A rare music manuscript has been discovered at the notarial archives and will next week be brought to life after 200 years of hiding inside the cover of a notarial document.

Musician Alex Vella Gregory: The music is a “very rare find”, being secular and from the period of the Knights.

Researchers and volunteers at the Notarial Archives in Valletta often come across curious documents, such as a 1756 leaflet advertising human fat as a cure for earaches or tumours, and a fragment of a map drawn just a few years after the discovery of South America.

This time around, archive employee Isabelle Camilleri came across sheets of music neatly stored inside the parchment cover of a register copy of Salvatore de Caro’s documents.

The recycled sheets were used by the binder to reinforce the cover of the document holding 1813 to 1817 deeds.

Ms Camilleri said that during the re-archiving of documents that are being cleaned and restored, she records every interesting feature that catches her eye – such as notes in the margins and decorative drop capitals at the beginning of chapters.

She meticulously studies the covers protecting each document, because in order to cut costs, binders sometimes recycled material such as maps, choral book leaves or ornamental paper.

Photos: Chris Sant Fournier

For composer and musician Alex Vella Gregory, the sheets of music are a “very rare find”, because secular music from the period of the Knights is very hard to come by – it was known for going out of fashion quickly.

A lot of music manuscripts used to be recycled for other uses: papier-mâché and fireworks, or luckily for us, they were used for book binding, Mr Vella Gregory, who is helping bring to life the rediscovered music sheets, told this newspaper.

The discovery is especially interesting, as the back sleeve of the document’s cover contained a complete work, called Divertimento, in four movements, by Carlo Camerino.

The duet for two violins probably dates from around the 1760s to the 1780s, and the music is very well-written.

The sheets also shed light on the style of music present in Malta in the 18th century – showing that culturally Malta did not just host the baroque style, but also embraced rococo-inspired music. Although some baroque movements, such as those by Mikielanġ (Michelangelo) Vella survived abroad, there is very little work that has survived locally from that era.

Mr Vella Gregory hasn’t managed to trace any information about the score’s composer. He was probably in Malta for some time and supplied the music for a private function.

Meanwhile, the front sleeve contained fragments of dances by various anonymous composers, one of which is dated April 19, 1769. It only contained a violin part, but Mr Vella Gregory has added a piano accompaniment in the same style.

The music will be performed for the first time since at least 1814 next week during the launch of Joan Abela’s book, Hospitaller Malta and the Mediterranean Economy in the Sixteenth Century.

Benefactors can help to preserve thousands of historic documents at the Notarial Archives by adopting centuries-old manuscripts and sponsoring their conservation by donating anything from €250 to €50,000. For more information, e-mail cantilena.mjcl@gov.mt.