The 1675–76 Malta plague epidemic begins in the capital, Valletta, on December 24, 1675.

Anna Bonnici, the eleven-year-old daughter of the merchant Matteo Bonnici, becomes sick and develops red petechial hemorrhages and enlarged lymph nodes, and she dies on December 28.

She is examined by the doctor Giacomo Cassia, who informs the protomedicus Domenico Sciberras of the case, but they do not identify the disease as the plague.

The source of the disease is not certain.

At the time, there are claims that the plague arrived from a squadron of English ships that was fighting the Barbary pirates, which visits Malta a number of times in 1675–76 before and during the epidemic.

It is more likely that the disease arrived with infected rats along with some merchandise.

Ġan Franġisk Bonamico, who will survive the plague, will write that it had entered the island in a cargo of textiles from Tripoli that had been delivered to Bonnici.