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2010, Historicizing Religion. Critical Approaches to Contemporary Concerns, Bojan Borstner, Smiljana Gartner, Sabine Deschler-Erb, Charles Dalli, Iwan- Michelangelo D’Aprile (eds.), Pisa: Pisa University Press (2010), pp. 145-157.
From the foundation of the Order of St John in 11th century Syria as a community of lay brethren intent on providing shelter, care and assistance to pilgrims visiting the Holy Land, the destiny of the Hospitaller Knights was irremediably moulded for most of the next millennium. Geography, circumstance, religious ideology, and the pursuit of wealth all conspired to transform the future of the Hospitallers into a violent one, in keeping with the surrounding environment of the Middle East and the rest of the Mediterranean. The Order’s attitude to conflict changed, however, when the theatre of war shifted from the Mediterranean to mainland Europe. The acquisition of property in Latin Syria helped chart the course of the Order’s history, rendering the Hospitallers sensitive to events on the continent. Any land property in Europe was at risk of intrusion, occupation or exploitation by armies on the move, and the Hospital’s property was no exception. This study is an analysis of the Order of St John’s contrasting attitudes to violence, and the geographical, political, religious and historical situations that generated such an approach.
'The Port of Malta', Carmel Vassallo and Simon Mercieca (eds), (Malta, 2018).
DEALING WITH MANPOWER SHORTAGES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN: THE ORDER OF ST JOHN'S LABOUR FORCE PROBLEMS DURING THE 'LONG SEVENTEENTH CENTURY'2018 •
The Order of St John of Jerusalem, which governed the Maltese archipelago between 1530 and 1798, had to grapple with its fair share of problems created by manpower shortages. While discussing these difficulties and the ensuing implications, the paper elaborates on the Order’s endeavours to find remedies and recruit labour from whichever source was possible, through purchase, negotiation, or violence during the 1600s, a century which, according to Faruk Tabak, experienced a demographic slowdown. Published in: Carmel Vassallo and Simon Mercieca (eds), 'The Port of Malta' (Malta, 2018), pp. 75-96.
Turkish Historical Review
Getting to Know the Enemy: Hospitaller Malta's Intelligence Network in the Early Seventeenth Century2018 •
In 1530 the Knights Hospitallers were granted the Maltese islands by Charles V. The administration of an archipelago on the Mediterranean war frontier required constant knowledge on the enemy. This article reconstructs Hospitaller Malta's principal intelligence collection and transmission channels during the seventeenth century, particularly during the magistracy of Alof de Wignacourt from 1601 to 1622, two important decades of infrastructural changes for the archipelago. These specialised communication channels allowed Malta to carve out a special place for itself within the Habsburg-Ottoman rivalry and, in a way, contributed to the gestation period which saw the island evolve from a medieval Spanish fief into an early modern state. Keywords Hospitaller Malta-Intelligence-Ottoman-Habsburg rivalry-Seventeenth century-Communications-News transmission-Order of St John-Knights of St John
Journal of Maltese History
Capital, Conflict, and Mediterranean Frontiers: The Mobilization of Funds from the Order of St John's European Estates in Early Modernity2018 •
The Hospitaller Order of St John was a religious institution of hospice keepers which originated in eleventh-century Syria to provide care and assistance to pilgrims visiting the Holy Land. Throughout the first few centuries of its existence, the Order accumulated a vast amount of landed property across Christendom through bequests, donations, and direct purchase. The income and its transfer from these estates allowed the knights hospitallers to sustain for centuries on end the dual function of caregivers and military antagonists of Islam, a role which they took up in the twelfth century. By the time the Order settled on the Maltese archipelago in 1530, after lengthy sojourns in Cyprus and Rhodes, the Hospitaller fund-relocation practice was an established mechanism, absolutely fundamental for the survival of the Order and its island-base. This study analyses the Order's mobilization of funds in early modernity, with specific reference to the first few decades of the seventeenth century, and particularly Grand Master Alof de Wignacourt's administration (1601-1622), when Malta was integrated in the pax hispanica and was a protagonist in the Habsburg-Ottoman rivalry which dominated Mediterranean affairs. PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING ADDITIONS TO THIS ACADEMIA.EDU VERSION: 1. The Abstract, which was inexplicably omitted in the original online version of the Journal of Maltese History, an editorial decision which was never explained to the authors. 2. The subtitle: 'Hospitaller Malta and Sicily: Market Intelligence, Financial Policy, and Grain Export Strategy', in page 24. ERRATA CORRIGE: In page 19, footnote 146, 'Henry VII' should obviously read 'Henry VIII'.
