The Inquisitor in Parliament : an insight into British colonial policy

Abstract

The Inquisitor's palace was not originally built as the residence for the various inquisitors of Malta but was erected in the 1530's as the civil courts of the Order of St John soon after the latter's arrival to the Maltese Islands. It served as civil courts until 1571, when the Order transferred its headquarters to the newly built city of Valletta. When Pietro Dusina, the first general inquisitor and apostolic delegate of Malta, arrived in 1574, the French Grandmaster Jean de la Cassiere offered him the empty palace as his official residence. The palace was not fit to host the inquisitor and his entourage, and, living in a society which put much emphasis on facade effect, various inquisitors endeavored to improve the building in order to render it a decent residence for a Roman prelate. By the mid-18th century, what had been defined as a casaccia in the early 17th century had been successfully transformed into a typical palazzo romano, consideredto be the outward sign of the splendor of an institution, used to impress and command deference. In that palace thousands of Maltese and foreigners at one time or another presented themselves to denounce themselves or others, were sentences, suffered in prison, paid fines, signed contracts, lived and worked.