The Way Forward, published by Heritage Malta, is a publication concerning Maltese heraldry and aims to be the local authority’s reference manual for an orderly system of Maltese heraldry. It will be launched on February 26 at Fort St Elmo.

The book is a two-part analytic commentary by Charles Gauci, Chief Herald of Arms of Malta, an office established under the Cultural Heritage Act for the specific purpose of addressing an erstwhile-unregulated tradition. 

The Office of the Chief Herald of Arms of Malta has now granted or registered many coats of arms for both Maltese and foreigners. The first part of the book consists of six sections and includes over 260 footnotes. As Chief Herald, Gauci is often asked to create coats of arms for persons who claim to hold a Maltese title of nobility or to descend from a titled Maltese family. 

The coat of arms of the new Office of the Chief Herald of Arms.

“Titles and nobility are of course no longer recognised in Malta but they remain part of our intangible heritage and mention of them in the various documents prepared by the Office of the Chief Herald is permitted by law,” say the publishers.

Since there is no longer a central, legally recognised authority which controls the former nobility, the Chief Herald has had to address the arduous task of debunking several long-standing misconceptions concerning this body.

These misconceptions have influenced the composition of local coats of arms over the last two centuries as well as their purported “inheritance.”  This task was therefore deemed necessary so as to ensure the future correct use of heraldry in Malta.

The second part gives a short history of heraldry in Malta. It outlines the principal features of a coat of arms and the local authority’s general applications of basic heraldic concepts and norms to a Maltese context. 

Due sensitivity is given to the laws of the land and to the major historical shifts which have seen the Maltese islands transition from fief to colony to independent monarchy and finally to sovereign republic.

One of the Coat of Arms featured in the book ‘The Way Forward’.

In this way, the Chief Herald has planted the seeds for order in a hitherto unregulated tradition. It also contains a description of the basic rules of blazon, the language of heraldry.

This part contains two appendices where one finds some very useful references for researchers on Maltese heraldry. Some of these sources are freely available in the public domain.

Finally, a specific legal appendix is also provided. This details the legislative basis for the formal establishment of the Office of the Chief Herald of Arms of Malta, namely the 2021 amendment to the Culture Heritage Act (Cap 445) which, in turn, enabled the publication of the Heraldry and Genealogy Regulations, 2021. These passed into law in January 2022.

The Way Forward is being launched at Fort St Elmo on February 26 at 6.30pm. An open invitation is extended to the public.