A top American society is to resume its manuscript preservation work in Malta by digitising the Magna Curia Castellaniae collection held at the Banca Giuratale, Mdina.
On Tuesday, Dr Theresa Vann, the curator of the Malta Study Center of the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library, will sign a contract with Charles Farrugia, National Archivist of Malta.
The Magna Curia Castellaniae are the archives of the central law court of the Knights of St John. This court had jurisdiction over civil and criminal cases in Malta.
The archives consist of 1,411 volumes, plus various registers and indexes, dating from 1543 until 1798. They are a tremendous source of information for the social and economic history of the Maltese under the administration of the Order.
Napoleon took Malta from the Knights in 1798. The Order is still in existence today, but only as a hospitaller organisation. The British took Malta in 1800, and installed a governor in 1814. They separated the records of the Magna Curia Castellaniae from the rest of the archives of the Knights and kept them in the Courts of Justice. The historical legal archives were transferred to the Banca Giuratale by 1986.
The Malta Study Center of the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML) has already microfilmed the archives of the Knights of Malta, held in the National Library of Malta.
The archives date to the 12th century, and are an important source for the history of crusading warfare and Mediterranean culture. In 1988 the library wanted to microfilm the Magna Curia Castellaniae as part of the project, but the archives were housed in a different place and the estimated costs were too high.
Dr Vann said: "HMML has switched to digital technology, which is more economical and gives faster results than microfilming. Malta has a very rich archival heritage, which comparatively few people outside the country know about. I hope that this is just the start, and that more opportunities will occur to both preserve and provide access to Malta's history."
Mr Farrugia sees this agreement as a great achievement for the Maltese archives sector: "The agreement comes at a time when the National Archives of Malta is actively participating in digitisation initiatives taken by various European institutions. It is a challenging time."
The HMML is also currently digitising the archives of the Rome Priory of the Order of Malta, and it is engaged in several manuscript digitisation projects among Christian communities in the Middle East.
HMML was founded 40 years ago in response to the devastating loss of manuscripts and books during two world wars. It is the only institution in the world exclusively dedicated to the photographic preservation and study of manuscripts, particularly in locations where war, theft or physical conditions pose a threat.
Since its inception, HMML has built the largest collection of manuscript images in the world, having photographed almost 100,000 manuscripts totalling more than 30 million pages.