The preservation of historic documents has opened a time window on the 16th century telling, for example, of the generous dowry given to a slave and the conditions laid down to take part in a corsairing competition.

Over 40 volumes dating back to the time of the Knights of the Order of St John are making the transition into the modern world by being digitally preserved in a pilot project at the Notarial Archives in Valletta.

Preserved at a building in St Christopher Street are thousands of registered copies of contracts carried out by notaries, the oldest going back to the 14th century.

Reading the records, either in Maltese or in Latin, reveals a wealth of information about the social life of all classes of society dating back to those times.

"The notary was one of the most important people in the past. Everyone, from slaves to merchants to property owners and even knights, had to go to the notary almost always," Joan Abela, from the Notarial Archive Resources Council, explained.

One document lists the dowry a businessman left for his slave, which included her freedom, clothes laced with gold, animals and other slaves. "This slave was probably his illegitimate daughter," Ms Abela said.

Other documents include details of the clauses imposed by a 17th-century insurance agency to cover cargo and a contract signed by a property owner from Vittoriosa who wanted to sell her slave for 40 scudi.

"These documents hold the country's collective memory of the past."

The project is headed by the Maltese Notarial Archives in collaboration with the American Hill Museum and Manuscript Library from St John's University in Minneapolis, two departments that are among the leaders in their field.

The project involves taking a digital photo of each page, a laborious and delicate task carried out by Nadine Genovese and her team.

The set-up looks out of place in the 18th-century building. Two floodlights stand guard over a table where a hand bound book is carefully positioned under a digital camera set on a stand.

Wearing gloves, Ms Genovese delicately slips a white sheet under an onion-skin page and takes a photo.

After checking that the photo has been downloaded to a computer connected to the camera, she lifts the page and pegs it to the other side.

And she starts again.

"You need a lot of patience but, at least, we know that these documents will be preserved," she said.

Although the Notarial Archive will still hold copyright over the documents, these will eventually become accessible to researchers via the internet.