6 Courts and Tribunals Section

6

COURTS AND TRIBUNALS SECTION

OUR STAFF

MARIO CAMILLERI

NOEL D’ANASTAS

While COVID‑19 impacted severely the number of researchers at the Courts and Tribunals Section, our services have been strengthened by the assignment of Samuel Azzopardi, a classicist and palaeographer, to the National Archives (see Chapter 3). His main task during 2021 has been the subject cataloguing of the records belonging to the Consolato del Mare, a maritime tribunal with documentation relating to commerce, piracy, investments and loans pertaining to maritime ventures as well as a variety of other cases arising from shipping and related industries.

6.1 Research and Reading Room Services

The Courts and Tribunals Section recorded a significant decrease in the number of researchers, consulted volumes and hours spent on research in the premises during the year 2021. 143 researchers visited the Mdina Banca Giuratale, consulted 305 items and spent approximately 290 hours researching, primarily between February and April.

During the first quarter of the year, 27 MA Notarial Studies 5th year post‑graduate students attended and completed 30 hours of hands‑on practical experience on the volumes of the Atti d’Accusa and the Sentences belonging to the fond of the Criminal Court under the supervision of Dr Joan Abela. This activity was similar to what other students had completed the year before.

6.2.1 Consolato del Mare

As indicated in Chapter 3, the cataloguing effort in this seven‑month period can be divided into two. The first cataloguing project was dedicated to cataloguing the Acta Originalia (CDM 01), a continuous effort that followed an earlier initiative by History undergraduates who had catalogued up to Bundle 19. The Acta Originalia cataloguing effort lasted until Bundle 29 and covered over 1,600 individual legal cases spanning the years 1727 to 1746. The rest of the Acta Originalia, from 1747 to the end of the Consolato’s operation, has yet to be indexed.

The second cataloguing task was focused on Testimoniali series (CDM 03). This collection contains testimonies collected by the Consolato del Mare in Malta from captains and crew members of ships that found themselves in Malta, either willingly or after being compelled to make port in Malta to shelter from bad weather or corsairs, to recover from damages and losses sustained in transit, or have been so compelled by their captors. In the majority of cases, these testimonials describe the ship’s name, the cargo on board, and the difficulties encountered by the ship while in transit.

Metadata for the Consolato del Mare is being created by Claire Bugeja as part of the current internship at the Courts and Tribunals Section at Mdina, which is offered by the Friends of the National Archives and sponsored by the HMML Malta Study Centre. Although metadata had already been done for the CDM in the past, more detail is being added this time.

By the end of 2021, approximately 80 boxes of the CDM Acta Originalia had been analysed. The current work is centred on the physical description of the volumes and bundles, which are now housed in

archival‑quality boxes. The work entails noting details such as binding dimensions, languages used, other features such as seals and insignias, and the condition state of the items. Data is being compiled electronically. Dr Daniel Gullo and Dr Valeria Vanesio of the HMML Malta Study Centre are supervising the project.

6.2.2 Registrum Patentarum

Claire Bugeja, who holds a bachelor’s degree in classics and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in archival science, was one of our volunteers during the year under review. During her weeks of internship in the Courts and Tribunals Section, she worked on ten loose unbound bundles of the Registrum Patentarum under the fond of the Magna Curia Castellania, ranging the years 1777 and 1798.

Sorting these bundles proved to be quite difficult, as the same date often appears several times. One can surmise that these documents were being recorded by multiple people on the same day; therefore, if three people were taking down departures on a particular day, there will be three different instances where the same date will be listed. The task here was to recognise the different handwriting and to organise the entries in as chronological an order as possible. Later bundles appear to show that a form of the roster had started being used, as only one person at a time would write for a series of days before being replaced by another.

The bundles were then foliated and placed in archival‑quality folders for long‑term safekeeping and preservation. Data was entered into a digital catalogue.

6.2.3 Other Collections

The catalogue of the post‑Criminal Code period of 1854 to 1899 has now been completed. This includes a chronological detailed list of all cases, case number, year, names involved, nicknames, father’s name, nationality, residence, occupation, details of the crime committed, sentence handed

down and date. This information is currently being reviewed and will be available for consultation on the Archives’ catalogue platform in the near future.

In the second half of 2021, the music collection of Mro Frank Vassallo, which was handed to the National Archives the previous year by the composer’s own son, Dr Pierre Vassallo, and Mr Carmel Axiaq, started to be catalogued. There are 83 compositions in total, mostly symphonic, chamber, and sacred music.

The fonds of the Curia Capitanalis and the Officium Commissarior Domorum have fascinated the interest of researchers in recent months. A large amount of primary documentation that is archived in the Courts and Tribunals Section has been published by Mevrick Spiteri in his book ‘The Houses of Baroque Valletta 1650‑1750’ investigating property disputes recorded in the Officium Commissariorum Domorum.

6.3 Visits and Presentations

Visitors and cultural tours were not permitted at the Banca Giuratale due to the pandemic crisis, but three different University of Malta groups visited the premises toward the end of 2021 in accordance with COVID‑19 guidelines. A presentation on the materials on display was given.

Prof George Cassar and Dr Noel Buttigieg accompanied a group of 20 students from the Institute for Tourism, Travel and Culture to the Banca Giuratale on 11 October. On 19 November, 20 students from the Department of History were accompanied by Dr Valeria Vanesio to the Mdina repository.

The University of Malta organized ‘Christmas on Campus’ cultural activities for its employees and students in the first week of December, which included a visit to the Courts and Tribunals Section.

A small delegation from the National Archives of Turkey made a special visit to the Banca Giuratale in June.

Some of the cancelled tours were substituted with an online lecture, such as an online presentation given to 27 MA Notarial Students in February as an orientation to their physical fieldwork.

6.4 International Fora and Online Sessions

In 2021, Noel D’Anastas has participated in online sessions on “Open Access: an Opportunity for Malta” and “Recommendations for the Development of a National Policy for Open Access to Publications, Research Data, and Related Issues”.

Melvin Caruana, Noel D’Anastas and Leonard Callus participated in an international workshop at the Provincial Historical Archive of Alicante in September, titled “Innovation on New Digital Exponential Technologies in the Archives.”

The necessary work for the inclusion of records from the fonds of the Magna Curia Castellania and the Consolato del Mare in an online exhibtion in Prato (Italy) was carried out.