Although published in 2010, this handsomely illustrated book makes good reading as we prepare to celebrate the 450th anniversary of the end of the Great Siege with the celebrations, exhibitions, etc. that will take place.
The author, Thomas Freller, is well-known in Malta because of his previous books. (He also lectures at the university).
The many illustrations that accompany the book are the result of painstaking work by Daniel Cilia, whose incisive eye has delighted readers in many other books.
Although we may boast about the heritage left in Malta by the Order of St John, and treasure even the slightest heirloom, painting, etc. from that time, many of us do not have enough knowledge of the Order's history especially before the Order came to Malta.
The book shows us one of the most important documents held at the Bibliotheca in Valletta - the Papal Bull of 1113 by Pope Paschal II in which he approved the establishment of the hospital in Jerusalem which became synonymous with the Order. This document mentions a certain brother, Gerard, who subsequently was named as the founder and grand master of the Order, terms which the book says are false.
The real origins of the Order are lost in the mist of time but it would seem the link between this Order and hospitals for pilgrims in Jerusalem existed right from the beginning. In fact, it was through this connection that the Order seems to have obtained its most-recognised symbol, the eight-pointed cross, which was derived from the historical flag of Amalfi through the Amalfitan hospitals in Jerusalem in the 11th century.
At first the Order was the Hospitaller Order, connected to the hospitals in Jerusalem even under Muslim rule. This continued and broadened when Jerusalem was conquered by the Crusaders in 1099. Here is where the Order's myth-makers kick in. One such example that the book gives us is the series of frescoes by Lionello Spada in the Palace in a room which until recently was used by the House of Representatives and thus inaccessible to the general public.
When Gerard died and was succeeded by Raymond de Puy, the Order, which by then had become quite rich with inheritances, somehow obtained independence from the local church hierarchy, an independence it has jealously preserved to this day. It was only then that the third strand was added and the Order became a fighting Order. Soon, the military role became the Hospitallers' primary role.
It was also around then that the Knights became choosy: at first they were quite bourgeois but as they got richer they started asking for background from applicants meaning their families' noble standing.
The book provides information regarding the fall of Jerusalem and the internal tension between the Hospitallers and the Templars, which ended with the Templars siding with Venice and the Hospitallers siding with Genoa - which was in alliance with the Muslims!
By then, the Crusades had petered out and there was huge reaction against the chivalric orders whose time had passed. At the Council of Lyons (1274) the general feeling was these orders should be disbanded. In 1312 the Templars were dissolved and the Knights of St John escaped from a similar fate because just a few years before they had conquered Rhodes after losing their last fortress in Palestine while the Templars had moved back to Europe.
The book provides a lot of welcome information about the time the Order spent in Rhodes, as well as some quite interesting visuals.
As it had previously based its narration of the early years of the Order from Lionello Spada's frescoes at the Palace so now the book bases itself on the series of frescoes by Matteo Perez d'Aleccio in the Sala del Gran Consiglio at the Palace to tell the story of the Great Siege.
After telling us about the Great Siege the book becomes less linear and speaks more on themes. Maybe we have heard all too often the biographies of the successive grand masters and their exploits and do not have enough background on what was going on in the Mediterranean and internally in the way the Knights reigned over Malta.
The rest of the book is the well-trodden path describing the Order's decline in Malta which was put an end to by Napoleon's invasion in 1798 and it continues in an abridged way telling us about the rest of the Order's history to our times.
The last sections of the book list the heritage of the Order from Valletta, St John's, the Palace and then the various fortresses around the Grand Harbour.
On a final note, if I may be allowed my small rant, the purple background underlying some captions make it impossible to read.
This book makes for interesting reading and the photos, even when unfortunately too small, are delightful.
Thomas Freller
Malta: The Order of St John
Photography Daniel Cilia
Midsea Books 2010
360pp