
The Malta archives contain administrative records from the history of the islands of Malta and Gozo. These records include:
There are also items of cultural worth:
The major historical archives of Malta are:
The archives of Malta contain materials generated between the 12th and the 20th century. Most of the earliest items (from the 12th-15th centuries) come from the archives of the Knights of Malta and pertain to their properties in Syria and their governance of Rhodes. Some documents pertaining to Malta date from the 14th century, but most runs of records (and archival series) start in the 16th century. The archives have the most materials for the 17th, 18th, and 19th century. The documentation for the Order's last two years on Malta (1797, 1798) is almost complete.
The Malta archives contain the records of an early-modern theocratic government. Users prepared indexes, registers, and repertories of the materials. Many volumes have been registered. These internal finding aids reflect the interests of the users and show what the archives were used for. They are useful for names, dates, and cases that the users considered particularly important. The archives have not been completely indexed or calendared.
Research topics
Archives of the Knights of Malta
Ecclesiastical Archives
Researchers are able to reconstruct the history of the islands and the people from the contents of the archives. But their formation and organization reflect certain principles:
1. The institutions on the island
There is a direct correlation between the government entity and the archives it produces. While a government might produce archives that are lost, a non-existent government entity can’t produce archives.
For the period 1530 to 1798, there were three major entities on the island, each with its own jurisdiction: The Knights of Malta, the Diocese of Malta (and Gozo), and the Roman Inquisition. There was a municipal organization, the Universita, but its powers and acts are not well represented. The ecclesiastical institutions, in comparison, had personnel devoted to record keeping.
This situation gives a unique perspective to Maltese history. Not only do researchers encounter the normal tensions of having three separate jurisdictions on one comparatively small island, but also there is the possibility of using three completely different sets of materials to research one problem.
2. Conditions on the island
Production and conservation of records presupposes peaceful circumstances. The bulk of the materials in the collections post date the great siege of 1565. Before then, conditions were too unsettled on the island to ensure that records would be preserved.
The records that do survive from the earlier period do not mask Malta and Gozo's
dependence upon foreign subsidies for survival. Later records provide
unparalleled information for the island's economy and trade.
3. The people of the island.
The archives are an excellent source for early-modern demography and prosopagraphy. In addition, the court cases give amazing glimpses of the lives of ordinary Maltese.
Archival series begin (and end) with the creation of entities or committees. The golden age of Maltese historical bureaucracy was the 18th century. The last years of the archives of the Knights on Malta (1797-1798) are particularly rich, especially since it seems that the materials were added to the archives without any culling or recopying. In comparison, the medieval period is not well-represented. Materials and documents were destroyed, or survive elsewhere.
In addition to losses caused by the ravages of time, there's research that can't be conducted yet because documents are unedited or unavailable.
Posted December, 2003
T. Vann
Malta Study Center
Hill Monastic Manuscript Library