Since 1969, when it opened in the spacious baroque palace at the former Archbishop’s Seminary, built by the erudite Bishop Alpheran de Bussan (1728-1757), the Cathedral Museum in Mdina has surpassed all pre­dictions, fulfilling its major role of being a crossroad of faith and culture.

The brainchild of the late Mgr Edward Coleiro and for a long time nurtured by the indefatigable Mgr Can John Azzopardi, affectionately known as Dun Ġwann, the Cathedral Museum gradually developed into one of Malta’s foremost research centres, attracting scholars, aca­demics and researchers, both local and foreign, to its unique rich archives bursting with incomparable priceless treasures that had previously languished in obscurity for centuries.

Ecce Homo, a poignant painting by Mario Minniti (1557-1640) echoing Caravaggio, depicting Christ with his head crowned with thorns, downcast eyes and bound hands holding a reed, with his tormentors. Courtesy of Cathedral Museum collection. Photo: Peter Bartolo Parnis

Mdina, the ancient city that flaunts two other titles, namely Città Vecchia and Città Notabile, is packed with history and culture stretching from the Phoenicians to the Romans, to the Arab period, when its name Melita was changed to the Arab title Medina, to the time of the medieval overlords down to the glorious Knights’ period.

As you gently stroll along this wallled city standing majestically on a high plateau in the centre of the island, memories of its past haunt you, contributing to a unique experience representing a span of thousands of years of history.

The Mdina Cathedral dedicated to St Paul is intrinsically linked with the history of Christianity in Malta which traces its origins to the shipwreck of St Paul in AD60. The first church that must have existed on the site of the present impressive cathedral goes back to the sixth century AD when textual evidence suggests that during the Byzantine period, Lucillus, Bishop of Malta , erected a church probably similar to the ‘basilica’ excavated in Marsaxlokk in 1964.

The Cathedral Museum, particu­larly with its impressive medieval painting The Polyptych of St Paul, embodies this rich historical insti­tution augmented by the annals of the Medieval Università, the records of the Roman Inquisition, the Militia List of 1419-20, and the Mandati docu­ments, consisting of the records of expenses for choir masters, grammar school tutors, organists, sculptors, expensive purchases from Sicily and beyond as in the purchase of priceless extant marble works from the famous bottega of the Caginis.

A mythological painting by Frederick Sustriu (c1540-1599) at the Cathedral Museum entitled Apollo Slaying Marsyas. The scene depicts inordinate cruelty. Apollo, having won a musical contest against Marsyas, tied the satyr and slayed him alive. Photo: Peter Bartolo Parnis

The array of exhibits fully demon­strate that Malta was no cultural wasteland before the coming of the knights. In fact, Malta had enclaves of European sophistication, as at Mdina and the Castrum Maris in Vittoriosa.

The glittering torch of this golden cornucopia has now been passed on to Mgr Aloysius Deguara, with the affable erudite Fr Edgar Vella as curator, who have both committed themselves to infuse new life into the various activities of one of the best church museums south of Rome.

The provisional committee of the Friends of the Cathedral has already embarked on an extensive pro­gramme of lectures, exhibitions and concerts. One of their priorities is the urgent revival of the unique musical collection of baroque music in the museum archives.

It is hoped that this treasure-house of exquisite baroque music by local composers like the Balsano brothers, Benigno Zerafa, Azzopardi, Abos, Materon and many others will be included in the annual Baroque Festival of Music, which is attracting thousands of visitors to our shores.

The first lecture in January will be delivered by Stanley Fiorini, whose erudition of the medieval period has rewarded us with his scholarly study of the medieval Mandati documents which shed new light on the cultural sophistication of the Cathedral and the Università. This will be followed by lectures by other academic historians, including Keith Sciberras, Mario Buhagiar, Charles Dalli, Azzopardi and Fr Edgar Vella.

