The Malta Center: Endowing Records of a Christian/Muslim Island Crossroad

FAIN: CH-50063-04

St. John's University, Collegeville (Collegeville, MN 56321-2000)
Theresa Vann (Project Director: May 2003 to September 2013)

Endowment for a curator's salary, acquisitions and collections development, and research activities in the Malta Study Center of the Hill Monastic Library.

The Malta Study Center, one of three divisons of Saint Johnss Universitys Hill Monastic Manuscript Library, was established in 1973. It has filmed 16,000 reels of microfilm that include the archives of the Knights of Malta, the Roman inquisition in Malta as well as many douments from Cathedral Museum in Mdina. Holdings include a cross section of disciplines from an island that has been a crossroad for many cultures for thousands of years, even before the Roman Empire. The collections influences include Phoenician, Carthaginian, Roman, Byzantine, Arabic, Norman, Spanish, French and English. It is a treasury of materials, particularly valuable for scholars of European history. Beecause it contains extensive records of interractions between Christians and Muslims over many centuries it is likely to become increasingly important as a resource for scholars and students. The Center rquests a grant of $450,000 for endowment, and Saint Johns will raise $1.8 milliion in matching endowment funds to make the curators position permanent and provide funds for cataloguing off-site access, a variety of support for visiting scholars, workshops/symposia and the acquisition of materials to supplement and complement the collection here.