THE STATUTES AND PRIVILEGES OF THE KNIGHTS HOSPITALLER, WRITTEN BY THE FIRST HISTORIAN OF THE ORDER, 1589 FIRST ITALIAN EDITION, BOUND WITH A 1592 PAPAL BULL ISSUED BY POPE CLEMENT VIII RECONFIRMING THE ORDER'S PRIVILEGES AND POWER OVER MALTA

(MALTA, Sovereign Military Order of) BOSIO, Giacomo. Gli statuti della sacra religione di s. giovanni giersoloimitano. Tradotti di latino in volgare da Jacomo Bosio Agenda della medesima Religione nella Corte di Roma… BOUND WITH: CLEMENS VIII, Pope. Bulla s.mi d. n. d. clementis papae viii. Confirmationis Privilegiorum Religionis S. Joannis Hierosolymitani (ff. 4). Roma: Giacomo Tornieri, 1592; (Papal bull) Paulum Bladum, 1592. Quarto, contemporary limp vellum. $12,500.

The first Italian edition of an important work concerning the privileges and investiture ceremony of the Knights Hospitaller of Malta, written by the first historian of the Order, with woodcut arms of Cardinal Hugues Loubens de Verdalle, Grand Master of the Order, on the title page. This copy bound with an eight-page Papal bull "Ad futuram rei memoriam" reconfirming the privileges of the order under Pope Clement VIII, with the imprint of the Papal printer Paolo Blado and several coats of arms on its title page.

This update to the statutes of the Knights Hospitaller was approved by Pope Sixtus V in 1586 and issued in the wake of the successful defense of the Order's island home in Malta during the great siege of 1565, and the destruction of the Ottoman fleet at Lepanto in 1571, cementing the power and influence of the Order and its Grand Masters over the military organization, and over the island of Malta itself. The separate 1592 papal bull has been bound in before the final unpaginated section of the text of the second part. Text in Italian and Latin. Not in Adams. Early continental armorial inkstamp and accompanying manuscript shelf-mark to title page. Occasional ink underlining.

Marginal worm-track to upper corner of title page, minor toning to vellum. A clean, near-fine copy.