The Maltese nobility during the Hospitaller period : towards a reappraisal

Over the last thirty years the nobilities of early modern Europe have become a subject of major interest for historians working on the social history of the period. This increase in attention has resulted in the development of new approaches to what is a very productive topic of research, in the course of which some established conceptions on the European nobilities have been revised. This paper draws on a number of these new approaches and revisions to suggest ways in which they might illuminate similar research on the Maltese nobility during the Hospitaller period. Through a discussion of the existing research on early modern Maltese society, this paper highlights two broad sets of questions that arise from the study of the Maltese nobility. These questions concern the disintegration of Maltese elites following the arrival of the Order of St John in 1530, and the formation of a new titled elite in the eighteenth century. In the course of addressing the second set of questions, this paper puts forward the hypothesis that the increase in the number of titleholders in the eighteenth century was connected to the contest over jurisdictions and privileges between the magistracy and the inquisition. This paper offers a tour d'horizon of the existing historiography on these topics and draws on some examples from the copious source material that is available for further research.peer-reviewe

Les réseaux des Hospitaliers dans l’Italie du xviiie siècle

Cet article étudie les chevaliers de l’Ordre de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem et leur participation à des réseaux sociaux au milieu du xviiie siècle. Il s’appuie sur les fonds archivistiques conservés dans les Archives de Piro, à la Valette de Malte, qui n’avaient jusque-là pas été exploités. L’étude se concentre plus spécifiquement sur la correspondance du premier baron et marquis, Giovanni Pio de Piro, qui comprend des centaines de lettres de divers chevaliers de Malte. En analysant ces lettres dans leur contexte historique, l’article cible les réseaux sociaux dont faisaient partie les Hospitaliers et les cercles au sein desquels ils évoluaient. Les occasions de participer à ces réseaux constituaient une importante contrepartie pour les familles plaçant leurs cadets dans les rangs de l’Ordre.This paper studies the knights of the Order of St. John and their participation in social networks around the mid-eighteenth century. It draws on archival funds housed in the Depiro Archive in Valletta, Malta, that have not previously been used for this purpose. More specifically, this study focuses on the correspondence of the first Baron and Marquis Giovanni Pio de Piro, which includes hundreds of letters from various knights of St. John. By analysing these letters in their specific historical context, this paper identifies the social networks the knights hospitallers were involved in, and the social circles in which they moved. It concludes by arguing that participation in these networks was a major incentive for noble households to place their cadet sons within the ranks of the Order