«GIVE ME TIME, I GIVE YOU LIFE»: FRANCESCO LAPARELLI AND THE DESIGN OF MALTA FORTIFICATIONS

In the seven Centuries after its foundation, the Order of the Knights Hospitaller of St. John, said at the beginning of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and finally of Malta, reached a major economic power and a strong hierarchical structure based on the articulation of national sections. Maltese fortifications erected between 1530 and 1798 are in some respects unique; they nevertheless are a representative example of contemporary European military architecture at its best. What is very interesting is the diversity of social and professional categories of military engineers, already committed by the Pope or by the big dynastic families of the time, called to work for the Hospitaller Order. This text tries to investigate the relationship between historical events and their transformations that led to the configuration of Valletta, permeated by theoretical concepts and studies introduced in Malta by Francesco Laparelli, military engineer from Cortona, as aspects of military defense, the design of a city and architectural principles. Theory and practice converge in the new city of the Order, in a milieu quite different from the historical context of the Sixteenth Century