ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the way that Jan Potocki, himself a Knight of Malta, created and elaborated the image of the fictional Hospitaller against the background of the contemporary symbolist and initiatory re-interpretations of the notion of the knight and the military orders. While the novel abounds in villains and tricksters, the fictional Hospitallers are generally on the side of ethical good and are frequently associated with one of the principal themes of the novel. Potocki, therefore, refused to mythicize and romanticize the image of the fictional Hospitaller in his novel at a time when a preoccupation with a symbolic and initiatory knighthood was in vogue in the circles he moved in. Alongside the unfolding of the Enlightenment, the course of the eighteenth century also witnessed a major revival of interest in the imagery and themes of knighthood and chivalry. A very important test case for its further investigation is the widely acclaimed novel of Potocki, Manuscrit trouve a Saragosse.
