Noel Buttigieg will discuss Bakers and Bread-Making in Eighteenth-Century Malta in the next public talk being held at Il-Ħaġar museum in Victoria on November 2 at 11am.

Bread was the most fundamental means of survival for the majority of populations in early modern society. Like other Mediterranean communities, the 18th-century Maltese population was profoundly dependent on the acquisition, distribution, processing and consumption of bread.

The Maltese archipelago’s strict reliance on grain imports from Sicily is best illustrated by the complexities surrounding the efficient distribution of grain supplies.

Beyond the well-known political intrigues and economic negotiations related to grain acquisition, the talk will delve into the grain-bread cycle, exploring various aspects of bakers’ activities that have so far gone unnoticed.

Buttigieg is a senior lecturer and academic researcher at the Institute for Tourism, Travel and Culture at the University of Malta. He has published several articles on food culture and heritage. He co-authored L-Istorja tal-Kultura tal-Ikel f’Malta (2004), Tisjir mill-Qalb (2016 and 2017), and is the co-editor of The Struggle for Supremacy: The Mediterranean World in 1453 and Beyond (2018) and Food as ‘Voice’ (2020). Earlier this year, he authored Bread and Bakers in Eighteenth-Century Malta.

Buttigieg is currently vice president of the Malta Historical Society and a council member of the Sacra Militia Foundation.

The November 2 talk is being held in collaboration with Midsea Books Ltd and Klabb Kotba Maltin. Admission and participation are free, but seat reservations, via e-mail to events@heartofgozo. org.mt, are encouraged.