The musical archives have now become universally acknowledged as possessing a magnificently rich collection of old music

One of the new committee’s first tasks is the setting up of a website with a view to increasing public awareness of the museum and displaying its priceless patrimony. It will also be publishing a newsletter, thus creating a means of communication between the committee and members as well as the public.

A medieval painting of St Paul at the ancient Mdina cathedral severely damaged in the earthquake of 1693.

The Cathedral Museum displays in its magnificent halls a large collection of famous paintings and many other objets d’art that were recently featured in Antonio Espinosa Rodriguez’s scholarly publication The Paintings of the Cathedral Museum, Mdina, a labour of love from a very active member of the Resources Council.

This living museum is also a de­pository of original manuscripts dat­ng back to the 13th century, shedding new light on Malta’s history and heritage, with their cultural, social, artistic and ecclesiastical dimensions.

The Cathedral Museum’s musical archives, which for centuries had been unknown to musicologists, have now become universally acknow­ledged as possessing a magnificently rich collection of old music “certainly among the most important south of Naples” according to Paolo Cara­pezza, professor of musical history at the University of Palermo. In fact, the musical archives are considered to be one of the outstanding gems of the museum; surely they are among the foremost sources enlivening the local baroque musical scene.

The new committee is planning to reactivate musical concerts and lectures at the baroque halls im­mediately after reissuing the CD of 17th century baroque music that first premiered in 1986 on the initiative of Mgr Vincent Borg.

The musical archives consist of a collection of manuscripts, printed music and old choral books dating as far back as the first part of the 12th century. Two choral books, written in the Aquitainian notation, as distinct from Gregorian, are undoubtedly the oldest musical manuscripts in the Maltese islands. The presence of these manuscripts in Malta has baffled many scholars, principally because the notational characteristics of these two antiphonaries can only be rarely traced to southern France.

An artist’s impression of the ancient walled city of Mdina with the belfry of the old cathedral at the top right-hand corner.

Facade of Mdina’s medieval cathedral. Photo: Marcel Cassar

I venture to suggest that these priceless manuscripts must have originated from the Anjevan gover­nance of the Castrum Maris as evidenced in the rare inventory of ecclesiatical items of 1492 kept at the Archivio di Stato in Naples. The musical archives can be divided into five distinct periods: pre-1573, 1573-1619; 1619-1711; 1711-1798 and 1798 to the present time.

The launching of the CD 20 years ago by the museum, the first of a series, comprising 17th-century musical scores from its archives, in collaboration with the prestigious European Centre of International Documentation of European Music (CEDIME) based in Grasse, France, is a noteworthy achievement that has given Malta international recognition.

With this new lease of life the museum will offer a stimulating aesthetic milieu testifying to the past glories of Mdina and its cathedral as a traditional centre of culture. Throughout these past 45 years the museum has played an important role in the promotion of research; along these years, musicologists from all over the world particularly from the US, Italy, France and the UK, have been frequent visitors to the museum. Malta’s European heritage has been enormously enhanced by the revival performances of the previously unexplored sacred and secular music that had languished in the museum’s musty archives for centuries.

A drawing of the baroque facade of the Mdina Cathedral Museum by Joseph Scerri.

The movement of reviving music from the ancient archives, starting in the mid-1970s, owes a lot to the pioneering work of Azzopardi, Mro Joseph Vella and the scholarly acumen of the late Vincenzo Bonello.

In their superb academic study Mdina – The Cathedral City of Malta, Mario Buhagiar and Stanley Fiorini give in-depth descriptions of this historical, artistic, ecclesiastical and aesthetic jewel, much of which is reflected in the priceless treasures deposited in the Cathedral Museum.

Concert, launch and exhibition
A concert of baroque music will take place at the Cathedral Museum, Mdina, on Friday at 7pm to mark the launching of the Friends of the Museum and the opening of an exhibition of a rare authentic Neapolitan crib. All those interested in supporting the com­mittee are most welcome to attend.