The Hospitaller Commandery of Santa Maria Delle Grazie of Castell’ Araldo (Marta) : its state in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to capture the state of affairs of the Commandery of Castell' Araldo during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Castell’ Araldo was a humble rural holding of the Order with no buildings of note. It was used as a field for cultivating grain and animal grazing. It barely generated sufficient income to support its non-resident commander or commanders. Nevertheless, throughout its history, it produced a considerable number of manuscripts and documents, both in Latin and Italian, which I have traced at the Maltese National Library, the Library of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta in Rome, the Archivio di Stato in Florence, the Notarial Archives in Valletta and the Banca Guratale at Mdina. Surprisingly, and with some consternation, I discovered that Anthony Luttrell published a study on this holding in 1971. However, his work focused on the Marta member of this commandery with more emphasis on the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Considering this, it was logical for me to try to focus on the Senglea member and the subsequent centuries and the two batches of documents, one written and the other printed, which the archivist of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta in Rome classified as 'Corrispondenza' and 'Malevitana,' which Luttrell used sparingly, if at all. I also managed to source three other manuscripts. I traced a cabreo of 1787 among the Corrispondenza, which Luttrell did not mention, the existence of which could have been unknown or else, if its existence was known, thought as lost. Similarly, in the visita of 1602, I discovered another visita dated 1584, unmentioned by Luttrell. Finally, I traced a reference to a visita of 1724 in the set of documents called Melevitana (About Malta) which contained printed documents called Montis Falisei Responsis that journalised information that related directly or indirectly to the responsions of this commandery. I traced the reference to the visita of 1724 in one of these journals, printed in 1770. The cabreo of 1787 and the viste of 1584 and 1724 were not recorded in the 'Indice delli Miglioramenti e Cabrei d'Italia, which Indice, Luttrell used to trace the primary source documents of this commandery. Chapter 1 presents the bizarre but unequivocal fact that this thesis is not about one holding and one Commandery of the Order but about one indivisible tenuta and other assets shared between two commanderies. There is information about the location and a brief description of the estate of Castell' Araldo and how it came to be owned and possessed by the Order. It also briefly describes what a commandery is and explains the juris potestas and the extensive cluster of legal rights, including public law rights, attributed to a commandery which latter rights, are often ignored, neglected or unacknowledged. Chapter 2 provides an overall historical narrative of the estate. It begins with information about its origins as a Templar preceptory in the thirteenth century. It continues with details about the passing of ownership to the Order of St John, which technically occurred in the fourteenth century. However, they only took possession of the site in the fifteenth century. During the middle of the sixteenth century, the holding of Marta was given to the Community of Marta in perpetual emphyteusis until it was transferred to the Commune of Marta in the nineteenth century. Chapter 3 examines the cabreo, which is, an inventory, a visit, a process, and a document. However, cabreo is defined as a 'publico inventario di tutti i beni mobili e stabili' of a commandery. The chapter gives reasons why and how a cabreo is executed, and it explains why it was legally imperative for it to be done every twentyfive years, and why it was so crucial for it to be executed under the authority of the lord of the region where the commandery stood and why the publication of banns was such an essential prerequisite of this process. The four cabrei traced, those of 1625 and 1760 which dealt with the member of Marta and those of 1763 and 1787 which dealt with the member of Senglea, are detailed in this chapter. These cabrei highlight some of the commandery's disputes with third parties. They also shed light on the issue of one tenuta, two commanders and two commanderies, but questions remain. This chapter also explains how and why the commandery came to buy and hold two houses in Senglea. Finally, an attempt was made to understand why, for this estate, the record shows that a cabreo was not prepared every twenty-five years as required by the statute. Chapter 4 discusses the main objective, among many, for carrying out a Vista dei Meglioramenti, which was to conclude whether the commander who held the assets of the commandery in trust for the Order improved the estate. This entailed an obligatory analysis of the yardstick used by the Order for measuring meglioramenti. It sought to establish whether the commander was obliged to maintain or repair an asset when it broke or whether his responsibility was more onerous and the new for old principle needed to be applied. While analysing the eight visite dei miglioramenti, five dealing with Marta (1584, 1602, 1724, 1762 and 1775) and three dealing with Senglea (1764, 1775 and 1787), a summary of the procedures and stages necessary to conduct a professional visit was prepared. The visits explained the various disputes and court cases involving the commandery over the years. They also unequivocally clarified that Castell' Araldo was one estate shared by two Commanderies, one called Santa Maria delle Grazie di Castell' Araldo and the other, San Pietro di Castell' Araldo, which both belonged to the Priory of Pisa. This chapter also attempts to determine why, according to the records, the frequency of the visits established by the statute, which was every four years, was not followed. Chapter 5 reviews the preceding chapters' findings, distinguishes between unqualified and qualified conclusions, and ends with some ventured conclusions that should be read with some caution.