The postal system of the Order of St John 1530-1798

Abstract

When it was suggested that I should consider writing about the 'letters and the postal system of the Order in Malta' for my thesis, leading to an MA in Hospitaller Studies, the idea appealed to me. I thought I could treat the subject :from a philatelic postal historian's point of view, as others, not connected with postal history, might not be able to do. Other dissertations on the postal system in Malta focused more on the British period than that of the Order. The present study is therefore about Ietters and the postal system of the Order in Malta, :from a 'postal historian's point of view'. Throughout the ages, there was the need to communicate, send messages, and transmit letters that allowed postal organisations, under one form or another, to develop. The function of a postal administration was therefore a method of transmitting information through letters. If there were no letters there would not have been the need to develop any postal administration. It was the letter that created the postal system, a unique need, which today lost some of its importance with the advent of the Internet. The little archival material I have found at the National Library in Valletta, the National Archives at Rabat, St John' s Gate in Clerkenwell, UK, and in private archives on the subject, has been supplemented with information obtained from studying manuscript markings on entires / letters (E/Ls). These manuscript markings on E/Ls give us ample useful information on the rates charged, whether un-paid '.franca ', pre-paid, or paid by recipient, significant information :from the postal hand stamps used, routes taken, and method of transfer :from one border to another, until they reach their final destinations at the address of the recipient. These E/Ls have as far as possible been reproduced and acknowledged. The personal Grandmasters' paper hand-pressed wafer seals, together with the various methods of signing their name on their letters have been illustrated together for the first time. The specimen of signatures preserved at the National Library has many signatures missing, nor do they illustrate the signing of their full name, as a sign of respect, when writing to the Emperor as the Head of the Holy Roman Empire. I hope that the present contribution may correct this deficiency. The disinfection of letters because of the plague had always been an important part of the function of the postal system, both in Malta and in Europe, as plague inflicted both human loss and destroyed economies of nations. Where it hit it left a trail of human suffering and economic hardships, as :frontiers were closed and trade was stopped. This happened in Malta whenever there was the plague, resulting in widespread hardship for Malta, an island which always depended for its essential commodities on neighbouring Sicily. Examples of notification of suspension of trade with Malta because of the plague were published in Lucca in 1665 (Fig. l), and in Bologna in 1676. (Fig. 2) From these embargoes, one can see that it was a very serious matter and that the Order treated it as seriously. Several times nations dragged their feet before declaring that plague had visited them in order to avoid being blacklisted.