Three newly-discovered maps by Antonio Borg at the Senglea Parish Archive

Abstract

At the beginning of this current year I was approached by one of my colleagues from the Faculty of Theology to check a reference from a manuscript at the Senglea Parish Archive. The details pointed to a manuscript titled Memorie Diverse, of which I was vaguely aware due to other research I had carried out lately relating to events that took place in Senglea a century ago. Upon going through the index of the Archive, the closest title I found was Memorie Ecclesiastiche della Città Senglea, which consists of a manuscript dated 1786. The page in the reference I was given was incorrect, but while going through the manuscript’s contents, my attention was attracted by a number of hand-drawn illustrations, three of which were maps depicting Senglea and surrounding areas in three different periods: before the foundation of the city, at a time when most of the city was built and, presumably, around the time when the manuscript was compiled. All three had a particular mark which did not mean anything to me, even though I was aware I had seen it somewhere: a compass rose with an eight-pointed cross in it.