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Joseph Borg: Documents on Għar il-Kbir, Malta 1588-1733. Union Print, 2013. 248 pp.
One of the most fascinating places to visit on the Maltese islands, especially for those who are interested in both history and archaeology, is Għar il-Kbir, which is situated close to Buskett on the outskirts of Dingli, but which as a result of the new division of territory laid out by the Local Councils Act now forms part of the limits of the village of Siġġiewi.
Documents on Għar il-Kbir, Malta 1588-1733 is the joint effort of two Maltese scholars; classics lecturer Dr Horatio Caesar Roger Vella and Maltese genealogist Joseph Borg. As the back cover of the publication reveals, it was Borg’s profession as a genealogist that “introduced him to the marriage contracts involving inhabitants from Għar il-Kbir”. The author must have found Dr Joe Zammit Ciantar’s monograph Life at Għar il-Kbir published back in the year 2000 quite helpful in his research about this place of troglodytic importance.
Vella and Borg’s publication is not a book that will attract wide attention. It is a scholarly work which would be of interest to all those who want to know more about how marriage was contracted in our islands in the late Middle Ages, or rather at the dawn of the modern age. The term modern here refers to what took place in Europe and on our islands after Colombus’s discovery of the New World.
The book presents the Latin original of these marriage contracts, and the translation which was rendered into Maltese by Vella himself, a renowned Latin scholar. Vella made a name for himself when, back in 1980, he published the first English translation of Jean Quintin’s Insuale Melitae description.
Although I am no expert in methodology, I have to say I would have liked to have seen Vella’s name on the front cover of the book, since it was he who was responsible for the translations from the Latin language to English. These translations form the very core of the publication. Document on Għar il-Kbir is not a book that will sell in hundreds but it is definitely a unique piece of scholarly work that will attract the attention of Melitensia lovers.
As for those who are keen on genealogy, a science that has been defined as the study or investigation of ancestry and family histories, Borg’s masterly work will make for interesting reading. I wonder what history would have been like without the contribution of this ancient science that should attract at least some attention from all of us since it is through our roots that we come to know better our very selves.