Malta’s Notarial Archives store a treasure trove of information and history about Malta and its people. Sarah Carabott met up with the women who, led by Joan Abela who became known as Joan of Arc(hives), have made it their mission to save the archives. 

Joan Abela

Historian and founder of the Notarial Archives Foundation

It all started in 2002, when Joan, then an undergrad student, stepped into the decaying building on St Christopher Street in Valletta. When she inhaled the smell of mould and saw the desperate state of thousands of notarial volumes covered with layers of dust, she knew she had a mission to accomplish.
 
“The thought of these manuscripts silently rotting away haunted me day and night. In some way I felt that having witnessed their sorry state made me responsible for their preservation.”

She soon started recruiting people – mostly volunteers – for her mission and has since formed a team that is her driving force. 

Joan is always on the lookout for people willing to ‘adopt’ a document and help preserve it for posterity. Once, her perseverance saw her convince a sponsor to triple their donation.  

“I was attending a board meeting with Theresa, the foundation’s head conservator. We had a tough job as we had to convince the members to partially sponsor the preservation of over 50 unique notarial volumes dating back to the first decades of Hospitaller rule.  The sum was a hefty one: €50,000. 

“After giving our presentation, we were asked to leave the room and return for a board decision. We were desperate for a sponsorship and started praying as we waited. In the middle of our third Holy Mary, we were summoned back, sat down and faced the board like an accused would face a judge. 

“’We have agreed to give you €15,000,’ the chairman proudly said, waiting for an explosion of joy from our end. ‘Thank you, thank you, that is brilliant,’ Theresa told him.

“’Oh no, no, please, can you re-consider?’ came my reply. All eyes - including Theresa’s - were staring at me, in disbelief. 

“’Please, please. It’s not that I’m ungrateful, but we need to save these manuscripts. Can’t you reconsider giving us €50,000 instead,’ I asked.” A week later the board informed the foundation it will sponsor the whole sum due to the documents’ huge historical importance. 

Charlene Ellul

Developer of NotaryPedia, volunteer

Charlene had just given birth to her eldest son and needed a career change, so she set off on a quest to find a job through which she could combine her two passions: computing and history. 

“I had just started asking around to understand what archival work entailed when I met Joan and her amazing team of inspirational women. 
“Their enthusiasm and passion are contagious, and I was convinced from day one that the archives was meant to be part of my life's purpose. So I rolled up my sleeves, started working as a Research Support Officer reading a Master’s degree in Artificial Intelligence after a seven-year absence from academia and with a two-year-old at home. It was not easy, but the idea of creating something for the greater good kept me going.”

Charlene eventually developed a prototype of NotaryPedia – the Wikipedia of notarial documents – which went on to win the special prize for innovation by the Council of the Notariats of the European Union.

Vanessa Buhagiar

Historian, NAF administrator 

When Vanessa opened the archives’ door in 2018 and joined NAF, she also opened the door to palaeography, the study of handwriting. 

Before meeting Joan she had no idea what palaeography was, but she got so hooked on it that one year later she was awarded a government scholarship to study medieval and early modern handwriting at King’s College London.

Through her studies Vanessa has been exposed to several archives, but for her, the one in Malta stands out for its sheer diversity of information.

“There is truly something for every researcher due to Malta’s strong notarial culture. Rich and poor alike visited a notary to have their basic and elaborate transactions recorded for security - from contracts relating to the sale of crops to deeds recording the importation of artwork from overseas.

“Researching at the archives is a very rewarding and serendipitous experience – you never know what gems you might encounter.”

As with most researchers, Vanessa has her favourite document: the Kantilena, composed by Petrus de Caxaro and transcribed by Notary Brandanus de Caxario in his first notarial volume. 

Apart from being the earliest literary piece in Maltese, a palaeographic study of the poem revealed that the islands were more deeply involved in the Renaissance humanistic movement than previously thought.

Theresa Zammit Lupi

Head conservator

In a way, Theresa’s job is similar to that of a surgeon, with each document having its own characteristics and therefore requiring personalised treatment. 

“Conserving documents is a fine balancing act. The moment a knife is inserted into an object, its history inexorably begins to be lost. So, in as much as conservation stabilises and improves the condition of an object, there is also the risk of losing part of its biography by intervening on it.”

