ABSTRACT
The late 1740s and 1750s were years of structural change in the relations between the republic of Venice and the Hospitaller Order of St John. At the root of Zuanne Ferrendino's case lay, in their view, the Order's recent crusading warfare in the Levant, for behind Paolo Marassi's defying venture there loomed large the pervasive protection which Hospitaller Malta had long been extending to its corsairing industry. In the vain hope of containing Hospitaller and Maltese privateering in the Levant, Venice had opted rather clumsily to resort to the sequestro as the sole deterrent in her defence policy vis-a-vis the Hospital. Marassi was a notorious Maltese corsair sailing under the protection of the prince of Monaco. To shelter from rough seas, Marassi conducted his prize safely to the port of Chieri on Zante. The Maltese consul, conscious of his guilt, alleged Reynaud, sought to escape punishment by secretly fleeing the island of Zante.
