ABSTRACT
From the Middle Ages onwards tapestries (tapisseries) were not simply objets d’art but also very expensive statements of grandeur, politics and power for both secular and ecclesiastical rulers. 1 Historical tapestries were large and elegant woven pictorial wall coverings of great splendour and value, enormously appreciated by observers. They were used to adorn palaces and churches in order to impress contemporary and future statesmen and peoples. Series of tapestries would often document important battles and historical events with the specific purpose of extolling and publicizing the fame of the princes and dynasties concerned. Tapestries were not only commissioned and displayed by secular rulers, but also, among others, by the heads of the Order of the Hospitallers, the grand masters of Rhodes and Malta. We know for instance that in 1493 Grand Master Fr Pierre d’Aubusson had a set of tapestries with his magisterial coat of arms manufactured in Flanders. In about 1600 this cultural and historical artefact could still be seen in Valletta by the famous historian of the Order, Fr Giacomo Bosio, as he himself noted in his celebrated Istoria. 2
