Fonds LCM - Law Courts Miscellaneous

The Law Courts Miscellania is a fond containing loose documentation arising from the juridical activities of the various courts and tribunals operating in the Maltese islands during the Order of St John Period, from the arrival of the Order in Malta in 1530 to their departure in 1798. The cases heard before these courts provide valuable information about different aspects of general, commercial and military life in Malta. Most documentation in this collection is in Latin and Italian, but documentation in other languages such as Spanish, French, Arabic and Greek is occasionally included.

The ongoing cataloguing process respects the arrangement of the records which was done in 1992 when the records were arranged and transferred to the National Archives of Malta, Central Archive (at Santo Spirito, Rabat). This decision was taken because multiple records from this fonds had already been consulted by researchers and referenced in publications. However, the records in each box have been separated by court or tribunal of origin and by year during cataloguing. All records have then been foliated in continuing sequence per box.