Gozo National Archives director Rev Joseph Bezzina.

It took a notary 18 days, two trips to Malta, and nearly two months’ pay to get permission to open the hunting season... 400 years ago.

The director of Gozo’s National Archives, Rev Joseph Bezzina, recently came across the information in a centuries-old document that details one man’s efforts to obtain what was known as a hunting breve.

The 400-year-old document was registered in the third volume of minutes of the Gozo Regional Government during the reign of the Knights of St John. A transcription in Italian was published in the latest edition of the Gozo magazine Il-Ħajja f’Għawdex.

The regional government used to take care of the Gozitans’ interests, like the provision of wheat, and in August 1613 it sent notary Marċell Burlo to Malta to get permission from the Grand Master to open the autumn hunting season.

After failing to get the green light after eight days, he was asked to do some research about hunting patterns in Gozo, which probably included listing the number of licensed hunters and the places where hunting was not permitted.

“This showed it was not easy at all to get permission to open the hunting season and clearly the issue is not new, or one imposed by the European Union back then.

“There were always people who took care of our environment, and the birds that migrated to Malta. It also shows that hunting was always in the blood of the Maltese and Gozitans, and it had to be moderated,” Dr Bezzina explained.

On his second trip to Malta, Burlo managed to obtain the breve in 10 days. The document found by Dr Bezzina enlists the expenses he had to go through – the trips, his stay on the island and the pay of lawyers and clerks that helped him with the documents.

The total cost was eight skudi, equivalent to €1.55, and the document shows he was paid on August 31, 1613. In those days, five skudi was the equivalent of a month’s pay.