NAV : a survey of the past, present, and future of the Notarial Archives of Valletta, Malta

Abstract

Notary Gaspare Domenico Chircop exercised his profession in Valletta between 1699 and 1740, leaving for posterity a significant corpus of notarial registers. His volumes, together with those of many other notaries, have served as the archival bedrock for innumerable publications and dissertations in a variety of fields including history, art history, book and paper conservation, language studies, conservation and resto- ration of architecture, palaeography, legal studies, and the performing arts. The language of such acts was often repetitive, and may seem to lack the human aspect, yet formulaic structures were the result of long- term trends that reveal what the concerns of a particular group were, and how these were addressed over the long-term. These same legal documents hold within them the whole gamut of human experience: from the sale and exchange of immoveable property, animals or slaves, to business ventures including corsairing, from the commissioning of works of art, to marriage contracts and wills.