabic in 1982. In 1986 he obtained the Diploma in Education from the University of London, and in 1999 was awarded the Diploma in Educational Management and Administration. He successfully completed a Master’s degree in Hospitaller Studies in 2015 following the submission of a dissertation entitled Disaster Management in Late Seventeenth-Century Hospitaller Malta. He has been a teacher since 1979, and presently teaches at the Giovanni Curmi Higher Secondary School, Naxxar.

Synopsis

Sponsored by the Alfred Mizzi Foundation. 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, but two major disasters happening in less than twenty years during the last quarter of the century inevitably checked the progress of the islands. The plague of 1676 annihilated a fifth of the population, and the earthquake of 1693 caused considerable damage to numerous buildings but no known victims. Though the Order must have acquired a lot of experience in managing plague epidemics following two previous outbreaks during the same century, the time which the Order took to act decisively was so long that the effects were catastrophic. The Order however fared much better in the second calamity. For different reasons, both disasters were followed by the spectre of famine which, to its credit, the Order succeeded in resolving.

Speaker: Mario Sciriha