39 The Officio delle Case and the Housing Laws of the earlier Grand Masters 15 31-1569 '
By STEPHEN R. BORG CARDONA, B.A. HE history of the Officiu ·m Comrnissariorutn Do-rnoru·m, bet T t.er known as the Officio delle C.fhi;e, a tribunal whose main purpose was the fixing of a. fair rent for both houses and shops, reflects, especially in the earlier part of this period which covers the reign of the first seven Grand Masters, the changes which were taking place in the districts around the Grand Harbour, where the four cities of Malta were to rise and eventually to drain the ancient inland city of Mdina (N otabile) both of its inhabitants and its importance. The first law relating to housing -and incidentally one of the very first laws to be enacted locally as previously to the coming of the Order (1530) 1-Ialta was a political appendage of Sicily and the laws enacted by the Sicilian rulers applied ipso facto also to J\ilalta-was enacted by Grand l\iaster Fra Filippo Villiers de l'Isle Adam late in the year 1531,
and wa~ necessitated bv~ the fact that. the demand for houses far exceeded the supply, even though the first concern of the Order on its arrival in the Island was the building of new houses and the repair of the old ones in Birgu, for which purpose many work men were brought over fron1 Sicily by the very first galleys of the Order to come to J\ilalta. This state of affairs was brought about by the coming in the previous year of the Knights with their numerous retainers. not excluding the large number of Rhodian refugees and of soldiers of fortune who saw a golden opportunity in the establishment of the Knights Hospitallers on
(*) I wish to express my thanks to Miss Hilda Castaldi of the Royal :Malta Library for the invaluable help she gave me in ti~acing and deciphering the various laws of the- Gnand }!asters, and to Dr. W.~. Harding, B.A., LL.D., Lecturer on the History of Legislation in the .Royal University of Malta for his encouragement and guidance. 40 THE LAw jouRNAL
the Island, then in the ·front line of Christendom (1) . vVe ca1 ~ afely assume that the neell for the regulation of the lease o: houses hacl never before arisen, because of the stagnant state o affairs obt~ining in the h,lancl and also because of .the very fre quent incursions of the Barbary con;airs in search of slaves an( booty, \Vhich nu·t only helped to annul the effect of any natun.t increase in the population.• but also acted as an effective deter· rent to jmmigration. Later on , with the building of ] 1ort Sar l\Iichele, on l\fount St. J ulia11 011 the landward side of the pe ninsula of L-Isla, and the consequent growth of the city of Sen· glea, the pressure of the population began to be gradually easec until, with the building of the city of Valletta, towards the enc of this period, we find that the inain concern of the new legisla tion relating to houses lies with matters of aes~hetics and sani fation rather than with the establishing of a fair rent and thE finding of proper quart.er::; for the I\:nights, and we meet with thE institution of another -conunission, the Co·mmissione dellu Fabb1·ica. 'rhe Order \VU::> very cautious in enacting new legislation in order not to bring to a head the drncontent felt by the M-alte-:;e governiug elass at the Lreach of the pro111ise 111ade to the1n cm the 3rd J auuary ~ 1 · 1~7, Ly Alfon~<..l df Sicily of not giving the l~land ::; as a noble fief; thu:; Judge ~Iie allef vvrites in his c01u mentary on the Code de Hoban : ''i g·r (ll Gio. _\.ntonio Ya!:>~ullo in hi~ 8tu1·in di Maltu Olalta. 1R90, p. 31'.t) w!'"iting of the ~<·arcit:< ot food felt in the falalld in 1536, estimates that the popula.tiun, be<·a.u' oe of the coming of the members of th'-~ Order, the Hhodian refugee::; and the other foreigners who ha By these Ordinat-iones Do-nwr-urn, dated, from their place in the Liber Bullm·uni of the year 1531, someti111e in late Octo ber or early November of the said year, a tribunal for the regu lation of houses is set up . .Not only was this _tribunal the very fir8t tribunal to be created in 11alta by the Order, but it was destined to survive the numerous changes which almost each Grand Mas ter, thinking to leave an irnpression of his personality on the ad ministration df justice jn the Island, made in the judicial struc ture of our courts, until, having been suppressed during the French interregnurn (4), it was revived with the British connec tion (5) and continued to function, toge.ther with the other nu merous courts which c1uttered the path of justice· (6) until t.he 1·eforn1 of .the judicial syste1n carried out by Sir 'rhomas Mait land, the first British governor (7). Two Knights and three "lvl altesi ltab·itanti in detto borgo'', called Comntissarii Dornorum, were to preside over this tribunal. rrhese Commissioners are given very wide powers : they are to establish the fair rent of both houses and i;hops, ''case magaze·n-i e b-utighe'', and to levy a fine of two scudi, to be paid to the Fisco or treasury, for contraventions to the fair rent as estab Jished by them; ihe rent once established by thew could not be altered except in the case of irnprovements, ''la ca.sa non fusse talniente niegliorata che di rayion,e si deb-ia orescere la p-isione ·', ::;uch improvements having been carried out at. the expense of the owner. In such .cases a new rent was to be fixed bv the Com- " inissioners. Any ~ontract Jnade even previous to the Ordinance and in which the rent stipulated was higher than that fixed by the Commissioners is declared null and void. Furthermore, "'per (4) On the 25 :\lessa (8) 8acra Oap·it-ula Generalia. Homedes. 1548. Tertia ].[elite (Royal 44 THE LAW ~JOURNAL TJnfoP.rsita of N otabile; thus showing t,he gradual elimin~.tion of the rights and nrivilegec: of the fr;Janclers and the increasing· in fluence of the ~mmiQTanh who hnd come in the wake of thP Order. On ThP whole the power~ held b~· the Con1m issioners uncl?r this later Orclinance were the c:;a,me as those thev held under the the previous one. their main task bein~r to "estin1are atq ('lle) ta• .rarf pen<::im1rm et loqnerium domus", even though the owner were n member of the Order. "ad r Pqui.<::ilione' Pt instantia·m c11iu.c:1Jis e.r vassalli.-? nr'is". The rent , once fixed bv. the C'om- mic;~ioners. was to hold good for ever. "in pervetuu' vale bat.". and waR not to he ch::rn~rnd ''neque nllo unq' tempore 1nutabi:. f1.1,r''. unle~s the house was mB,de !arqe1· or more commodious :-tt the expense of the owner. "vel edificatione alia auqebitur vel 1nelioratione aliaue co'modior fiat.". in which case, as in the pre viouR law, the Commissioners were to fix a new rent. Two new µrovi~ions a.. re to be fonnd in this secon·a Ordi nance. the fin;t one of which relates to the keeping- of the re ~ords of the Commissioners, "qnfo rnemoria. hominum labilis £'.<:t". hY th~ Mae.<:fro Notaro. as the chancellor of a court of la.w was called accordinrt to the Sicilian use (9), of the Corte della na.<:tellania. a verv olcl tribunal of the Order which had been in trodnced jnto Malt::1 hv th'e StatuU er1 Oridna.t-ion1~ of Grano Mas ter t/Jsle Adam of the 5th Sepember. 1533 (10); while 'the Re· conn one relatec:; t0 the right of n, tenant to resist eiecfment. The l:indlord could not eierf. a tenant merelv hecam:;e a. third padv -offerecl to pay a hig·her rent; f1?rthermore the tenant coulrt not be r'omnPllen to pa.v more than Rix months rent in advance "'TJlttsq'm n?Pr1ia.' annaf am". The Orn in a nee then.· ~oeR on "aua dura.ntP. fl P. the six month!=: for whic.h rPnt had been paid) etiam .c:i ifnmw:: 1:mnirmoretnr donetur 1Mndatur. aut auovLc: alio titnlo a.7iP ~·1Pt11r . non nossint eHr.i aut rr.1iann modn m-ole.c:ta.ri'', thns intrn ,1ncin.n- n, ri<~tht of tenure. whi<>h ::iccording· to ~Pno (11) wn~ nt that time nlrerrd~' acreptPcl in Sicilian law. :Malta TJibrn:"'l:V, Archives of tlie OrclPr, 1\fR. 287, f . J.,VI.). ~N' 'rext IT. {!=)) nPnOTIO, ('o·n. cif .. P. 240). (10) Re0 J}IslP •.\clnm'c:: Flfofoti erl Orrl·i.110.tfoni, C'npitolo I. (R.o:rnl J\fnlt:i T~ihrnry , J,ihrar:v 1\tfR. 148. f. 20-2i). (11.) R. ZPno, n nnn.Mlrdn rl·i !lfnrr rT-i 'Mnltn (Nnplc:>~, ]9!'.l(), p. 5). THE "OFFICIO DELLE CASE" 45 Though this Ordinance does not specifically sa;v so, we must assun1e that it entirely replaced the OrdZ:nationes Domorum of T/Isle Adam, so thn,t the Commjfrnionrr~ inust. bave lost their right t.o enforce the compnlsor~~ Rale of nncorn.plet ed building·s. On the other hand new bnilclings vvoulcl no longer be exclude( from the jurisdiction of the Comn1issioners, e,n unhappy change for those speculators who were induced to build in the hope that t.hev would be above the law. Contrary to the pre-ceding Ordin ande, where the fines imposed b~1 the .Officio were to be paid tD fhe treasury, this Ordinance provided that the penalties imposed for contraventions of its provisions, now increaRed from the srnm of five sc1tdi to the amount due for one :veRr's rent of the house with re!!