The monastic Church of St. Peter's, Mdina

Abstract

In this long essay, I have tried to compile all the research of scholars who worked on its history, architecture and its most important works of art, in order to present a detailed analysis of this subject. Since each of these aspects had been treated separately by different scholars, I hoped that by putting their work all together under one title and by concentrating more on the interior of the church with its paintings and ‘objets d’art’, I may have presented an informative study of this very interesting church. There has been substantial pioneering research carried out by Prof Godfrey Wettinger and Prof Stanley Fiorini which dealt with the early date of the monastery's foundation in Mdina. An important document was transcribed by Mr. Denis De Lucca and this threw light on the rebuilding of the church in 1625 and the later structural additions made to the monastery in the eighteenth century. Dr. Anthony Luttrell published studies dealing with the old pa/a d'altare of the church and with the predella and St. Peter's panel, today found at the Cathedral Museum, Mdina. I have tried to base my study of the early church and its development on the descriptions given in the Pastoral Visitation reports, starting with Mons. Duzina’s in 1575 and ending with Mons. Rull’s in 1758. The monastery’s accounts kept by its procurator in the form of ‘Conti’, now in the Cathedral Archives in Mdina, were a valuable and reliable source of information. The most significant handicaps I encountered were due to the fact that this church belongs to a strict cloistered Order of nuns, which made access to certain parts of the monastery very difficult and at times impossible. Also it was unfortunate that the Conti of the monastery for the 1680's are not in the Cathedral Archives since these would have provided more information regarding the church during these years.