ABSTRACT

From 1306 to 1798, the Hospitaller Order of the knights of St John was headquartered on the Mediterranean islands of Rhodes and Malta. These ‘crusaders’ encountered island landscapes, ancient texts and monumental ruins of Graeco-Roman antiquity there first-hand. Their attitude to ancient sculpture and inscriptions changed over time, however, as did their scholarship of classical Greek, Roman or Byzantine texts and antiquities. Their antiquarianism shifted as some retreated from battlefields or hospitals, connecting with the literary, material and Christianised legacy of ancient Greece and Rome around them. Ruins like the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus were rebuilt into fortifications c.1500, but by 1647, Commendatore G. F. Abela was collecting, and writing about, his own ‘modern’ museum of classical antiquities on Malta. Antiquarian activities of the Hospitaller Knights thus chart the growth of both neoclassicism and the academic study of the Mediterranean islands in antiquity, forming a key legacy of the Order.

摘要

从 1306 年到 1798 年，圣约翰骑士团的医院骑士团的总部设在地中海的罗德岛和马耳他岛。这些“十字军”在那里亲眼目睹了岛屿景观、古代文献和希腊罗马古代的不朽遗迹。然而，他们对古代雕塑和铭文的态度随着时间的推移发生了变化，他们对古典希腊、罗马或拜占庭文本和古物的研究也是如此。随着一些人从战场或医院撤退，他们的古物收藏发生了变化，与周围古希腊和罗马的文学、物质和基督教遗产联系起来。像哈利卡纳苏斯陵墓这样的废墟被重建成防御工事c.1500 年，但到 1647 年，Commentatore GF Abela 正在收集和撰写他自己的马耳他古典文物“现代”博物馆。因此，医院骑士团的古董活动记录了新古典主义和古代地中海岛屿学术研究的发展，形成了骑士团的重要遗产。