·ard to which the law was infrinQ·ecl. "preduni loquer1.i 111n'.us an:ni", were to be pa.id into the fnnd8 of th~ Commi1:1sion erR of the Poor) one of the permanent commissions of the Order. Of the several StatnU (12). reh.ting main Iv to tl1 e internal !WVernment of the Order. enaetec1 on the 24th 1'1 a:r, 1555. by t.he Vern P. randi Sexdecim under the presiclenc:v of Grand Master Fra Claude de La Seng-le jn the fifth Cbapter General of the Order to be held in Malta, the seventeenth is entitled Sopra le Case (13). lt' may he convenient to note here that the Ordinances made b:v one Chapter General were only hinding until the next Chapter General, so that if the:v were not renewed thev would automati cally hpse, while. on the other ha.nd the sta.tutes made in the name o.f the Gra.nd Master, as is the case with the OrdinationP-s Domorum of I/Islf> Adam : were pereptnal nn1es~ specificalJ:v re pealei (14) . 'J1hi1:1 Ornini:inre is divided into two unwieldy paragraphi::. 'rhe 11rRt pnrugraph repen.hi the prnviRions of t1ie previous Or- 1linn.n ~e aR far as tlw compo~ition of the tribuna.1 ic;; concerned. i.e . .it. i<:: to c-oni;iiRt of two· Oommjssioners members nf the Or. f1er. nnd two Jura.t8 "di qun:ta nuova f.itaH. i.e. of Bir~n1 ·whic'h (]2) Sacra (Ja:ni t·ula Generalir1 . La 8enrrle. 15.55. Q11intn ltleUte (R.o:'\?al :Malta I.iihra.ry. Archives of the Order, MS. 288, f . XI, n, t.-XXX. (18) Idem·. (f. ·x:ix:rx. a t - XXX.) See Text III. (]4) H.P. Sciclunn.. Some fo:.porta.nt 7>o r. wment~ of th e .4.rchive. paragraph is the theme of ·this second paragraph. In order to separate the mmubers fron1 the rest of the people, ' ' accio che c:: possiarno separare della cornpagnia de secolari et. vivere insierne sntto regolare honesta secondo l'usanza antiqua cli nost.ra Reli gione" , this Ordinance granted to the individual inembers of the Order an extraorclinary right of expropriat.ing, against payment , any house lying in the reserved distric~ which caught their fancy nnd in which they proposed to dweE. The prospective buyer waR to pay the price which the owner, l\1altese or Rhodian, had paid l)ad he acquired the house aft.er 1530, "dappo che la ReligionP r in 1\1 alt a". together with the value of any improvements aR estimated by the Commissioners with the help of maestri pra h'.r.hi or expertR; in case the house had belonged to the owner before the above m9ntioned date or had been acquired by him d(>. patrimonio, the CommiHsioneri::, with the help of the expertR, we.re to estimate its value. On payment, of the amount specified n:R compensation the Knight could immediately take possession of the house, the owner being precluded from making any fur ther opposition, and this notwithstanding any law to the con trary, "non obstante qualunq-ne leqe et. statuto fatto in con trario". The same principle applied in cai:;e the Knight in ques tion wanted merely to rent the house : so long as this was situat ed in the reserved district he had a preference over all others and 0ould oust the tenant by reimbursing him any rent he might ha.ve paid in advance, up to the amount due for six months, the period for which rent could be leQ'a.Ilv paid in advance. Similar ly, in the first ease, if the house the Knight was desirous of buy ing wns let. tog-et-her with the price of the honRe to the owner, the expropria.tor had to pay the tenant a.ny rent he mig-ht havP nlready paid in adva.nce. again limited to that due for a period no't. exceeding six months. Though the Sixteen were the supreme legislators of ihe Or der, their period of activity was very short. Consequently if any legislation of which they approved had not yet been enacted by them by the end of their fifteen days of activity, a period which could in exceptional eircumst'ances be prolonged b:v a further eight days, they could empower the Concilio Completo, in this case called delle Retenzioni, to do so. Thus we find that in thP sixth Chapter General held in Malta under the presidencv of Grano Master Jean Parisof. de Va.Iette, the Sixteen, on the. . 3rd 48 THE LAW JOURNAL of Dece.ruber, 1558 (15), granted to the Grand iVIaster an (1 :-:J ) 8acr1111i Capitulu1n Ge1 H. ral. r aUet ta. 15u8 . 8r:xt1n Jlclite (Hoyal :Ualta. Libra~· :r, Archive. . of th0 Order, !\IS. 288, ~ LXXIUI a.t.) ::lee Text IV. (16) Liver Uoncll!urum (Ro;) al i\folki Library, Archives of the Order, !.\IS. 90). 8acn1 m Ca pi+ nlu n1 Ge ne1·afo. ralleffo 1558. Se!Xftt, JJI elite (Royal Jfalta Lil.Jrnry, Archive<.; of the Orcle;. .MS. 288). (18) Liber Co ncilior'llln (Hoyal l\Ia.ltn. Library, Archives of the Order MS. 91, f. XIX.) See Text V. (19) lde11i,, (f. L:S:YI.). See Text VI. (20) Debono, op. cit., p. 17'7. (21) VassaJlo, op. cit., p. 397. {22) nficallef, op. c·it., Liber. I., Capo XXXII., footnote. THE " OF1nc10 DELLE CASE' ' fore.beeiug the delay cau~ed by the Great 81ege of 1505, wa::; .then lwpiug to corumence. . Tllis Ordinanee urnrk:::, u higher ievei of legal dra,ft~:nuansh1p. l t i::i divided into i1weuty seven o.apit.oli or sections which have au order in their sequence I.tot to be found in the previous ordinan_ ce::;, and which tlea1 ::;ucce::;::;ively with the jurisdiction, composi tion and powers of .the Officio, matters of proeedures, appeals, and reO'istrationo . of decisions,. the lease and sale of 'houses, . the rela-. t10ns between landlord and tenant and ~he nghts of expropna- t.ion which the me111ben; •)f the Order had in the reserved dis trict, the limits of which are defined in the first section. 