The performance of deeds : discovering theatre in Malta through the notarial archives

Abstract

Delving into documents at the Notarial Archives generates information on two levels. On the one hand, they are official documents. The need to officialise a whole range of widely varying matters from marriage contracts to sale of property is revealing of the functioning of official state power in matters that affect everyday lives. On the other, these documents constitute a narrative of the way people's lives were organised and affected by state legislation in the past. Not only do they shed light on the extent and importance of material wealth and possessions, but they provide information and allow insight into interesting and sometimes unexpected aspects of the cultural wealth of the Maltese Islands. Associations such as confraternities, but also actors, musicians, dancers and painters had to appear in front of notaries when entering into agreements with official entities or private impresarios or patrons. Piecing together information derived from the archives helps to build up a mosaic of the extent and quality of cultural activity in Malta in the past. This mosaic has many missing tessarae, but what we have, which is finally being saved and lovingly preserved for posterity, provides us with the bigger picture of everyday life in Malta, and offers elements of information that allow us, like any good restorer, to conjure up an image of what the whole must have looked like. Professional conservation of these archives, therefore, is essential to the reconstruction of the history of the Maltese islands. These manuscripts, though perhaps less accessible to the general public, are an essential part of our heritage and deserve the same care and attention as, for example, some of the monuments, big or small, that grace our landscape.