People are divided under the aforementioned two parishes of Gozo. The people of the Matrice are recorded according to residence; while those of Saint George appear alphabetically under the Christian name of the head of the household. The parishioners of Saint George included those people living in the old suburb of Rabat; all the rest were part of the Matrice, that is, those living within the Citadel, on the outskirts of Rabat, in the countryside, and on the island of Comino. The Santa Marija parishioners are grouped under the developing district or contrada and, in two cases, there is a sub-grouping of scattered settlements under two such districts. There was still no casale or rahal proper; it was common practice at the time that a contrada be elevated to the status of a casale or rabal when it was established as a parish.

The Census was discovered by the present author and first published in an extensive study on the village of Sannat (see Bezzina, 1989: 112-116).
 
 
 

Excepting the Citadel and old Rabat, the census lists twenty two settlements on Gozo and another on the island of Comino. Two of the settlements were the outskirts of Rabat and the Madonna delle Grazie e la Belleha (il-Belliegha) area beneath the eastern part of the Citadel. The other twenty were diffused throughout the Gozitan countryside.

The largest settlement was that of Xeuchia (XewkUa) to the south east with 403 persons. Close by to the south was Ta' Sannat with 173, under which are grouped Monsciar (Munxar), Xilendi (Xlendi), and Fontana grande (Fontana) with another 120. The settlements to the south west are grouped under Santa Chatarina (to the west of the present hamlet of Santa Lucija) and include Dueira (Dwejra), Haijn Abdun (Ghajn Ghabdun), Gar Ilma (Ghar Ilma), and ta' Chircem (ta' Kerc em) with a total of 257. Further to the west was the settlement ofTa' Ciagi sive Dibegi maestrale (ta' Cangura or ta' Dbie~i, now part of the village of San Lawrenz) with 53. The settlement in the west is aptly called Garbo (Gharb), Maltese for West, with 324 persons, the second largest settlement after Xewkija. To the north west there were Hasri (Ghasri) and Zebbug (Zebbug) with a total of 280. Between Ghasri and Rabat there was a settlement at Vet Sara (Wied Sara) with 92. To the north there was Marsailfurno (Marsalforn) with 55. The third largest settlement of Gozo was to the north east and known as Sciahret ii Hazzenin (Xaghra) with 289. To the east was Nadur with 178 and la Cala (Qala) with 65. Finally there was the settlement at Mugiarro (Mg arr) with 57 inhabitants. The community on the island of Comino was made up of 27; as a matter of fact there were more persons than when the census was taken, but they are not included as they were only there for a short time, it is noted (ibid: 75v). The above order and nomenclature follow that in the original.

The census names all the places that more than three hundred years afterwards became villages and parishes, with one exception, Ghajnsielem. This shows that the pattern of settlements set between the late sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century have remained almost unchanged.
 
 

A GLANCE AT THE POPULATION DISTRIBUTION

"From the census one can conclude that the centuries-old centre of activity on the island was by that time shifting slowly but steadily from the old Citadel to the fast developing suburb of Rabat. Besides, more than half the population had moved from the centre to the surrounding countryside.."

 
It is clear from this census that settlements had by then developed into the three-tiered pattern common to most medieval regions: the fortified city, its suburb, and the quasi-villages. In mid-1667, the population of Gozo and Comino consisted of 4168 persons living in 1113 households, that is an average of fewer than four persons per household. Of these 358 or 8.6% lived within the Citadel, 1200 or 28.8% in old Rabat, 237 or 5.77~ on its outskirts, 2346 or 56.3% in the countryside, and 27 or 0.6% on the island of Comino. These figures show that 43.1% of the Gozitans still lived within the Citadel or in its vicinity and in case of a sudden enemy landing they could recur for safety inside the fortifications within minutes of the raising of the alarm.

The elite of the population of Gozo had its residence within the Citadel. This included Fra Alessandro Fattinelli of Lucca, the 37 year old Governor of Gozo, and his Lieutenant, listed first in the census (ibid: 49r) Don Gioacchino Selon, the Provicar and many priests; two jurats, one of whom was also the judge and the other a notary; another notary; a doctor; the Capomastro del Castello and a sargente; a bombardier and several others. There were also a merchant, a butcher, a barber, and a sculptor. A confirmation of the existence of an affluent society within the Citadel is the fact that there were thirteen resident servants helping in the households (ibid: 49r-52v). The majority within the Citadel, as else-where, were of course common people

As one expects, there is a reference to a larger number of occupations in Rabat and its outskirts, where there was a much heavier concentration of people (ibid: 77r-85r). There was a surgeon, a doctor, seven apothecar-ies, barbers, midwives, bakers, fishermen, tailors, shoemakers, carpen-ters, blacksmiths, masons, whitewashers, stevedores, and others. The largest group of the gainfully occupied living in Rabat - 129 of them -were engaged in gardening (ibid: 77r-85r). The giardinaro, gardener, worked in an irrigated, intensively tilled agricultural unit and special-ized in the production of fruit and vegetables. At that time there was also a black woman without a surname (ibid: 77v) and two public prostitutes, one, a 24-year-old whose husband was in slavery (ibid: 54v), and the other, a 20-year-old Maltese living in Gozo (ibid: 55v).

In 1667, there were twenty-four priests, twenty-three of whom were within the limits of the Matrice, including Don Batholomeo Habela who lived on Comino (ibid: 75v). There were, besides, a deacon, six subdeacons, four unmarried clerics, ten married clerics and four nuns. One ofthe nuns probably helped in Saint Julian Hospital within the Citadel (ibid: 50r). An indication of the family background of some is interesting. The four Gozitan priests who became parish priests together in 1688 will be taken as an example. Don Lazzaro Cammilleri, the senior of the four by ordination, was the son of a massaro, a husbandman. Ordained in 1655, he was probably living in Malta in 1667 for he is not included in the list, but his parents are (ibid: 69r). Don Bernardo Farmusa was the son of an Aijiere della Cavalleria, an ensign bearer (ibid: 67v). Don Bernardino Haber was the son of an old widower, and he lived within the Citadel (ibid: 52r); as did Francesco Vella, the son of a soldier, six years old at the time of the census (ibid: 52r).2 All four were the sons of middle-class parents who could afford to pay for their education. It was probably not easy for a son of the lower classes to study for the priesthood.

From the census one can in fact gauge the difficult situation that many families were living in. Several wives had their husbands away; the reasons being ii marito in corso, pirateering on the Order's galleys; ii marito schiavo, in slavery; ii marito bonavoglia, a rower on the galleys by choice; ii marito in Sicilia, in Sicily, probably seeking work; ii marito fuggittivo, having abandoned his wife; and ii marito forzato, a rower on the galleys by punishment. One comes across a large number of heads of households described as capo di casa povero, the head of the household poor.

Gozo in 1667 was much different from that at the beginning of the century. From the census one can conclude that the centuries-old centre of activity on the island was by that time shifting slowly but steadily from the old Citadel to the fast developing suburb of Rabat. Besides, more than half (about 56.3% of the population) had moved from the centre to the surrounding countryside.
 
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