'fhe cu rious manner in which the boundarv of .the collacch,io is indicated, by reference to so aud so's house ~r shop, or to such and such a c11urch, seems to indicate that the streets of Birgu were as yet unnamed. 'rbe second section deals \Vi.t.h the election of .the Commis sioners and defines their duties. 'The Commissioners are to be elect.ed every two years by the Co nsig Uo Orel inario from among the frati cavalleri exclusively. 1rhe tribunal thus composed has pow ers of a .inixed judicial and executive nature, and its jurisdiction is limited t.o houses within the reserved district. 'l1hey are to pro vide houses for the rnembers of the Order, having the right of dis placing the former ·tenants, to value the houses and de~ermine all the disputes \vhich might arise in ,connection with them, together with all incidental questions; and these powers are given to tlie Commissioners even though the house in quest.ion is the proper ty of a I..Janguage or df the Venerable Assembly of Chaplains. Disputes concerning the ownership or possession of houses are expressly excluded from the jurisdiction of the Officio. The .third section deals with the composition of the tribunal when the houses concerned are outside the collacohio or even )nside when one of the parties to the dispute is a citizen. In t.his case two Jurats, whose nationality is not specified as in the pre vious Ordinances, are to sit with the two Knights. 'l.1hus com posed the tribunal is to regulate the rent of houses to whom soever they might belong, both inside and outside the reserved district, "tanto dentro a collaoohio crnne di f'ttora.". The same section goes on to order the regist-ration, by the Mastro Notaro of the tribunal, of the amount ·of rent as fixed by it, adding that contraventions t.o the decisions of the tribunal are to be punish ed by ·a fine amounting to half a year's rent. If the Commis- 50 THE LAW JOURNAL sioners •failed to enforce this penalty which was to be devoted to the relief of the poor, they bad to make good the omission from their own pockets. The fourth section specifies the days on which t he triourta.1 is to hold its sittings. There were tc> be held 1;wice weekly, on Tuesdays and Saturdays, in the house of the senior member and, so long as three members were present, the tribunal could pro:. r.Ped to hlrninesH , "possono provecler df giustitia''. The fifth and sixth sections deal with matter~ of procedure. The issue was to be decided summarily, ''8ommarimnPnte et de plann, .~ine strc pifu et figu·ra iudicij". No right of appeal lay from its decisionR when the 1matter be.fore it did not exceed the sum of ten scudi. 'Vhere this sum was exceeded there was a right of appeal, with n. term of ten da:vs. to the Con.~iglio Ord·inario jf only meinb~rs of the Order or the LanguageB were involved, and to the Auilie-n za if one of the parti.ei:; were a citizen. The duration of The ap peal i'tself had a term so that, if after the passa,u-e- of two monthi::i the appeal had not been concluded it was considered as having heen abandoned, "ipso facto senza altra diohiarazione" . Owing to the fact that some of the Knights did not care to appea.r before the tribunal, "ne. al prirno n_e al .'?econdo mandato over citatione". the sixth section empowers the tribunal to pronounce sentence in default after the second summons, ''fare il terzo et quarto .~· uperabonrlante et procedere in contnmacia alla sentenza inclu sivaniente". The seventh section regulates the execution of the ~entences of the tribunal, which were to he carried out bv a man dato of the Grand Mast er if the person involved was a· member 11f the Order. and h:v the officials of the Corte della Castellania. under the order of a judge. "il qual non pi11li c.osa verttna", if an ordinary citizen. By ~ec·tion eight the decii:dons of the tri hunal were to be invalid if the record kept by the chancellor Wf\re not signed bv all The members present. The ninth and tenth sections do not contain anything new. Contracts stipulating a hig-her rent are declared void ana the fe nant i~ absolved from payitt~ a big-lier rent than that establishe'd b~r the