Land and the Cross

Valentina Burgassi is an assistant professor in the history of early modern architecture at Politecnico di Torino. She holds a joint PhD in Architectural and Landscape Heritage from Politecnico di Torino and in Histoire de l'Art from École Pratiques des Hautes Études. She holds a post-MA specialisation in Cultural Heritage and Landscape (2012). She worked as a teaching assistant at Politecnico di Milano (2014-2018) and as a fellow at the Palladio Museum (2020) and the École française de Rome (2018). She is part of the executive committee of the Construction History Group (Politecnico di Torino).George Alexander Said-Zammit holds a PhD from the University of Leiden. He specialises in domestic space in the Maltese Islands and its development within a Mediterranean and European context between 1300 and 1970. He is a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and a fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute. Said-Zammit lectures on domestic space and space syntax for the Faculty of the Built Environment of the University of Malta. He has authored various academic publications worldwide and has participated in conferences in Malta and abroad. He is an Ambassador of Malta.Valeria Vanesio is a lecturer in the Department of Library, Information and Archive Sciences (University of Malta) and an international associate of the Malta Study Center. She holds a PhD from Sapienza University of Rome and two specialist degrees from the State Archives of Rome and the Archivio Apostolico Vaticano. She was a post-doc and an archivist of the Malta Study Center and was responsible for the first three-year project of reorganisation of the historical Magistral Archives of the Order of St John in Rome. Her most recent publication is ‘The Order of St John’s archival entanglements: cataloguing experiments at the Magistral Archives in Rome’ (2023).

‘The Order of St. John has a deliciously complex history, its members ruling a tiny insular territory while managing a vast web of land holdings that extended over virtually every part of medieval and early modern Europe. This collection of essays does full justice to the order's rich and multi-faceted past, while at the same time showcasing the ongoing transformation of Hospitaller studies thanks to the troves of new documentary material now being made available by archivists’ - Giancarlo Casale, Professor of Early Modern History of the Mediterranean, European University Institute.'This wide-ranging collection is a welcome addition to scholarship on the Order of St John (also known as the Knights Hospitaller and the Knights of Malta) in Europe during the early modern period. Focussing on the Knights’ landholdings and relations with Christian rulers, it reveals the Order as a vibrant institution even as its holy war and care for the sick became less significant to Europeans. Exploring extensive archival records -- including the Knights’ illustrated inventories of their lands and buildings – these articles illuminate details of the Knights' activities in landholding, politics and diplomacy, administration, and record-keeping' - Helen Nicholson, Emeritus Professor, Cardiff University.‘This book is rich with new insights about the intricate administrative systems that held together the far-reaching network of properties of the Order of Saint John. The role played by individual actors leaps to life from the pages, in a vivid portrait of the tensions between the time-honoured traditions of a venerable institution, and the pragmatic realpolitik that needed to be exercised daily to safeguard the Order’s interests. The volume brings together fifteen contributions from a formidable array of scholars, to deliver an interdisciplinary tour-de-force’ - Reuben Grima, Associate Professor of Conservation and Built Heritage, University of Malta.

• 1 Introduction: The Religion and the LandEmanuel Buttigieg & Rakele FiottPART 1: POLITICS AND DIPLOMACY2 Serving the Convent: The commanderies of the Order of St John in the sixteenth centuryAnne Brogini3 European dynasticism and Hospitaller interest: The Grand Priory of Castile and León at the end of the reign of Charles II of Habsburg (1679-1700)Roberto Quirós Rosado 4 The Order of the Knights Hospitaller: Wealthy landowners?Alain Blondy5 In the shadows of Secularisation, Church policy and Febronianism. The transfer of the property of the Societas Jesu to the Bavarian Grand Priory of the Order of St JohnThomas FrellerPART 2: ARCHIVES AND INSTITUTIONS6 'Per la distanza de’ luoghi e per la varietà delle Nationi': People, properties and archival procedures of the Order of St John in the early modern periodValeria Vanesio7 The Sicilian Priory of Messina and its commanderies from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuryFabrizio D’Avenia8 The commanderies de jure patronatus in the Venetian Mainland from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century: Land, control and powerLuigi Robuschi9 Dispersed archives, authority control and the land surveys of the Order of the Knights HospitallerDaniel K. GulloPART 3: PATRIMONIAL NETWORKS10 The Patrimonial network and heritage of the Order of St John in Portugal in the late medieval and early modern periodPaula Maria de Carvalho Pinto Costa11 Artistic landscape and visual memory: The Order of Saint John in the Crown of CastileOlga Pérez Monzón12 The Order, its city, and its peripheries: Rural-urban dialectics in early modern MaltaDaniel Borg & Christian Mifsud13 The cabrei of the Order of St John in Malta as a means of communication to transmit power and material wealthGeorge A. Said-Zammit14 Hospitaller commanderies as an international phenomenon: The lens of architectural sources in the early modern Italian StatesValentina BurgassiAfterword Victor Mallia-Milanes