Children and Young People in Eighteenth-Century Malta, ca. 1740 to 1798

Set within the complex social world of Hospitaller Malta, this book explores how early modern Mediterranean childhood was understood, regulated and experienced. It situates Maltese young people within broader historiographical debates while foregrounding the island’s distinctive archival richness.

Children have long remained on the margins of early modern Mediterranean history, overshadowed by narratives centred on rulers, institutions and elites. Drawing on extensive research in court records, petitions, notarial deeds, and a foundling register, the book reconstructs children’s lives across key social spaces: the courtroom, the street, and charitable institutions. It examines issues of testimony, crime, discipline, abandonment, guardianship, labour and care, demonstrating that young people were not merely passive dependants but active participants in shaping their communities. Through a micro-historical and interdisciplinary approach combining social, legal, and emotions history, the study reads against the grain of adult-authored sources to recover traces of agency, vulnerability and resilience.

This volume will appeal to scholars and students of early modern history, Mediterranean studies, childhood and youth studies, social and legal history, and the history of emotions. It offers an important contribution to the growing field of children’s history and provides a model for integrating marginal voices into mainstream historical narratives.