tribunal, while landlord~ -are prdhibffed from dema.nding more than si.x months rent in n.dvance DurinQ· this period the tenant is protected and he mav not he compelled fo give up tliP house becanse it has chanaed hands whether by sale, nledae 0r donation. unless he had not paid six months rent in advance, ~n which case he may be ejected by the new owner. The next sec- THE "OFFICIO DELLE CASE'~ 51 tion introduces an entirely new principle : a rjght of preference is given to the tenant jn viri ue o.f vvb. ich he can buy the hou::;e leased to hi1n if the ovvner vvere a bo1~ t to sell i L What is odious in this section is the distinction it makes behveen a tenant who is a mere citizen and one who i: a 1nf'mber of thr Order . Th is right of preference is only giYen to the latter und extends OYL'l' all houses both inside the rollacc.h io as \Vell as outside. Before sell ing a house which is leased to a n1ernber of the Order, t11e lanlllord is to notify his tenant and offer to sell jt tu hnu on ihe sn,in e terms as had been agreed upon with the l iiird party, "peril tn1 · desi1no prezzo, che con i~e rif.; they Launot he forced to give up their lodgings even though the house has been com pulsonly bought by a member of the Order. Section nineteen refers to house::; in both districtl:). All vo lupt.uary expenses which were not necessary, such as to · '1n·uta·r fenesl?·e o po 1rte o altre sim.il opere", and whjch were done without the consent df the· owner "\Vere to be carried out at the expense of the tenant who could not recover his outlay. 1'he Commis sioners, in order ~.o avoid ambiguity because of section four.teen where they are empowered to cause new works to be carried out at the expense of the owner, are expressly prohibited from giv ing .t.enants permission to carry out such unnecessary alterations, and were they to do ::;o the tenant will nevertheless lose his right to any compensation from the owner. Though section twenty, at first glance, appears to relate to matters of internal policy of the Order, t.he next section, a very i1nportant one from the point of view of t·he islanders, is a necessary consequence of it. The first section prohibits members of the Order from residing out side the oollacohio, while the second one prohibits the Commis· sioners from housing _the Knights outside the district and denies them the right of ejecting a tenant or of expropriating houses, shops or other buildings outside the limits. According to sec_tion twenty two, to rent a house inside the district, a !{night must refer himself to the Commissioners who could allocate it _to an other Knight if the first one fail~ to take possession within fif teen days, "caooiando fuora al seoolare et Jarvi dentro". Further more the next section provides .that the Com1nissioners are to take over, e.t officio, a house belonging to or rented by a Knight if he lets it to a citizen, but the previous section exempts that one who, having to go on a caroi~ana or tenn of duty with the Galleys, or on some other business of the Order, leaves some citizen "pe·r guardia di sua robba lnsino alla tornata~'; both sec tions apply only to houses inside the collaoohio. THE ( '0.FFICIO DELLE CASE'' 53 By sec.tion t_wenty four the legislator "si ri·mette alla buona pru-vvidenza de i detti Couunissa·rij" for all matters which might arise and for which there is nu provision in .the Ordinance, with the proviso that their decision be ·first notified to the Grand Mas ter for his approval. In such cases. the fines to be imposed are left to the discretion Qf the tribunal ancl areto go towards the funds of the Commissioner::> for the Poor. 'rhe next soo.tion deals with the fees clue to the lll a.stro Nota.ro and reference is 1nade to the Pan dectae et. Ordinationes enacted bv Grand Master Juan D 'Omedes on the 22nd. June, 1553 (23). Se~tion twenty six provides for the case when the four members of the tribunal fail to agree on their decision the Grand Master being given the rigl,t to choose a fifth member " aocio si a,m·ministri g-iustitia". The last section details the fees due to the Mastro Scudier' who is _to l'eceive a carleno for u,11 orders, notices or citations iasued on behalf m a citizen and a t(J,reno for the execution of a sentence of the tribunal. The next Grand l\.'1aster, Pietro del l\IIonte, confirmed the Ordinance of .1562 and ordered .that it he strictly observed (24) ; but the more important legislative event concerning housing under this Grand l\faster was the creation· of the Commissione della Fabbrica, the comn1ission which was specialiy instituted to regulate the building of the houses, as opposed to the fortifica tions, of the new