Malta Order. CARAVITA - SPINOLA. Trattato dell’ofizio del ricevitore e de’ procuratori del comun Tesoro fuor di convento [..]

CARAVITA, Giovanni Maria - SPINOLA, Giovanni Battista. Trattato dell’ofizio del ricevitore e de’ procuratori del comun Tesoro fuor di convento e Straordinari … Ridotta all'uso del buon parlare toscano, e della perfetta ortografia dal vener. balio fr. Gio. Batta Spinola... della Sacra Religione Gerosolimitana.

Borgo Nuovo, nel Marchesato di Roccaforte, Antonio Scionico, [1718, nel Colophon]

A rare first and only edition. This work deals with the economy and administration of the Order of Malta: it describes the responsibilities and duties of the Receiver of the Common Treasury, the official in charge of the Order’s financial and asset management. This treatise, written by Fra Giovanni Maria Caravita, Grand Prior of Lombardy, is one of the most comprehensive works on the Order of Malta and the Knights Hospitaller of the Military Order of St. John of Jerusalem. It lists the various duties of the office, which were held for three-year terms and could be extended at the initiative of the Order’s Council and with the approval of the Grand Master. Since his role was essentially financial, he was responsible for collecting and delivering to the Central Convent in Malta the proceeds of the taxes collected by each commander at their respective priory.

Edited by Giovanni Battista Spinola, Bailiff of the Order of Malta, and printed at the Spinola Palace in Borgo Nuovo. After commanding the galleys, G.B. Spinola became admiral of the fleet and was later appointed ambassador of the Order. In 1733, he was assigned the Rocchette/Roccaforte Palace near Genoa.

Cfr. Mauro Difrancesco, Le campagne navali dell’Ordine di San Giovanni nelle memorie del cavaliere fra' Afranio Petrucci, maggiore dei vascelli (1715-1717), 2024; Martino Contu, a cura di, Un ospitaliero della storia, 2024.

Prestigious provenance: this volume belonged to the German nobleman Ignaz Rinck von Baldenstein, whose heraldic ex libris - pasted to the inside cover - features his family coat of arms quartered with the Cross of the Knights Hospitaller. Ignaz Balthasar Willibald Rinck von Baldenstein (1721-1807) was the last Grand Prior of the Grand Priory of Malta in Germany, elected on December 10, 1796, and the last prince of the Principality of Heitersheim.

Folio. 295x200 mm. Late 18th-century binding in mottled calf, gilt ornaments of spine in sections with white calf label with gilt titles, endpapers in comb-marbled blue paper, red spayed edges. Pages [4, including title page], 195, [1]. Illustrated engraved title page, woodcut initials, round and italic type, Italian text. Heraldic ex libris of Ignaz Rinck von Baldenstein pasted to the inside front cover; blue-ink stamp of the Rinck von Baldenstein House Archive on the inside cover; paper label at the bottom of the top cover.