ABSTRACT
Hospitaller heraldry has been indispensable for the identification and precise dating of medieval buildings on Rhodes. The defences of Rhodes resemble a heraldic palimpsest; more additions and modifications mask earlier works whose heraldry is no longer in evidence. In any case, when legible inscriptions accompany Hospitaller heraldry, they generally include the rank the deceased had held within the order. Similarities between Hospitaller and lay tombstones are evident, with the latter imitating the former without attempting to confuse the issue of status. Surviving evidence for the use of heraldry on Rhodes antedates the establishment of the Hospitallers: on a slab of local marble a Greek inscription in Byzantine capitals reads 'John Pitzos, servant of the Lord, went to his rest in the month of June in the year 1306'. Most Hospitaller tombstones were of better workmanship than all but the very best lay slabs; the tombs of grand masters were in a class of their own.