city of Valletta. Yv e have seen above that on (23) See D'Omecles' Pandectae et Ord'inat·iones, Chapter IV. Iura. Ma gistri Notar.ij (Royal M~lta Lih;:,ru-y, Lbrary :NIS. 152, f. 648.). (2-!) I am bai:-ing this statement 011 Debou-0 (op. cit., p. 174). Though I have been through the records of both the Chapt€r General of 1569, the only one to be held unde:1 Del Monte (Archivt's of the Or.der, MS. 289}, and of the Councils, both Ordinary and Complete (MS. 92 aucl 93), I have fail{icl to find nny reference to this confirma tion of t.he Orclinanc~ . :But this fact is not important in itself for t ·wo reasons: firstly beeause the Ordinance, having been made hy the Grand :~VIaster , did not lapse for lack of renewal by the next Chapter Gen-e:.tal to be held; and secouclly \Ve may ~ certain that this Ordinance was £-till the Ia.w both from the f.act that. the Com missa.rij Domoruin were still bt'ing elected and that the Officio delle Case was still functioning as ·we can see from the decision of the Grand Mast-er and the Council in the e:a.s.e of The Admiral of the Galleys i·s. Tlr e Co111.1nissioners \see Ar<:hves of the Order, MS. 92, f_ C. under the date 8th October, 1568 ,and f. CL unden the 12th of the same mouth and ~ear.), and from the reforence which is made to it by the Code cle Bohan (Lib. I., Capo XXXI, § II.). Debono does not give a reference for his statement. 54 THE LAW ,JOt;'RNAL the 3rd December, 1558, the Sixteen de1ega ted their power to legislat e concerning the building of the new city to the Grand Mast er and the Council, "rPnn~Uentes huis neqoUi e.requutionem. RMJ er endo Dorni-no 'ft! agno 11[ agistro et Concilio O·rdinario" (25). Owing to the im-ininance of the Great Siege of 1565 nothing de finite was done. until. thjs great danger having been bravel:v overr.ome, Grand Master IJa 'laleff e could once more turn to the fulfilment of hi:.i life's dream . the hnilding of the cit.y which was to bear his name. Though all the energy of the Grand Ma.ster wn~ devoted to this task. it wa~ not until after his death that. the Pnceinte of the citv being in an advanced state of construc tion I the attention of the planne.rs Wai=> nra,wn towarils the huild ing of the houseH of the citv. On the 8rd Fe.bruarv. 1568 (26), the Grand Master ancl the C1'onnci1 promulgated an Orclinance w·hose purpose was the n.p point'ment of Commi~sioners whoi:;e clut:v was the n,,'-lRignina hv n1ean ~ of a N ota.rial Deed. "pP1' man.n di vrrsnrw. pnbTica.". of the ~ite~ insicle. the new city of ·valletfa. Thev were to d.ei:iian the :::it.reefs and asRign the building sffes according to the sod~l imporfance of the recipienh=;. These 0ommii:;sionern were Fr. Ni rolno de Mire, Fr. Raimondo Fortnin an cl Fr. Cesare Rufl. and hoth Francesco Laparelli of Cortona. the ·famouR militarv en gineer and arr.hitect who had been sent to Malta by Pius IV . . nnd the D11oaot enenfp of the Gra.ncl M:u1ter in the new citv. Fr. Pietro .Justiniano. Prior of l\fesi::ina (27). were to t~ke part in the (lp}iheration ~ of thf' Commi~~1on. On the 12th M~v. 1569 (28). the. Camitnli circa la division" Pf as.<:irmatione del sito della. nu.ova Oittlt rU Valletta, nrenared hv the Prior of MesRin::i. toQ'ether with the Commis~ioners . to whom a fourth had been added in the ner ~on of Fr. Barnn.ba de ]n Done on the 3rd Febrrni.rv. J 5o~ (29). :incl a.dvised hy Laparelli. were approvea. hy the Grana Ma.F;ter nn cl the Coundl. Accordina- to the introducf.orv pnraa-raph of thPRe Capitoli the new <'it:v ·iR to he divided jnto the two llC\nal diR'triefa , one re- (2.5) Sacrum r a TJittlfom fl.ni eralr . ra.ll<'tta. 1.?5R. Sn:t11. ilfPlit e ('Roval :Malta TJib~ 1ar;\', A1'rh.ivec;; of the Order. M-s 288. f. LXXTTTT 'l t :). (26) Libn r!onci1inrum. .4.n . 1.'}67-1.?':'0 RoYnl 1\falt:i TJihr :u1~y . Arcllivf>~: of the Order MS. 92. f. CXVII.) See 'rex: VTI. (27) Idem (f. CXXIII). (28) Idem ff. ~XVTI-O'XXXIIT . ) Seei Text VITI. (29) Jd,.m (f. OXXTII.). THE "OFFICIO DELLE CASE" 55 served for the Auberges of the different Language::; and for ~he palaces of the perma11e11t c01nn1issions of the Order such as the "()asa per li conti del 11hesoro, la Cancellaria, i Forni, 7,a Casa per le mondfoni" , toge.ther with the palace of t.he Grand Mas ter, the (}011veutua.l Uhurch ancl the Infinnaria, and the ot.her opeu to the public, though their limit::; are no.t defi.ned (30). After this preliminary paragraph, there are twelve sections deal ing \.Vith the distribution of the sites, the butlding of the hous~s and the \vorlrn to be made for the sanitation of the city, provi sions intended to rnu.ke Valietta a beautiful and healthy city. With a view iu enu, the