Riflessioni sul multilinguismo degli Ospitalieri

From its humble beginnings in Jerusalem, the Order of St John became an ‘international’ institution. As they moved to Cyprus, then to Rhodes and finally to Malta, the Knights of St John also encountered linguistically complex societies. The Hospitallers adopted a linguistic criterion to organise the respon­ sibilities of government and the presence of the fratres in Rhodes. The history and structure of the Order show how the multilingual dynamics of the Mediterranean world are particularly evident in its written sources, starting with legislative texts. This essay proposes to examine these dynamics in the light of the koine of Mediterranean exchanges: it was the interconnectedness of the Mediterranean – characterised by the mobility of people, goods and words – that fostered the linguistic interactions documented in the Order’s charters.