2000 Fall Exhibit, Hill Monastic Manuscript Library

Treasures from Malta

The island nation of Malta, located at the crossroads of the Mediterranean, was ruled by the Knights of Malta between 1530 and 1798. Malta had a long history before the Knights came. Prehistoric temples older than Stonehenge survive on the island. St. Paul was shipwrecked on the island while on his way to face trial in Rome. The Muslims and the Normans ruled the island and influenced the language and culture of the people. When the Knights arrived on the island, they patronized the arts and built the city of Valletta, leaving a rich legacy still visible today.

The Knights of Malta have their own unique history. The Knights began as the military religious Order of the Hospital in Jerusalem at the time of the First Crusade in 1099. They operated a hospital for pilgrims and protected the Crusader Kingdoms. After the last crusader outpost in Acre fell in 1291, the Order of the Hospital acquired the island of Rhodes. They ruled the island as a sovereign nation, and avoided the fate of the Templars, who were suppressed once the era of the crusades was over. The Order of the Hospital, now known as the Knights of Rhodes, continued their mission of healing the sick and fighting for the Christian faith. When the Ottoman Turks captured Rhodes in 1522, Charles V gave the Order the island of Malta in return for a yearly rent of one Maltese falcon. The Order, now known as the Knights of Malta, continued to fight the Turks and survived a major siege in 1565. Finally, it was Napoleon Bonaparte and the social changes brought by the French Revolution that ended the Order's rule in Malta. The Order still exists today as a charitable organization that supports hospitaller work around the world.

The treasures in this exhibit illustrate the history of the Knights and the culture of the island of Malta. They are but a portion of the holdings of the Malta Study Center, which also contains the microfilmed archives of the Knights of Malta and the Cathedral Museum of Mdina (Malta).

(Click on thumbnail for enlarged image)

Guillemus Caoursin. Descriptio obsidone Rhodiae. Venice, Erhard Ratdolt, 1480.


John Guillim. A Display of Heraldrie: Manifesting a more easie accesse to the knowledge thereof than hath beene hitherto published by any, through the benefit of method. London, 1638.

Burchardo Niderstedt. Malta vetus et nova. Helmstedt, 1660.

L'Abbe de Vertot. The History of the Knights of Malta. London, 1728.

Naval Exploits of the Knights of Malta, 1647-1736.


P.F. Ruperto a S. Gaspare. Divus Paulus Apostolus e Melita Illyricana in Africanam quondam nunc vero S. Joannis Hierosolymitani Equitum Feliciter redux sive anticriticarum inspectionum Reverendissimi D. Abbatis Ignatii Georgii Ordinis S. P Benedicti Amica Inspectio, pars prima. Venice, 1739.


Louis de Boisgelin, Ancient and Modern Malta: Containing a Full and Accurate Account of the Present State of the Islands of Malta and Goza, the History of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, also a Narrative of the Events which Attended the Capture of these Islands by the French, and their conquest by English. Two Volumes, London 1805.



D-D. Parjasse. L'Italie, la Sicile, les Iles Eoliennes, I'Ile d 'Elbe, la Sardaigne, Malte, I'Ile de Calypso, etc. Paris, 1835.



Collezione di monumenti e lapidi sepolcrali dei Militi Gerosolimitani nella Chiesa di San Giovanni in Malta. Malta, 1838.

This page created 15 March 2001
Author Theresa M. Vann / Scribe Justin Carroll
All images remain the property of the Malta Study Center, Hill Monastic Manuscript Library, and may not be reproduced without permission.
Hill Monastic Manuscript Library
Saint John's University, Collegeville, MN 56321, USA
Phone: 320-363-3514/ Fax: 320-363-3222/ E-mail: Malta Study Center