building stone· to be used was to be cut from the Manderaggio, the little landlocked harbour which 1t was intended to make on the l\Iarsamxett side of the peninsula. Stone which had not been hewn fron1 this place or from the well with which, for purposes of defence and sanitation, each house was to be provided, was to be confiscated. l)robably for defence reasons no gardens or porticoes were to be built abutting on the streets, and street doors as well as the exterior walls of housc-s were to be built under the directjon of a ca (30) The limits were defined h;'\· the Chapter General held unc1fT Grand n.faster l\:Iartno Garzes OB the 4th January, 1598 (Royal Malta Lib rary, A11chives of the Order MS. 16!52, f. XXVJT.). 56 THE LAW JOURNAL h:v a specially appointed Notary. to spend a certain sum, which was presumaly left" to the discre-tion of the Commissioners to spe c·ify. Within six inonths (H) from acciuirjng the Rite the owner had to cmnrnence bnild1ng operation8; within one year he had to complete a bulding sufficiently advancecl to be ha.bitable, ''per habita.re o .far habitare", and wHhin three ~r earR he had to spend the sum which he had contracted to spend when acquiring the site. These provisions were intended to quicken the rate of build ing not so much, as was the case in the beginning· of this period, to lessen the press11re of t-he population since this had been con ~dderably decimated during the siege throug·h which the Island had but recently gone through, but so as to encourage the drift of the people towards the new city. As a further encouragement towards the building of houses the fixing of a fair rent by the Officio d elle Case is abolished as far as houses inside the collac chio are concerned. and tenant and landlOrd are free to agree on the rent to be paid. "che tra loro sara d'accordo", though of course only members of the Order could resid'e in such houses. From this review of the housinQ· laws of the earlier Grand Masfers we can trace clearly the effects which the coming of the Order had on the economic life of onr Island. The increaRe ju the population, concentrated in the old town of Birgn huddled und.er the ramparts of St. Angelo, within an areas of thirty two acres. must have lead to a sharp rise in the rent of houses. This inequilibrium between -demand and supply must have been fur ther increased bv the introduction of the ancient institute of the collacchio, restrictjng the members of the Order to a part of the f own from which ordinary citizen:;:; were excluded. The provi ~ion to he found in the variouR ordinances we have examined QTanting to the Irnights the right of compulsory sale or lease of h o rn~eR in this- par{ of the town was but a necessary consequence of thiR institute, as jt tended to keep down and gradually to re duce the civilian population of the reserved district. thus giving more living space to the m·embers of the Order. With the build ing of Fort San Michele on the landward side of L-Isla the situa tion must have ·begun to be eased as the added securjtv thu~ given to this penini;nla rnn~t have in.duce'd several families to mn Both G. A. Vassallo, (on. cit. p. 500), nnd 8ir T. Znmmit, llfoT.ta, The b7rmr1.~ rrnd Their Hisf.o-r-,t (.Malta, 2ncl. Pilition. Hl29. p. 172) stnt.e that the period wns of ten months. THE "OFFICIO DELLE CASE" 57 abandon the old city and gettle in Senglea, the town which gra dually rose behind the. rampart.c:; of this new fort. Finally. with the huilding· of Vall€tta. the problem of sufficient houses waf' i::olved and the a:eniui:; of t.Jrn Or t.utlo fatte che nol volenclole li p~ttroni fornir o coprir nel tenui no ben visto alli Co1nmissarij che siano costretti detti patroni a Yenderle o bensi lassarle aca,b are e coprire da quell1 che offeriran no farlo e ehe sopra, la venditioue e reparatione e iuiglioramenti si faccia el patto e coutratto secuuclo s'era insto per l'una e l'altra pa.rte a, judic:io delli Commissarij. ( 5) rl'E:i\iI Vis.ta la necessita a <.:iQ che ogniuno si sforza edific:are 8mt l={..111a ::; , t' veneran<.lo Consilio vuole e ordena che t utte le case iuaga.zen ~ e boteghe quale ~ e coprivano e edificarono da <1uesto giorno in::tnzi sinno a liuera disposizione clelli patroni clesRe cioe che le possino retenere per loro o vero ingaoelarle e dar a pisione vendfl'le e in1pegnarle a posta e liberta loro senza che sieno stinrn,te ne ie·he li connnissa:i:ij presenti e futuri ci inter vengono o se ne irupachimw in n10c10 alcuno. (6) rrE1\1 Che tutte le cliffe1enze nat-e e che potrano na sl'ere per ladvenir ad oecasione e per rispetto de dette case maga :le11i e boteghe si.auo viste decise e cliffinite