Further to the digitisation of the O.F. Gollcher archives, library and historic documents in the winter of 2014, which form an important part of the Palazzo Falson collection, Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti has recently signed a partnership agreement with the Malta Study Centre at the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library in Collegeville, Minnesota, US, to begin digitising private collections of pre-1800 manuscript collections in Malta.

This is the first comprehensive partnership for both FPM and HMML regarding private collections in Malta, and the first attempt to systematically catalogue and digitise these valuable cultural resources. Digitisation on part of the Sir Hannibal Scicluna archive began in November 2015 and should be completed towards the end of this year. Both organisations have also concurrently commenced works on the impressive De Piro archive at Casa Rocca Piccola, and this will last at least two years.

While HMML staff coordinate the project, local Maltese technicians trained by HMML are conducting the work with the help and expertise of FPM’s staff and curators.

Malta’s private collections contain important manuscript and archival material, including rich information about the socio-economic history of the island. The detailed work carried out by FPM and HMML will enable scholars to access the rich data through the growing online environment of both entities.

The metadata and images gathered by FPM and HMML during the course of the projects will become part of HMML’s expanding online digital collection.

“Our ongoing work with local scholars will increase the knowledge of these important archives and Malta’s history,” Michael Lowell, Chief Executive Officer at Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti, said. “Most of the records that are being digitised are also of significant benefit for Mediterranean scholars, Maltese historians and academics in general.”

The Malta Study Centre was founded in 1973 by the Honorary Consul General of Malta-Saint Paul, Minneapolis, Joseph S. Micallef KMob. The centre sponsors digitisation projects to preserve the history of Malta, the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta, and the history of the Crusades.

One of the world’s leading cultural-preservation institutions, HMML’s mission is to identify, digitally photograph, catalogue and archive the contents of endangered manuscripts belonging to threatened communities, and to make these unique cultural resources available to users around the world. Since 1965, HMML has formed partnerships with over 540 libraries and archives to photograph more than 140,000 medieval, renaissance and early-modern manuscripts from Europe, Africa, the Middle East and India.

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