The National Library of Malta will be holding its monthly public lecture ‘Of Markets and Melting-Pots – Commercial spaces in Early Modern Valletta’ to be delivered by Christian Mifsud on Wednesday 29 May 2019.
The lecture will focus on the development of 17th century public spaces built at the time of the Knights - Valletta’s market (piazza delle herbe) and the slaughter house (biċċerija). During the Knights’ period, Valletta boasted a central Market Building which unlike some larger cities functioned daily throughout the year, a slaughter house, a fish market, a system of weekly markets and a network of botteghe which traded in both local and imported exotic products. Though a lot of what was going on in these spaces still evades us, analyses of these spaces, their uses and their rents are shedding new light on the operational system of the city and providing new information on the value of space and daily social life. This study will comparatively analyse these prime commercial spaces and will investigate their spatial dynamics and value with regards to their location within the city.
This lecture forms part of a series of eight public lectures on Urban Landscapes spanning over 2018 and 2019. Entitled ‘Cities, Harbours, and Artefacts: transformations of an early modern landscape’, these series of public lectures are coordinated by Mevrick Spiteri and Maroma Camilleri.
Public lectures are held at the National Library, Valletta at 18.30. Admission is free.
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