dalli Commissarij tutti insieme alnrnnco da nno o tutti duu Cavalier e uno secular o pur cla uno Cavaliere e due seculari a.ll j 'Juali Sua R .. ma s. e vener .do Consiglio hano e clano tiopra cio tutta jurisditione e a.twtorita, .i::on1anclando al castellano e maestro scudier che secon do acaclertt faciono exeguir le sententie et orclinatione dessi Co1n n1i:-;;.;:arij conforn1e a giustitia quali Commissarij sbno Ii Comanda iori fra Bartholorneo Clavel e fra Hieronymo Ferrera, Cavalieri, e l\!Iarchio Bonichi, Au ~ usti 1\Iargalion e Paolo Habel, Maltesi habitanti in detto borgo. In cuius rei testirnuniu111 (Bulla notru. Niagistralis) in c.ent (presentibus est appensa.) Datu1n JYielite (in conventu nostro) die TEX'r II SUPER DOMIBUS ('1'/ti ) Ordinance is to be fou11d on, f. LVI. of 11!8. :18(' of the A rchi·ves. ill 'lt'l1ich are 'recorded the act.s of third and fourth Chapters GenPl'al held in 1543 and 1548. The ·initials 8.J. und "-~ r the title a.re those of Fra Safoatore hnbroll, the Regills Cancellarius.) Die XXVI. maij M.D.XLVIII. Auclita supp.ne nobis porrec ta per snbclito~ ac vassallos no's Rhodios nunc cives melitenses co'n10ra'tes in hoc suburbio Melite gravite conguerentes quod a ternpore qne prin1u' n'ra religio in ha'c insulam venit, usque in THE "OFFICIO DELLE CASE" 59 hodiernum diem. Ita fuerunt et sunt gravati, ac vexati in pens10- nibus ~ et logueriis domor' in quibus habitant. Ut in su'mam inopiam et egestatem redacti nihil preterauxilium n'rum, ad quod .confugiunt~ sit eis rtliutum, humiliter petentes, ut &mis for tunis prospicia1nus, et de aliquo opportuno remedio ipsis provi deamus. Nos nihil rnagis attendentes q' indemnitat.em, et quie tem sub ('l'hi~ Ord£na1 we is to be found of f. LXXTIII a t. of "iJlS . 288 of the Archives in whic.h a.re registered the acts of lhe. fifth, si~1; tft and Sf?,Venth Chapters General to be held in Jl alt a. It belongs tu the secoml uf the~e haviny beeni p·rv- 1nulyated, tog ethe·r with eighteen ot1rnr8 on t.he 3rd Decem ber , 1558. Section::; 2 , 3 and 4 .a·re omitted as they deal with othet ma.tte·r8 with which we are not here concerned. . ) (JJ r.rElVI Quia propter brevitaten1 ten1poris constitutioues i:>Uper negotiis d01norurn condi non possunt (Reverendi Domini Sexdecitu) dederunt et concessernnt authoritatern et plenissi- 1nam facultate1n H.mo D 'no magno ruag'ro et concilo Completo rctentio1rnn1 :-: uper id or (2) ITEM Che dal Conseglio ordinario s'habbiano a eleg ger suoi frati Cavallieri bene visi per Commissarij della case ogni biennio a i possono fatfo il primo con1anda1nento et non comparendo al se condo, fare il terzo et quarto superabonda.nte et procedere ~.J contumacia alla sentenz.a ine-lusivamente. (7) ITEM Che l'esseq11ution clelle sentenze, date sopra dett. Case contra Religiosi si esseqniscono de Mandato di Monsigno1 B.mo et contra secula.ri per Ii officiali della Castellanin. con licen za del CaMellano et ordination del gindice. il partir dal Convento che prin1a non sia spedita la licenza della Cancelleria. Altrimenti tali domande siauo nulle. (14) ITEM Chf. qual si voglia R eligioso che haveva casa allogata dentro i l!1niti et che vorra in essa reedificare accre scendo loggiamenti essendo giudicato per li Corrnnissarii esser necessario richiedera al patrone che lo faccia.. Et non volendo far tal opra l'habitatore il fara a spese clel Patrone. (15) l'l~EM Che nessuno arclisca ne possa far contratto de vendition~. in1pignoraLone de Case. Boteghe et magazeni etian1 per qnal 8i voglia ne.(:esgita dentro i lin1iti eccetto in presenza delli Commissarii sotto pena di pagare onze cinque et il Notario on .7.e duoe d'applicarsi. al fisco di lVIonsignor R.n10 et- lo cont.rat.to s'in tenda nullo. Et trovandosi il contratto diRsimulato sia nullo {'.I t i I vend itore perde la meta dell a eai::a se Rara Religioso all' erario, et Re sartt Recolare n.l fisco e.t l'ernptore la meta del prezzo et che neRsun secolare posRa comprare caRa dentro i limiti senza licen.za Capitoli circa la divisione et assignatione del sito della nuo ra Citta di Valletta fatti dal Rdo. 8igr . .Priore di Messina Luo" gotenente di l\iionsignor Illmo. et Rmo. Gran Maesti·o et suo ve" nerando Conseglio in detta Citta et dalli Sigri. Oonunissarii con il pare.re del Sigr. Capitan Francesco quali si presentuno a sua Signoria. llilustrissima et Suo Veneranclo Conseglio: averten ORIGIN OF LAWS1 Ex ma~is moribus bonae leges uatae sunt.-COKE. Bonae leges mali~ ex moribus procreantur.-MACROB. Laws and rights descend like an inveterate inherited diaease. GOETHE. CASE LAW: ' 'That lawless science, that wilderness of aingle instances, that oode foss myriad of precedent~'.