In our recent podcast series with Dr Stephen Mossman we explored a number of fascinating subjects from the history of the Order of St John – pilgrimage, caring for the sick, and ritual to name just a few. But throughout the series other intriguing themes have also emerged.
In this blog we will look at two of these themes briefly – survival and absence – as we prepare to record a follow-up podcast episode addressing questions and comments that have arisen.
Visit this link to catch up on the podcast series.
In the context of the Museum collections, survival and absence are closely linked. Many of the greatest treasures we are privileged to care for have survived by chance or against the odds, and their unlikely survival is just one of the attributes that makes them so precious. On the other hand, there are many items from history that you might expect to find in the collection and that would shed light on some of the most important aspects of the history of the Order, but are notable for their absence.
It is perhaps useful to first consider some examples of significant events that have shaped the history of the Order. These have been far-reaching events in European and world history that sometimes put even the survival of the Order into question, let alone their treasures, documents and day-to-day items.
An obvious example that is particularly relevant to the Museum and the Order in England is the Reformation, which in the 16th century challenged the papacy and the authority of the Catholic Church. As a Catholic Order, recognised by the Pope in 1113, the Order’s influence, status, and property were all at risk as across Europe Catholic foundations were seized and closed. In England both political and theological motivations hastened this process, and in 1540 the Order’s Priory in Clerkenwell was closed and seized by the crown.
This fascinating document in the collection of the Museum, in which Henry VIII gives permission for the fabric of the Priory to be removed, gives some insight in to what came next.
Visit this link to read about this document, and what it tells us about how the fabric of the Priory was dismantled.
It is then unsurprising that as the buildings were broken apart and repurposed, that their contents were dispersed and destroyed. Records and objects that document and would give an insight in to the Order’s history both on this particular site but also throughout England were lost. In more recent times very limited items have been rediscovered. One particularly important discovery was the Weston Altarpiece – the only piece of material culture known to have survived from the Priory.
Another significant event in European history that had far reaching consequences for the Order was the French Revolution. This impact was felt beyond France, as Napolean seized the island of Malta from the Order in 1798 and left them without a secure base or headquarters. In France and Malta, the Order’s archives were in a vulnerable position with many items being dispersed, lost or destroyed. But important private and civic collections that would also have held fascinating and important information relating to the Order befell the same fate.
Visit this link to learn more about the impact of the French Revolution on the Order of St John.
This goes some way to explaining why there is a notable quantity of French material in the Museum’s manuscript collection. These have been acquired through gifts and purchases over many decades, as the dispersed archives of the Order and French nobility in particular have emerged from private collections.
The Museum is part of an exciting partnership with the Malta Studies Centre and the Hill Museum and Manuscript library to reconstruct the lost archives of the Order of St John.
Visit this link to find out more about our exciting partnership with the Malta Studies Centre.
A particular treasure in the collections of the Museum is the Rhodes Missal, a prized religious text with stunning illuminations, that was lost for many decades following the Order’s departure from Malta. Over 100 years later it resurfaced in the possession of an antiquarian book seller, Dr Leo Olschki, in Florence. In 1920 the Order was able to fund the purchase of this item for the collection through subscriptions from Order members.
But there are also other more mundane reasons behind the survival or absence of items from history. The Museum collections contain fascinating examples of ephemera that have survived by chance – concealed in the back of a book or tucked away on a bookshelf, long forgotten about, only to be rediscovered with great excitement in more recent times.
Equally, some items cannot be found in our collections because they never existed. For example, despite the importance of medical care and hospital provision in the history of the Order, there is little in the way of documentation because the knowledge and tradition of medical care was largely passed on orally in the medieval period.
If this blog has piqued your interested in survival and absence in the context of the Museum’s collections, you may find the podcast episodes The Indulgence, Our Lords the Sick and Centre and Periphery of particular interest.
It is fascinating to think of all we could or will never know, but it is certain that there is still much work to be done in to the provenance of our collections, which will no doubt reveal further intriguing tales of survival and absence.