The manuscript containing the Kantilena is one of the documents that Theresa dedicated a lot of time to. The poem is written on just one folio, but treatment was obviously carried out on the entire 280-leaf volume. This involved numerous meetings, documentation, researching, paper repairs, ink consolidation, resewing and rebinding. Although it is not such a thick volume and therefore not as time-consuming as one would imagine, utmost attention was given in the interest of safeguarding that very one special leaf that includes the Kantilena. 

Isabelle Camilleri

Notary to Government employee, volunteer

After volunteering at the archives for a couple of days seven years ago, Isabelle was won over by Joan’s enthusiasm and passion.

So she started giving a home to register copies by making folders to replace their damaged covers. Curiosity got the better of her and she stared leafing through the contracts.

“I came across various interesting things and recorded all of them… in the end I had some 5,000 references on various topics. And then I came across the most important find of all: part of a portolan chart that had been recycled as a cover for the 1670 – 1671 contracts of Notary Natale Parmisciano. 

A study on the nautical map dated it to the 1570 to 1580 period, and it was attributed to Domenico Vigliarolo, a cosmographer in the court of Spain’s Philip ll.
Isabelle’s discovery meant that after centuries of hiding on a dark and dusty shelf in Valletta, the chart finally received some limelight in Brussels, where it was on display as part of the Land of Sea exhibition at the Bozar Centre for Fine Arts.

Isabelle has now turned her attention to the ‘orphans’ and is sorting and cleaning loose documents before storing them in acid free blotting paper folders.

Chanelle Briffa

Archive conservator, volunteer

When Joan took Chanelle on her first tour of the archives, she was reading for a bachelor’s degree in library information and archive studies. Today she works there.

Chanelle had been so intrigued by the collection, that she had immediately signed up as a volunteer, and under the supervision of Theresa carried out basic surface cleaning, sorting and identification of war-damaged documents ranging from the 15th to the 20th century. Her love for the archives saw her enrol for a Master’s in book conservation and she is currently reading for a doctorate in paper conservation. 

But her favourite project remains a collaboration with the Rabat Archconfraternity of St Joseph. For two years NAF was invited to sell traditional and homemade Maltese treats at the annual Natalis Notabilis to raise funds for the conservation and preservation of the archives’ collection. 

In return, NAF offered its services to conserve a 19th-century choral book from the Archconfraternity’s collection, a job that freelance conservator Lisa Camilleri and Chanelle took up voluntarily. 

Maria Borg

Archive conservator, volunteer

For the common eye, a notarial document is made up of illegible text handwritten on several sheets of aged paper that is bound together with thread.
But when Maria was entrusted with the conservation of an 18th-century index, she saw “delightful names in Latin, varying handwriting, beautiful drawings and doodles and an intriguing binding structure”. 

That manuscript taught the emerging conservator a great deal about the variety of materials and different types of sewing within bindings.
 
It also helped her understand how incredibly resourceful bookbinders were and how strong they had to be to work with such sturdy materials.

This 18th-century manuscript might hold a special place in her heart, but Maria believes the whole collection at the Valletta archives is a fantastic resource for the study of book structure in Malta.

Christina Cassar Meli

Art historian, research officer, NAF events’ organiser

As with her colleagues, it was Joan who got Christina hooked on the archives around six years ago.  Christina paid a visit to the archives after Palazzo Falson's curator Francesca Balzan told her the team needed help administering the newly launched scheme called Adopt a Notary.

“I was taken around by Joan and Theresa and by the end of that visit I wanted to be part of the history of the archives. The archives went on to become part of my daily routine due to my studies, work and volunteering, and my life has not been the same since.

“I was immersed. The archives started creeping into my mind no matter what I was doing. If you truly love history and its preservation and step into this world, it will be difficult to let go.”

Through it all Christina remained in awe of Joan, who, for her, represents the breathing life of the archives. 

“It's simple really: no Joan, no Notarial Archives as we know and love them today. If I were to choose one life lesson that the archives taught me, it would be that a great leader encourages you to break out of your comfort zone and pushes you forward without any kind of selfish agenda. Joan is that person for me and I want to be her when I grow up.”

Supporting NAF

Various research projects in collaboration with the University of Malta, namely the Department of Computer Science, the Department of Artificial Intelligence, and the Department of Art and Art History, are underway through government funding and in line with NAF’s vision of creating a multi-disciplinary environment. NAF is always in need of sponsorships to save historic documents and make them accessible to future generations. You can find out more on notarialarchivesfoundation@gmail.com, 9935 2879 or by looking up the Notarial Archives Foundation page on Facebook.

This story was first published in Sunday Circle, a Times of Malta publication. Read the full issue here.