He spoke to Carla Gatt about the library security, the rare and unique manuscript editions found there, as well as the restoration works carried inside and outside the library.

Can you give a brief historical outline on the foundation of the National Library?

The idea of the National Library was issued in a decree in 1555 by the Grandmaster of the Order of St John at the time, Claude de la Sengle, which said that the collection of the knights’ manuscripts was to be passed to the common Treasury of the Order. However the actual construction of the library did not start before 1776 following the decree of Grandmaster Manoel de Vilhena.

A Polish-born architect, Stefano Ittar, was brought to Malta to design it. The actual building was completed in 1796, but two years later, the knights of St John were expelled from Malta by the French on the orders of Napoleon. The library was inaugurated in 1812, when Malta was under British rule, by the British civil commissioner, Sir Hildebrand Oakes.

In 1925 the library gained the “legal deposit” status by an Act of Parliament. According to this legal deposit, a copy of each item, whether it is a book or newspaper, published on the islands, has to be sent to the National library in Malta and another to the library in Gozo.

In 1936 King George granted the prefix ‘Royal’ to the library, and the following year, the library took full charge of the archives of the order of St John which were transferred from the Public Registry.

In 1976, it officially became the “National Library of Malta’, used solely for research and reference.

Which are the main collections of the National Library? Can you highlight some of the most important items from these collections?

There are three archival groups which are: the archives of the Order of St John, the archives of the treasury and the archives of the university, which at the time was the local governing body of Mdina.

We have over 7,000 manuscripts belonging to the first archival group. The highlights of this collection are the Bull of Pope Paschal II in 1113, which is a parchment of conferment of the order as a religious one, and the deed of donation written by Charles V in 1530, which declared that Malta was to become the order’s territory.

There are 200 manuscripts, which fall under the second archival group. These display in detail the order’s investment and expenditure in bastions, forts and auberges.

The archives of the University of Mdina go back to the period between 1300 and 1400 and there are 658 manuscripts in all which outline the manner in which Malta was ruled at the time.

The diploma by King Alfonso of Spain, in favour of Malta joining the kingdom of the two Sicilies, in 1428, is the highlight of this archival group.

Library collections are comprised of codices, library manuscripts, incunabula, newspapers, melitensia, and non-melitensia.

Two highlights from the codices include the hand painted watercolour collection which depicts the life of St Anthony the Abbot, and the Book of hours about the life of the saints.

Charles de Brocktorff’s two volumes of watercolour paintings, which amount to 88 in all, depict sights of Malta and Gozo in the 19th century. Another highlight from the library manuscripts collection is the Agius de Soldanis’ Gozo Antico e Moderno. Agius de Soldanis also happened to be the first librarian of the National Library.

There are around 55 Incunabula in the library and these all date to that period of time prior printing, which here took place in 1501.

The two most popular Incunabula are the Cosmografia by Ptolomeus and the Siege of Rhodes by Caoursin.

With regard to newspapers, these can only be viewed on microfilm. We applied for funds to update our microfilm system and have it digitized.

We have the Journal de Malte which was issued during the time when the French ruled Malta in 1798. This was written in French.

During the British rule in Malta, we had the Malta Government Gazette and the Giornale di Malta.

Why is the Giuoco D’Arme by Bernardo Giustiniani such a treasured possession of the library?

A lot of people do not know that until 2004 we had no idea that in all the world, it was only the National Library of Malta which had a copy of this book. No other library elsewhere held a copy of it. We were notified by a foreign researcher who came to Malta purposely for the book.

This book contains playing cards, one for every European country existent in the 17th and 18th centuries.

This system was initiated by the Jesuits and the order of St John liked it and used it as well to test the “Paggi”.

The “Paggi” were those students who were studying to become knights and they used to be tested on these playing cards. The test consisted of them picking up a card and talking about the history and the geography of the country accordingly.

The original version of this book was written in French by Philippe Palassi but Grandmaster de Vilhena wanted to have a translation of the book in Italian.

We decided to publish the book and the work on its publication was all completed here in the library except for the printing. Two copies of the facsimile were given to each EU country.

I have noticed that some restoration works are presently being carried out on the façade and portico of the National Library. Can you elaborate on these works?

We signed an agreement with Education Minister Louis Galea and with Resources and Infrastructure Minister Ninu Zammit for the renovation of the façade and the portico, especially the restoration of the stone, which is very unique. This project should be completed by December.

Every library faces a common problem, which is storage. We have recently taken over some stores in Hal Far due to space problems here inside the library and we issued a tender for shelving.

What about the restoration of books? How are they restored?

Well, I must say that the people working in the restoration unit of the library work very hard and are really committed to this job. The whole process, such as the binding and the restoration is all done here.

They just know when a certain manuscript needs restoration work and they’re specialized in cleaning books from dust.

It is not a myth that once books adapt to the environment, that is the setting and its climate, moving shelves full of books can only damage them.

I also have to mention that here we have two sections for Melitensia; the Old Melitensia, which contains books printed before 1955, and the New Melitensia, which contains books printed after that year.

Another interesting historical aspect of the library, involves the wood used for shelving, as this is the same kind the knights used for wooden carriage-boxes to transport their books.

Which guidelines do new researchers have to follow to make use of the National Library material? What security measures have been implemented by the National Library to secure the holdings of the Library?

According to the quality service charter signed in December 2001 and the new regulations issued by the library in 2002, no children and teenagers under 15 can enter the library.

Those over 15 are allowed in either to visit the library, in which case they would be given a card tagged with a ‘V’ for visitor, or for research in which case they would be given a card tagged ‘R’.

55 per cent of researchers who come to the National Library are foreign as this library is known to contain rare and unique editions of old manuscripts. We cannot afford to have any mayhem which may disrupt their work.

Anyone who enters the library is asked to show an identification document.

Manuscripts or books in a poor state of condition can only be viewed on microfilm. Usually when people come here for research, they are not only requested to give the title of the manuscript or book but even the date of its issue or release, which are saved on the library database. This security measure ensures that any item found missing can be retraced through the database together with the name of that person who used it.

There are also 33 CCTV cameras around the library. The police can also recheck the system through the film.

We also have a fire detection and suppression system, financed under the Fourth Italo-Maltese protocol. This was inaugurated on 7 December, 2000, and cost around Lm750,000.

It is a gas-sensitive operating system and can even detect dust particles in the room. All the 158 glass apertures and the door panels had to be replaced according to this new system.

The way the system operates is that in order to protect the holdings inside, if the library catches fire, doors will close automatically after 10 minutes.

The computer-based system attached is two-hour fire rated. This means that in case the fire does not cease after two hours, the water sprinklers attached through pipes with the cylindrical water tanks, will automatically switch on.

We have a technical officer who looks after the system, which costs us Lm10,000 in maintenance every year.