Description The demographic cycle of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Malta makes chilling reading: around a fifth to a quarter of live births dies before their first year, hald a geneeration died before reaching adulthood, a life expectancy of less than thirty years. “This book is a fascinating, informative, must-read for anyone interested in Early Modern Health Care and Plague in the Mediterranean. The author manages to create an easy to follow and delightful account of Malta’s daily life as relates to health and illness in a time of big socio-political transition. Excellent!” Teresa Huguet-Termes University of Barcelona “The culmination of a lifetime’s scholarship into the history of Maltese society, Carmel Cassar takes us into a world dominated by “bad airs”, overeating by a few and undernourishment for the many, smallpox, syphilis and, above all, plague. While not forgetting the wider European and Mediterranean context, the book is alive with real Maltese, healers and sufferers.” David Gentilcore Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
