Influenced by Fernand Braudel's work, the current historiographical approach to Mediterranean history explores the sea as an area that facilitated transculturalism as well as the interaction of diverse political, legal and economic spheres. Joan Abela's Hospitaller Malta contributes to this trend and contests the traditional historiographical interpretation that following 1530, when the island was given to the Knights of St John by Charles v as a free fief to be used as a Christian frontier against the Muslim infidel, the island continued as an isolated hub, free from external non-Christian influence. Instead, Abela presents Malta as an island that was transformed into a commercial centre after 1530. Its location, close to the Sicilian straits, a central crossing point for travelling across the Mediterranean, made it a key theatre for international influence. During the Italian Wars, whilst also witnessing constant Ottoman-Habsburg competition, – Malta was forced to shed its medieval skin, as these early modern powers transformed its society. Its location made it an ideal base for the Order of the Knights of St John, where the Hospitallers could both attack the Ottomans and other Muslim powers that threatened the sea, and provide a line of defence. Yet, as Abela makes clear, the very same group that the Knights fought against was also vital to Malta's commercial network. Malta was a key trading post with Muslims, as well as with both Jews and Christians.

This book, therefore, largely avoids the traditional military-dominant focus of Maltese history attributed to the prominence of the Knights of St John, and instead provides an account of socio-economic development, a topic that has not hitherto been addressed in such rich depth. This is made possible due to the recent opening of Malta's Notarial Archives which together with the author's work at the National Library of Malta, facilitated the production of a text based on original research. The book is well presented and structured; many readers will be pleased with its accommodating size, which is not over-burdensome. In addition to its introduction and conclusion, Hospitaller Malta consists of four chapters and a short foreword by Maria Fusaro. The book provides a fascinating exploration of sixteenth-century Maltese social and economic history. Included are chapters dedicated to the roles and opportunities available to women, while the final chapter highlights that the island, far from being socially and commercially isolated, in fact expanded its trading networks with both North Africa and the Ottoman-dominated Levant after 1530. Overall then, this book reveals that Malta needs to be acknowledged as having greater importance to early modern history than merely as having a strong military role in the Mediterranean. Malta was an open island that profited from its open trading networks. Abela shows that as research into Mediterranean history progresses, Malta's prominence within the field deserves to be featured more prominently.