The hospital of The Holy Spirit at Rabat, Malta, and its Latin inscriptions : a review

The town of Rabat, formerly part of Melita of Roman times, has a building dedicated to the Holy Spirit, in the Maltese language, “ta’ Santu Spirtu”, which formerly was used as a hospital, but today as part of the National Archives. This hospital was run by the Grand Master of Malta, who as a Prince of the Crown of Spain and the two Sicilies, governed Malta and Gozo and the eight Languages of the Knights of St. John, formerly of Jerusalem and Rhodes, then of Malta. It is for this reason that Grand Master Anton Manuel de Vilhena (1722–1736) is mentioned in inscription I of this corpus discussed in this paper, Grand Master Alof de Wignacourt (1601–1622) in inscription III, Antoine de Paule (1623–1636) in IV, Gregorio Carafa (1680–1690) in V, and Martino de Redin (1657–1660) in VIII.peer-reviewe