Malta’s strategic position, its closeness to the major civilisations of the Mediterranean, its involvement, often unwillingly, in the great conflicts of the area, has given it a depth of history and cultural heritage disproportionate to its size.

Due to its extraordinary history, it probably has, after Rome, the largest number of monuments and historic sites worthy of saving per square kilometre in the world. Many enjoy worldwide recognition, making them unique for world heritage as a whole.

Thanks to the unflagging work of organisations like Din l-Art Ħelwa, which jolted successive governments into awareness, there is a greater appreciation today of the need for committed guardianship of Malta’s outstanding sites and the need to safeguard them. However, our built heritage is not all there is to Malta’s history.

There is also an unsung aspect of our rich heritage which, due to the incredible neglect and short-sightedness of successive Maltese administrations, is in dire peril of being lost.

This concerns thousands of centuries-old manuscripts and documents comprising Malta’s written memory held in the Notarial Archives at St Christopher Street in Valletta, in the National Library and the national archives in Rabat.

Until very recently, the Notarial Archives had lain utterly neglected and literally rotting under-foot in their buildings in Valletta. The magnificent records of the Knights at the National Library have been starved of funds for years. And the national archives in Rabat are in cramped conditions and desperately require better organisation and more space. All three repositories of our history and culture require more financial and human resources to thrive.

The picture may be very slowly improving. Following a recent visit by the Prime Minister to the outstanding Notarial Archives, whose documents vividly tell the intimate story of the social and economic lives of individual Maltese since at least 1467, it is hoped that the forthcoming budget may bring some much-needed support.

A generous grant to the energetic Notarial Archives Resources Council by the HSBC Foundation, probably Malta’s leading philanthropic organisation,is providing a three-year conservation project.

Although cash from the government and grants from organisations like HSBC and others provide the vital underpinning for saving these treasured documents, volunteers willing to do the essential basic cleaning, dusting and sorting of these manuscripts are also needed. Volunteers have already involved themselves at the National Library and are also prominent at the Notarial Archives, helping to maintain the premises and the conservation of documents. More are needed. Individuals can help preserve thousands of historic documents by adopting these centuries-old manuscripts and sponsoring their conservation. In this way not only are the documents saved for posterity, but also sponsors grow to feel part of the archives and to identify personally with the historic national treasure they represent.

What is happening at the National Library, Notarial Archives and the national archives in Rabat is urgent work in progress. If we do not understand where we came from and what formed us, we cannot understand who we are as a nation. If we do not protect what past we have – as epitomised by the treasure trove of archives – then the information it tells us about ourselves is lost forever.

It is for this reason that we should protect the only written evidence, what our ancestors left, among which the documents surviving in all our archives should be preeminent.