In 1530 the Knights Hospitallers were granted the Maltese islands by Charles V. The administration of an archipelago on the Mediterranean war frontier required constant knowledge on the enemy. This article reconstructs Hospitaller Malta’s principal intelligence collection and transmission channels during the seventeenth century, particularly during the magistracy of Alof de Wignacourt from 1601 to 1622, two important decades of infrastructural changes for the archipelago. These specialised communication channels allowed Malta to carve out a special place for itself within the Habsburg-Ottoman rivalry and, in a way, contributed to the gestation period which saw the island evolve from a medieval Spanish fief into an early modern state.

1530年，查尔斯五世（Charles V.）将骑士医院员授予马耳他群岛。管理地中海战争边界的群岛需要不断了解敌人。本文重构了17世纪，尤其是1601至1622年Alof de Wignacourt县治安期间，马耳他医院的主要情报收集和传递渠道，这是该群岛两个重要的基础设施变化时期。这些专门的交流渠道使马耳他能够在哈布斯堡-奥斯曼帝国的竞争中为自己开辟一个特殊的位置，并在某种程度上促进了孕育时期，该时期使该岛由中世纪的西班牙封地演变为早期的现代州。