It is not given to everyone to have his maladies made the subject-matter of a published book. Not so Grand Master Perellos (1697 1720) who lived to see a 104-page volume about his recalcitrant fevers printed in his lifetime.1 It all started with a letter written on February 15, 1708, by Malta's protomedico (Chief Government Medical Officer) Dr Arcangelo Grech2 at the instance of the Grand Master, addressed to the most eminent physician in Sicily, indirectly asking for guidance about the defiant fevers the Grand Master had fallen victim to. The letter, I believe, bears translation and reproduction.peer-reviewe