Treasured possessions : aspects of Hospitaller material culture, c.1680-c.1720

Abstract

On 19 April 1715, Frà Marcello Sacchetti, ambassador of the Order of Malta to the Holy See (1682–1720), prepared to organise his material possessions.1 The opening paragraph of his will and inventory read as follows: In the name of God, and of the Glorious perpetual Virgin Mary Amen[.] Since the lot of Man is assailed by infinite perils, and knowing full well that as a wretched sinner I am mortal, born to die, unknowing of the day of reckoning save that I will have to pay my dues, I am resolved with the help of his Divine Majesty to prepare myself for that uncertain hour, and leave my affairs in order[,] lest lawsuits and disagreements between my Holy Religion and my nephew the Lord Marquis Matteo Sacchetti follow my demise. Thus having been professed for many years into the said Holy Religion I desire to conform with the provisions of the statutes of the same and make my dispropriamento. 2 The preparation of such a document, commencing with a prayer, constituted a pious act intended to formalise the individual Hospitaller’s desire to submit to God’s will, including the responsibility of putting in order one’s worldly affairs and avoiding litigation among Christians. Worldly affairs are invariably material affairs; during his life-time a Hospitaller accumulated possessions which would need to be disposed of upon his demise. The Order had well-established procedures for dealing with this, but this did not mean that such procedures were always observed, nor even that outcomes were seamless when procedures were followed. The Treasury of the Order, individual Hospitallers, and their relatives could be pugnacious and punctilious in compiling and contesting these inventories of treasured possessions. Furthermore, the Hospitaller vow of poverty lent a certain particularity to the way property was understood within the context of this military-religious institution whose upper echelons hailed from distinct noble families. Piety, pugnacity, property and poverty were constituent elements that shaped the life – and death – of brethren and their relationship with the material culture surrounding them, which they could use during their lifetime but never call their own.