tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8627322010786735293.post2875737878274359638..comments2023-10-01T09:35:35.894+02:00Comments on Antipodes: Malte's medical visitWilliam Skyvingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10052367756561555096noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8627322010786735293.post-39295528291051213772013-01-11T17:58:06.306+01:002013-01-11T17:58:06.306+01:00Dear Anonymous: You ask who's this Malte guy. ...Dear Anonymous: You ask who's this Malte guy. It's a long story, but I'll give you a hint, of a negative kind. The Malte who interests me has nothing whatsoever to do with the Mediterranean island republic of <i><b>Malta</b></i>, whose name in French is also Malte.<br /><br />In a forthcoming blog post dealing with the history of my house in Choranche, I shall be referring to a medieval order of knights known in French as the <i><b>Ordre de Malte</b></i>. There again, my Malte guy is quite unrelated to these knights. Funnily enough, the knights themselves didn't have a lot to do with Malta. They had started their existence in Jerusalem, in the 12th century, protecting pilgrims. When the Arabs kicked them out of the Holy Land, they settled in nearby Cyprus and then Rhodes. It was only when the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V kicked the descendants of the knights out of Rhodes in the 16th century that they settled in Malta. Finally, Napoléon Bonaparte kicked them out of Malta, whereupon they acquired the protection of Paul I of Russia in 1798. These knights of the so-called "Order of Malta" had become extremely wealthy, and they had always been keen on investing in French real estate. In our region alone, in 1778, they had received as a gift from the king of France all the possessions of the ancient monastic <i><b>Order of Saint Anthony</b></i>, whose headquarters were located in a village, St-Antoine-l'Abbaye, not far away from where I live. In particular, they took over the priory in Pont-en-Royans.<br /><br />A few weeks ago, I obtained (by chance) from the archives in Valence a rough map sketched by a member of the <i>Ordre de Malte</i> in 1780, and I find my property mentioned there (in a way indicating that Gamone was one of the rare vineyards that did <i>not</i> belong to the <i>Ordre de Malte</i> nor to the Chartreux monks of Bouvante).<br /><br />Needless to say, in spite of the similarity of their names, my Malte guy has nothing to do with the barley grains that are processed into <i><b>malt</b></i> for the production of beer and whisky, not to mention the malted milk shakes of my adolescence in rural Australia. But, in mentioning my native land, I'm allowing myself to get led astray. I hope that these few elements of information will provide you with a better understanding of the identity of Malte.William Skyvingtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10052367756561555096noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8627322010786735293.post-3919980412261150532013-01-11T16:20:22.865+01:002013-01-11T16:20:22.865+01:00Who was that Maltes guy? I saw that p<a href=&q...Who was that Maltes guy? I saw that p<a href="http://google.com”>i</a>c before.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com