We have had in a matter of years at least two restorations of Is-Suq tal-Belt after it had been left in neglect for a number of years when its business was transferred to Belt is-Sebh.
The latest restoration has been quite successful and the entire building zings with people all enjoying themselves and feasting at the various outlets in it, although the ambition to replicate the San Miguel market in Madrid has not really taken root.
It is, however, a pity that the front part of the market, lost through enemy action in World War II, has been left as an empty space, although what was purposely left to offer some space for entertainers has now been taken over by more tables and a ghastly canopy.
In the latest Journal of Baroque Studies, Christian Mifsud researches the development of the market place over the years. One thing emerges clearly: the shape of the market place was always a square, in line with the surrounding residential blocks and in line with the streetscape of Merchants Street.
It is unknown when the first market was built but the location was always ideal - across the street from the Grand Master's Palace, divided between the two original parishes of Valletta and it could also be that at some point it also functioned as a slave market.
Then in 1643 under Lascaris, it was rebuilt properly with the first six botteghe along Strada San Giacomo with the Loggia being erected in 1658.
The building was later extended under Cottoner and then demolished by the British in 1858 and rebuilt in a novel iron-framed structure. In the Order's period, 43 stalls existed rising to 125 by 1858 and 203 in the late 19th century.
Interestingly, Mifsud studies the rents for the various stalls and found that Strada del Salvatore (the street that continues from Pjazza Regina and the side of the Palace) was the highest earning zone, followed by Strada San Giacomo (Merchants Street), Vicolo del Pesce, Strada San Paolo and the rooms at the upper level.
Mevrick Spiteri and Daniel Borg were recently awarded the category of Emerging Scholar for a preceding article they published on the Journal of Baroque Studies. Here they reconstruct the Maltese perit (architect) in the early modern times under the Order.
Spiteri on his own analyses Vilhena's Code on property, construction and the Officio delle Case, the predecessor of Mepa and the Planning Authority in 18th century Malta.
An entire supplement by Denis de Lucca is devoted to gender issues in the Baroque era. This is an excursus mostly on female authors of that time (apart from male authors like Pietro Aretino and Sansovino); a really long list of female authors, mostly unknown to a general reader.
This list of donne molto valorose includes people like Caterina Visconti, Giulia Gonzaga, Isabella Sforza, who were mainly virtuous, but also people like Beatrice Cenci, accused of parricide and killed in front of the bridge leading to Castel Sant'Angelo (but later buried in San Pietro in Montorio) and honoured by women through the ages.
Sarah Azzopardi-Ljubibratic writes about the conversions of Jews in Malta under the Order. The situation in Malta was somewhat different from that of Spain where the Inquisition was supreme. In Malta's case there were still Jewish slaves who were allowed to practise their religion but the problem was the suspicion that converted Jews were still practising their former religion and fraternising with Jewish slaves and taking part in Jewish religious rituals.
Cynthia de Giorgio, the curator of St John's Co-Cathedral, writes how the restoration work on the upper part of the church (surely the "presbytery" is the wrong word) showed that in the first phase, before the Preti embellishment, the main altar was further back. When the area was embellished, the dictates of the Council of Trent were observed and the altar moved nearer the people and furnished in rich marble.
Carmen Depasquale writes, in French, about the Knight of Malta Chevalier des Grieux, the hero of Manon Lescaut, later to be made famous through the music of Giacomo Puccini.
Paul Xuereb writes about theatre spaces in Baroque Malta and Charles Xuereb writes about Baroque collective memory as a component of the Maltese national identity while Georgina Pavia writes about the significance of the Via Crucis and its artistic development in Malta.
Foreign writers Francesco Frasca writes about war, the economy and military revolution; Federica Formiga writes about the typographic profession in Malta and Gian Luca d'Errico writes about Cardinal Giovanni Battista de Luca and his writings about the Donation of Constantine.