It was a great honour when the International Map Collectors’ Society (IMCoS), approached the Malta Map Society to host the 41st IMCoS International Symposium in Malta. The Symposium has been named Imago Melitæ 2024 and a programme of activities was created to include lectures and site visits in as many places in Malta with the aim of giving the participants the opportunity to see the cartographic wealth showcased in various collections in Malta and to meet with their curators. The series of lectures were delivered by well-known Maltese and foreign specialists in the cartographical world and visits included the National Library, MUŻA, St John’s Co-Cathedral, the Lascaris War Rooms in Valletta, the Maritime Museum and the Inquisitors’ Palace in Vittoriosa, the National Archives in Rabat and the Ecclesiastical Archives and Cathedral Museum in Mdina.
Five exhibitions of maps were set up at the different venues. Three of them were temporary, set up for just one day for the benefit of the participants. One showed the general cartographic collection at MUŻA which included maps from the Albert Ganado Malta Map Collection; the other were maps found at the National Archives in Rabat; and the third one showed the maps found in the ecclesiastical archives at Mdina.
One of the larger exhibitions set up for the occasion was at the National Library titled Cartographia: map treasures of the National Library of Malta. A catalogue, kindly sponsored by Melita Foundation, was published by the MMS and nicely produced by Heritage Malta Publishing. In the catalogue, written by Joseph Schirò, there is a section dedicated to Maltese cartographers. Accompanying the catalogue, there is an updated version of Albert Ganado’s article Description of a splendid collection of 950 maps and views of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries at the National Library of Malta.
Given the large number of maps being shown, some for the first time, and given their rarity and significance, it was decided to open the exhibition before the start of the IMCoS Malta Symposium in time for the Notte Bianca 2024 which this year fell on Saturday 5th October. This gave the opportunity for the Maltese public and the many foreign visitors to enjoy this splendid exhibition for a longer period.
The largest exhibition to be set up for the IMCoS/Malta International Symposium, was a thematic exhibition titled British Maps of Malta put up at the Camerone at MUŻA, organised in collaboration with Heritage Malta and supported by Bank of Valletta. The opening of the exhibition was held on Saturday 19 October with several guests mingling with the IMCoS/Malta Symposium participants. The opening of the exhibition also launched a full colour catalogue raisonné titled British Maps of Malta written by Emanuel Chetcuti and Joseph Schirò and covers a healthy corpus of British maps of Malta which have been identified to date. There are 123 entries of different maps. When compiling the catalogue, the authors consulted all sources including Reports of Royal Commissioners who were appointed to study a particular situation or problem on the islands, and contemporary periodicals. Maps found in board games, and others printed as broadsheets have also been included.
The foreword for the catalogue was written by Ljiljana Ortolja-Baird, editor of the IMCoS Map Journal.
The IMCoS /Malta Symposium attracted a very good number of participants from Australia, Belgium, Chile, Holland, Italy, Malaysia, Malta, Norway, the Philippines, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, who to quote one of the participants ‘were enormously impressed with the quality and most friendly atmosphere of the Symposium’. They were particularly impressed by the outstanding and efficient support from the official Institutions and the enthusiasm of the curators and staff of the various institutions they visited.
To commemorate the 41st IMCoS Symposium, MaltaPost used a special cancellation stamp at the philatelic counter of the Postal Museum, Archbishop Street, Valletta on the first day of the Symposium. A limited-edition souvenir philatelic folder was also prepared for the occasion. The souvenir folder was kindly sponsored by Lombard Bank.
As a gesture of gratitude for the unfailing support of Heritage Malta for the Malta Map Society, Joseph Schirò decided to donate a map from his collection to Heritage Malta as a memento of the Symposium and the exhibition. The map is titled Plan of MALTA AND GOZO, taken from a Report on The Civil Establishments of Malta written by Sir Penrose Goodchild Julyan (1816-1907) and published in 1879.
A post Symposium tour was organized to Gozo
The successful outcome of the symposium was all thanks to the various institutions and curators who supported the Symposium and the indefatigable work of the MMS Committee who have all been a pillar of strength during the preparation of the IMCoS/Malta Symposium. A special mention must go to Glorianne Mizzi, who was co-opted on the Organising Committee to help with most of the logistics of this Symposium.
