The state of the hospitaller commandery of San Giovanni Battista di Maruggio in the first half of the eighteenth century

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is to study the physical, administrative and financial development of the Hospitaller Commandery of San Giovanni of Maruggio during the first half of the eighteenth century. Its medieval origins are only traced through electronically-retrieved information as it was difficult to find any secondary sources on the subject. This commandery became a Magistral Commandery in 1556 even though that of Brindisi was already the Magistral Commandery in the same Priory of Barletta. There were instances when the commandery of Maruggio was called of Brindisi. In the various books I've gone through about Apulia and the Priory of Barletta I rarely found any information about the commandery of Maruggio. This study is not intended as a comprehensive and exhaustive history of the commandery, but I have tried to create a picture of the commandery and the changes it went through in the first fifty years of the eighteenth century. The physical changes and improvements the commandery went through during the period covered in this dissertation were only due to the good administration of the two commanders. These changes also improved the financial aspect of the commandery, therefore also improving also the commandery' s contribution to the Order and obviously improving economic conditions for the Knights and for the inhabitants. This occurred despite the fact that this was not one of the most important commanderies of the Order in Italy. The backbone of my research concentrated in the four cabrei and the miglioramenti regarding the commandery of Maruggio from 1629 to 1747. The cabreo of 1745 also contained maps describing the various chiuse, the massaria and other membri of the commandery. The description of the commandery and its property was documented in substantial detail. In the miglioramenti the income of the commandery was quite detailed but the expenditure was not. However there is lack of information about the social life of the inhabitants of Maruggio, except for some information about the celebration of mass and about a procession with the statue of Saint John the Baptist. These documents are to be found in the archives of the Order of St. John at the National Library in Valletta.