The Sacra Infermeria Hospital of the Order of Malta at La Valletta

Traditionally the Order of Malta is a Hospitaller and Knights Crusader Order. Most representations - as illustrations or text - emphasize the military element. By comparison, the aim and subject matter of this source edition is meant to be the primordial state of the Order, its hospital situated at the central location of the Order with the relevant rules in the Notizia della Sacra Infermeria. For the Order the regulations concerning the hospital were of special importance right from the beginning. In this presentation especially the rules applied during the eighteenth century are to be expounded. The loss of the Order State on Malta in 1798 marked also the end of the "classic hospitaller" period of the knight brothers. Today there are hardly any stipulations contained in their central modern rules and regulations concerning hospital organisation respectively hospital work.

Wolf-Dieter Barz (Dr. jur.) researches about the Maltese Order since 1975. He works as Law Librarian at Federal Constitutional Court of Germany.

Ingrid Kidder lecturer at Malta University until 2012. Cross of the Order of Merit 2004 for international engagement between Germany and especially Malta.