Journal of Mediterranean Studies
Struggling Against Isolation. Communication Lines and the Circulation of News in the Mediterranean: The Case of Seventeenth-Century Malta2006 •
Communication with the outside world is vital for the survival of any community, regardless of time and geography. This is particularly so for an island community. Lying uncomfortably on the North-South, East-West, Muslim-Christian divide of the Inland Sea in the Early Modern era, and forever wary of the threat from Barbary to the South and the Ottomans to the East, Hospitaller Malta lived in a constant state of readiness for war and in a perpetual state of dependence for subsistence on Sicily and beyond. The need to maintain open the lines of communication with the mainland of Europe, and to be constantly updated on the maritime movements of the enemy was absolutely essential for the survival of the island. The present study, based mostly on the outgoing correspondence of the various Hospitaller magistracies throughout the seventeenth century, analyses the Knights’ endeavours to keep open communication lines with foreign states and territories.
International Journal of Maritime History
Flow of Capital in the Mediterranean: Financial Connections between Genoa and Hospitaller Malta in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries2005 •
The availability of capital was a common problem for European and Mediterraenan states in early modernity. The paper traces the attempts by Hospitaller Malta (1530-1798) to balance the accounts of its Treasury mainly through the relocation of income from the Knights Hospitallers’ property on the continent. Malta, a small island south of Sicily, was actively engaged on the Habsburg-Ottoman war frontier and its constant need for credit forced its government, the religious military Order of St John, to seek alternative means to bolster its coffers. Connections with Genoa, still a significant financial centre after the ‘golden age’ of the sixteenth century, were fostered for this purpose. This study re-creates credit-transfer patterns on the Genoa-Malta route in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, highlighting the role of Palermo and Messina in northern Sicily as two principal remittance stations in Hospitaller Malta’s financial network, and analysing the impact of the Ottoman threat and diplomacy on these connections. ... | Ayuda. Flow of Capital in the Mediterranean: Financial Connections between Genoa and Hospitaller Malta in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Autores: Ivan Grech; Localización: International journal of maritime history, ISSN 0843-8714, Vol. 17, Nº. 2, 2005 , pags. ...
The study seeks to understand the relationship between the individual Hospitaller and the Treasury, primarily by looking at those instances when a Hospitaller fell in debt with the Treasury, and how the Treasury responded to the death of a Hospitaller. At the same time, it has also tried to analyse the relationship between the different parts of Order’s structure – those parts that were responsible for the management of the Order’s assets and finances. The relationship between the individual Hospitaller and the Treasury was formed by the monastic precepts, emphasising the complete self-denial of the individual and, through the vow of poverty, the absolute rejection of worldly life, most notably worldly possessions. By the late medieval period this precept was understood to mean that the individual Hospitaller did not legally own anything, but whatever he possessed belonged in fact to the Order. Yet, he retained full usufruct of any assets– financial, movable, or immovable – that came his way and enjoyed a full separate legal personality only within the Order. His freedom was only restricted in two ways: he could not file litigation or be sued in non-Hospitaller tribunals, and could not invest in risky business. The evolution of the Order’s interpretation of the vow of poverty was the Order’s response to the changing social mores across Europe. Effectively this meant the complete reversal of the precept of complete renounciation of the material world – not only were Hospitallers allowed to live in the world and adopt a worldly way of life; they could also, to an extent, dispose of their properties through their spoglio and disproprio. It would appear that in the mind of some Hospitallers there was little difference between a ‘full usufruct’ and ‘a legal title of ownership’. The Treasury branched out across the entire Hospitaller structure. Whether directly, by supervising the effective management of the different parts, or indirectly, through its stance as a shoulder to protect entities like langues and foundations which managed their finances autonomously, it was a binding element. It tied the whole Hospitaller structure together through its administrative and regulatory function of all the Order’s properties and finances. Through its ongoing relationship with the individual Hospitaller, it also ensured that individuals did not rob the Order but paid their dues timely and managed its assets dutifully. Its relationship with the individual Hospitaller was shaped across time by the Order’s acquiescing to societal patterns concerning individualistic attitudes and high standards of living, conceding to individuals the privilege of enjoying worldly goods notwithstanding the vows of poverty. At the same time, the Treasury, as the Order’s executive and judicial arm in matters relating to the management of assets, retained control over the whims of the individual, wielding arbitrary jurisdictional powers recognised by other sovereign states and on the death of its members assimilating their possessions into its communal coffers.
