“Malta Archives” is a term that describes document repositories on Malta and Gozo. This class focuses on the historical archives of Malta.
“Historical archives” is a term I use to describe archives that have most of the following characteristics:
The contents are primarily of historical interest.
The documents were not generated within the past hundred years
The documents do not pertain to living persons, their children or grandchildren
Access to the contents is unrestricted to researchers
The entity that produced the documents no longer exists
The entity that produced the documents no longer owns them
There is no program of regular deposits of documents
Acquisition of items is possible, but usually through purchase or donation
The organization of the archive is static
These characteristics of historical archives set them apart from public or private archives. Public or private archives, such as government offices or family papers, have many of these characteristics:
The contents are saved for legal, administrative, or personal reasons
The documents are less than one hundred years old
The documents pertain to living persons
Access to the contents is restricted for reasons of security or to protect the privacy of individuals.
The entity that produced the documents still exists
The entity that produced the documents still owns them
There is a regular program of shifting documents from the institution’s “active” files to the archives
The organization of the archive changes to accommodate the entity’s record keeping habits.
There can be cross overs between historical archives and public/private archives. For example, a government or ecclesiastical institution may designate the older portion of its archives as “open” for historical research, while still restricting access to recent documents. A family may possess five-hundred year old documents of immense historical interest, yet restrict access to them. As in the case of the Knights of Malta, the Order still exists yet no longer owns the papers it produced before 1798. Or the archive may be of immense antiquity, but was not systematically organized until modern times.
This class is intended to introduce the student to the archival heritage of Malta. It will be the first step in creating a website to facilitate research into the Malta archives.
Posted December, 2003
T. Vann
Malta Study Center
Hill Monastic Manuscript Library