Introduction

The treatise Informatione dell’Institutioni, Privilegj, et Obblighj della Religione de Cavalieri de Rhodi hoggi di Malta, hereafter referred to as The Maltese Dialogue, is the first comprehensive and detailed exposé of the history, institutions, and political projects of the Order of the Knights of Saint John of the Hospital. Composed in the form of a dialogue between Commendator Giuseppe Cambiano, one of the Order’s most prominent sixteenth-century functionaries, and three Venetian patricians, it offers a succinct digest for the uninitiated public. The treatise is preserved in several manuscripts but has never been published. It can be dated to the mid-1550s, during the tenure of Grand Master Fra Claude de la Sengle (1553–1557), and is most likely bracketed between 1554, when Philip II of Spain became king of Naples and Sicily, and 1556, when another of the characters mentioned in the treatise, Fra Antoine Geoffroy, passed away. The conversation recorded in the Dialogue may actually have taken place even earlier, for its leading interlocutor is recorded as having been present in Venice in the autumn of 1552. ¹