The Knights of Malta
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H. J. A. Sire
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Format: PaperPrice: $35.00
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This handsome book is the first complete history of the Knights of Malta. H.J.A. Sire provides a wide-ranging and fascinating account of the Order, discussing, for example, the Hospitaller castles of the crusading period; its government on Rhodes and at Malta; its naval role in the Mediterranean; its priories throughout Europe; the role played by the Knights in their respective countries; the conquest of Malta by Napoleon in 1798; the Order's efforts since then to recover an effective role after its loss of territorial sovereignty; and the attempt in the 1950s to subject the Order to Vatican control.
Lavishly illustrated, the book contains numerous examples of the Order's art and architecture over nine centuries—its religious art, portraiture, and illuminated manuscripts, as well as the castles, medieval and baroque cities, manors, churches, and fortified villages built by the Order throughout Europe.
"A splendidly illustrated history of a colorful, aristocratic religious order . . . that has survived numerous historical disasters and always discovered good works to do."—New York Times Book Review
"This is the first comprehensive general history to be written in English, H.J.A. Sire is to be congratulated on producing a very well-balanced account, which pays full attention to the history of the Order in the modern period as well as in the crusading centuries, and which examines also the regional history of the Order throughout Western Europe. In order to produce this work, Sire has read a prodigious amount, and he gives his readers sound bibliographical guidance. The text is further enhanced by a large number of excellent photographs and reproductions."—Bernard Hamilton, Times Literary Supplement
"A lucid, comprehensive account of . . . the Knights' history, from the founding of the order to the present day."—Jamie James, Wall Street Journal
"The only serious study written to date of the 900-year-old military religious order. . . . This is an intriguing tale of what might easily pass for an anachronism were it not for Sire's candid yet judicious analysis."—Choice
"A handsomely produced and illustrated history of an influential and mysterious 900-year-old order of Catholic knights, examining the order's formative years, its military significance during its reigns on Rhodes and Malta, its artistic and architectural legacy, and its branches in nations throughout Europe."—Book News
"A valuable contribution to our understanding of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem in its present incarnation as the Knights of Malta."—Michael Gervers, International History Review
"In combination with the clear and lively style in which the text itself is written, the illustrations make this book a pleasure both to examine and to read. . . . A serious history of an important institution that contributes to its subject not only a very useful overview but a whole series of intelligent reassessments of the role and place of the order in the context of its various times."—D'Arcy Jonathan Dacre Boulton, Speculum—A Journal of Medieval Studies
"This handsomely illustrated volume is the first history in English of the oldest military religious order to cover the whole of its illustrious history from the beginnings in the eleventh-century hospice at Jerusalem to the international order of the present day. A great merit is that within the relatively small compass of the book the author has managed to discuss, not only the general, but also the local, history of the order which had spread throughout Catholic Europe by the end of the Middle Ages."—Antiquaries Journal
"A properly researched 'biography' of the Knights of Malta has been awaiting its historian for over a century. Dr. Sire has now provided one, scholarly, authoritative, and lavishly illustrated. . . . Dr. Sire tells the whole story in meticulous detail. He has cleverly constructed the book to handle his copious material both chronologically and thematically."—Roderick Cavaliero, The Tablet
"This handsome volume provides the first complete history of the Order of St. John (a.k.a. the Knights of Malta), from its medieval military and hospital role during the Crusades in the Holy Land to the modern Catholic institution of today. . . . A seminal study of its genre."—Harry Sayen, Trenton Times (New Jersey)
Publication Date: September 25, 1996
200 b/w + 16 color illus.