Journal of Maltese History
Dread the Grim Reaper: Early Warning Strategies as a Means of Plague Prevention. Hospitaller Malta's Fight Against Contagion2013 •
Plague brought social disruption and physical devastation on a large scale in pre-industrial society. This study provides an overview of the occurrence and socio-economic impact on society of the pestilence in the Mediterranean world and beyond from Antiquity up to the nineteenth century, with considerations on recent historiographical trends regarding the analysis of the outbreak and spread of the phenomenon based on a multi-disciplinary approach. Aspects discussed in the paper are the biological origins of the disease, how it spread across territories along trading and maritime routes, and the different religious approaches to the epidemic. The paper makes special reference to the fight against plague from within an island context in early modernity, with special reference to Hospitaller Malta (1530-1798). Focusing on seventeenth-century Malta in particular, the paper analyses the collaborative efforts between Mediterranean maritime centres for mutual alarm regarding possible contagion, and Malta's early warning system based on an international contact network which helped the Knights Hospitallers and the islanders they governed in their attempts to prevent plague.
The Harbour of Malta, Carmel Vassallo and Simons Mercieca eds.
‘The Island Order State on Malta and its harbour, c.1530-c.1624’2018 •
2004 •
An inventory of the microfilms of the Archives of the Order of Malta held by the National Library of Malta, Valletta. Originally posted on the website of the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library.
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Making Waves in the Mediterranean (Sulle onde del Mediterraneo). Proceedings of the 2nd MMHN Conference. Messina and Taormina, 4-7 May 2006, M. D’Angelo, G. Harlaftis, and C. Vassallo (eds.) Istituto di Studi Storici Gaetano Salvemini, Messina 2010, pp. 455-465
Percezioni di isolamento nel Mediterraneo. Malta nel '600: canali di comunicazione e circolazione di notizie.2010 •
CAVALIERI DI SAN GIOVANNI IN LIGURIA E NELL'ITALIA SETTENTRIONALE. Quadri regionali, uomini e documenti. A cura di Josepha Costa Restagno (Genova-Albenga, 2009), pp. 587-609
IL PREZZO DELL'ONORE NEL MEDITERRANEO. RAPPORTI E DISSIDI DIPLOMATICI TRA GENOVA E L'ORDINE DI MALTA NEL SEICENTO2009 •
The Military Orders Volume 6.1 Culture and Conflict in the Mediterranean World Chapter 11 106-114
The Manumission of Hospitaller Slaves on fifteenth century Rhodes and Cyprus2017 •
2010 •
The Stuggle for Supremacy. The Mediterranean World in 1453 and Beyond, (edd.) G. Cassar, D. Munro, N. Buttigieg, Sacra Militia Foundation, Malta
The Hospitaller Knights in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Mediterranean World: Notes on the Order's presence and impact on populations in the Greek Lands2018 •
The Journal of Baroque Studies
The Magdalene Monastery, Valletta in the Age of the Counter Reformation: Attitudes, Action and Negotiation2018 •
The Military Orders 6.2, Culture and Conflict in Western and Northern Europe
The narrow escape of the Teutonic Order Bailiwick of Utrecht, 1811-18152017 •
The Military Orders: Culture and Conflict, vol. 6.2, Jochen Schenk and Michael Carr (eds.), (Farnham: Ashgate, 2017), 89-99.
'Maligno spiritu ductus et sue professionis immemor' Conflicts within the Culture of the Hospitaller Order on Rhodes and Cyprus2017 •
Islands and Military Orders, c.1291-c.1798
Malta and the Order of St John: Life on an Island Home2013 •
In The Military Orders. Volume 4. On Land and by Sea. Upton-Ward, J. Aldershot: Ashgate. 235-250.
Building Biographies: Graffiti, Architecture and People at the Hospitaller Preceptory at Ambel (Zaragoza), Spain2008 •
The Military Orders, vol. 6: Culture and Conflicts
'Segnoria’, ‘memoria’, ‘controversia’: Pragmatic Literacy, Archival Memory, and Conflicts in Provence (Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries)The Military Orders: Piety, Pugnacity and Property. 7th International Conference, Londres (7-10 septembre 2017)
'Por ce vint as Ospitaliers et [...] leur dona la moitié de sa cité' : Hospitallers and Templars as Landholders in the Principality of Galilee (12th-13th centuries)2017 •
Between God and the King: The World of Military Orders. Proceedings of the VII International Conference on Military Orders, Palmela, 14-18 October 2015 (Isabel Cristina Fernandes ed.), Palmela GESOS, pp. 109–37.
'Vertot’s "Histoire des Chevaliers de Malte" and its prohibition in the context of Hospitaller Historiographical practices'2018 •
International Mobility in the Military Orders (Twelfth to Fifteenth centuries) Travelling on Christ's Business
Hospitaller Officials of Foreign Origin in the Hungarian-Slavonian Priory: thirteenth-fourteenth century2006 •