The Public Library service in Malta and Gozo

Abstract

Public Library service started to function in Malta in the second half of the eighteenth century, through the efforts of a French Knight, the Bailiff Fra Ludovico Guerin de Tencin. Formal legal assent for the maintenance of this service was given in the year I776, in the last General Chapter held in Malta, under the Grand Mastership of Fra Emanuel de Rohan. Since that year this institution, which has become the National Library of the Island, now officially known as the Royal Malta Library, has kept its doors open to the public, thus giving a service uninterrupted for nearly two centuries. In the sister island of Gozo a Public Library was instituted in the year 1853. All the property belonging to the Royal Malta Library, . including the legacy left by a Maltese Member of the Order of Si. John - Fra Gaetano Bruno - was appropriated by the Government which in return undertook to supply funds for the maintenance of this service, and from year to year sums of money are voted in the General Estimates for this purpose