The urban, cultural and political profile of the Maltese islands is deeply marked by the presence for 268 years of the Knights of St John. The Order has left its mark decisively in the collective memory of the Maltese. Malta: The Order of St John gives a global picture of this multinational institution in those crucial years when Grand Master L'Isle Adam moved the convent from Rhodes to Malta, when legendary Grand Master Valette withstood the Turkish assault in 1565, when Grand Masters Wignacourt, Cotoner and Carafa turned Malta into a centre of Mediterraean corsairing and Grand Masters Vilhena and Pinto tried to imitate the Central European absolutist princes. It all came to a sudden - but not unexpected - end in 1798 when Grand Master Hompesch handed over Malta to the rising star on the European horizon, Napoleon. The various diplomatic attempts of the knights to regain their island all failed. The book also provides the reader with an overview of the most important monuments connected with the knights on Malta and Gozo.

This book seeks to transport the reader back to eighteenth-century Malta. Daily life in eighteenth century Malta has been reconstructed from a number of primary sources. Judicial records contain important data relating to the food which was eaten in eighteenth century Malta, the clothes which were worn in the streets of Valleta, the household effects of the inhabitants of the eighteenth century and the way of life of the persons who dwelled in Malta at the time of Pinto and Rohan. Travellers' accounts contain interesting descriptions of the curious island. Eighteenth-century laws contain important data relating to the price of foodstuffs and the morals of the eighteenth-century Maltese. Confessions to the Holy Inquisition contain the most intimate secrets of the eighteenth-century Maltese. Most of the illustrations contained in this book consist of photographs of authentic eighteenth-century artefacts from advanced private collections. In a way this book is a companion volume to the authors' Antique Collecting in Malta .

This short study of the history of the Order of St John of Jerusalem, Rhodes and Malta, also known as the Knights Hospitaller, is intended as an introduction to the Order for academics working in other fields, as well as the interested general reader. Beginning with a consideration of the origins of the Order as a hospice for pilgrims in Jerusalem in the eleventh century, it traces the Hospitaller's development into a military order during the first part of the 12th century, and its military activities on the frontiers of Christendom in the eastern Mediterranean, Spain and eastern Europe during the middle ages and into early modern period: its role in crusades and in wars against non-Christians on land and at sea, as well as its role in building and maintaining fortresses.

This book lists all the coins minted by the Kights of Malta during their stay in Malta between 1530 - 1798. It lists all known varieties and lists the quantity known in museums and in private collections.

This volume starts with a presentation of the problems caused by the co-existence of a confusing number of Orders of St. John, all of them basing their lineage on the original Order, formed around 1118, which would never have ended. This issue, concerning the false Orders of St. John, seems mainly caused by the Alliance Order that does not allow other organizations of St. John to connect on equal footing with the charitable concept, developed since the late 19th century, but returning to the romanticized idealistic starting phase of the 11th century, when Raimondo of Podio Governor of St. John of Acre, founder of the Militia of St. John, founded the original Order of St. John. On February 15, 1113, Pope Paschal II sent to Brother Gerardo Sasso the Bull "Pie postulatio voluntatis", which granted the new institution the pontifical patronage, and transformed the community of Friars in a new religious order; a split of a religious confraternity sponsored by the Pontifical State. Many believe that the roots of the Order of Saint John are from this congregation of Friars, defining them as friars in arms, not so, Raimondo of Podium already Governor of St. John of Acre and former General of Goffredo di Buglione, in 1118, drawing on the nobility of this brotherhood, he constituted the Order on a military basis. Giving it the form of the Costume and Rules. Therefore, it cannot be claimed in any way that the Bull of February 15, 1113 of Pope Easter II, granted or acknowledged the Order. Yet another case of historical disorder, isolated, which, for conveniences of some parties, was also given by some of the narrators themselves, constituted an historical title without foundation or truthfulness. The Institutions of the Order have always been two from the origin: Hospitality and Militia. Hospitality was carried out with the help of the structure founded by Gerardo Sasso. Militia was the natural institution of the Order. The religious part that joined the Order were members of the Brotherhood of Gerardo Sasso. Hence, there is another hi-storical incongruity, adjusted by the art of various authors paid by the Vatican, which tra-ce the establishment of the Order of St. John to this pontifical bull, in fact this bull esta-blished the constitution of a new covenant of Friars Minor. The Order of St. John, only to a minimum part was born of this new brotherhood, Raimondo de Podio Governor of St. John of Acre former General of Goffredo di Buglione, organized a Militia of St. John. Some of the Friars of this hospital were included in this Militia, designated for assistance and hospitality. There were never brethren in arms, the members of the Militia who branded the weapons were already Noble or of Military extraction. Raimondo de Podio (Italian of Florentine origin) was the 1st Master of the Order of St. John. In spite of the fact that much of the history sustained and sponsored by the SMOM Alliance of the Orders of Saint John is an obvious and misleading reconstruction, as it is today, that is the basis of endless claims and battles between the Orders of Saint John. The issues appear to be not purely academic, because in various countries lawsuits were and are being conducted about it. Then let's look into the subject of the study more closely, i.e. how to determine when an Order of St. John is legitimate. In this context, a number of observations is necessarily devoted to the important, but difficult subject of legitimacy. Hereafter, a number of questions of an historical-legal nature are formulated and a "status quaestionis" is provided. The issues appear to have been studied more or less by various authors, but not always systematically, for these reasons, the author deemed it necessary to prepare this study. In this volume, we have published a large part of the documentary and historical heritage of the Order, including 99 minutes of the Assemblies of the Order, from the year 1908 to 1960.