One knight of Malta had absolutely everything going for him – his family surname, his status, his power, his wealth.

All this notwithstanding, Grand Master Martin Garzes, in 1597, ordered that he be put on trial – not for some petty misdemeanour, but for the murder of his sister and her daughter. This sequence of tragic events has left faint traces in the Maltese records of the Order. Many questions but few answers.

Fra Ottavio was born a Pignatelli, one of the most powerful and prestigious families in southern Italy.

They gave Europe one revered pope, Innocent XII, formerly an inquisitor of Malta, four cardinals, three viceroys of Sicily, and one saint, the Jesuit Giuseppe (1737-1810), recently canonised.

It would be difficult to think of a more luminous family name.

Since the Renaissance, the Pignatelli dynasty had invested heavily in Malta. By 1530, Ettore Pignatelli, viceroy of Sicily, had already purchased the Fief of Marsa from the De Nava family, with the consent of Charles V, King of Sicily.

When the Order acquired Malta, it had to acknowledge the enfeoffment of Marsa to Pignatelli who, in turn, had to swear allegiance to the Order, which he formally did in 1537.

Several later Pignatelli prided themselves of being feudal overlords of Marsa, Malta: like Ettore II Pignatelli Carafa, Barone della Marsa (died January 16, 1579), Camillo Pignatelli Cardona (died March 28, 1583) and Ettore III Pignatelli Colonna (died August 4, 1622).

It is said that the Pignatelli eventually relinquished their Marsa feudal holdings in favour of Grand Master La Cassiere in return of a guaranteed life pension, but I have not followed this up.

Pope Pignatelli, Innocent XII, formerly Inquisitor of Malta. Photo: Daniel Cilia, courtesy Heritage Malta

Scholars claim that the proposal to the Hospitallers to take over Malta after their expulsion from Rhodes was first made to Grand Master L’Isle Adam by Ettore Pignatelli.

This was not out of benevolence for the homeless Order or for the island, but because the viceroy perceived Malta as a liability on the Kingdom of Sicily to get rid of. As a sign of gratitude, L’Isle Adam gifted Pignatelli 12 alabaster statues of the apostles, others of the Madonna, of St Luke and of Mary Magdalen, together with two bronze bells, which the Order had salvaged on leaving Rhodes.

The viceroy’s brother, Fabrizio Pignatelli Sr, who enrolled in the Order of St John in 1504, rose to the dignity of Prior of Barletta.

His nephew, Fra Fabrizio Jr (1516-1577) professed in the Order in 1525 when still a toddler, after the Hospitallers’ expulsion from Rhodes; he obtained the contentious, and lucrative, Bailage of S. Eufemia when only nine years old, not without recourse to scandalous blackmail by his uncle the viceroy.

Fabrizo redeemed his reputation with the Order in 1565.

Being unable through illness to join the Gran Soccorso for the relief of the Great Siege, he personally financed a battalion of 300 mercenaries under the command of his relative Fra Francesco Capece.

The family invested in the Order of Malta too – I have counted at least 20 Pignatelli knights between 1420 and 1738. In truth, few of the 20 or more ever made an outstanding name for himself in the Order.

Were it not for inquisitor, later pope, the righteous Antonio Pignatelli, the family’s massive presence in Malta would be at best unremarkable, at worse, almost irrelevant.

The Pignatelli coat of arms, from the Inquisitors’ Palace, Vittoriosa. Photo: Daniel Cilia, Courtesy Heritage Malta

When Grand Master Pinto, in 1764, believed it politic to be nice to King Ferdinand IV of Naples and to his powerful Minister Marchese Bernardo Tanucci, he instructed Fra Innocenzo Pignatelli, the receiver of the Order in the city, to convey to them a prized and most aristocratic gift: six Maltese falcons. 

Shortly later, Fra Innocenzo engaged two young and promising Neapolitan castrati opera singers, Antonio Rubino and Antonio Gioia, aged 22 and 18 respectively, to try their luck in Malta. They both settled on the island.

As holder of the commandery of Polizzi in Sicily, in 1780, Innocenzo was receiving the mouthwatering yearly pension of 2000 ounces (of silver).

An unnamed Cavalier Pignatelli in 1760 ordered from the government printing press a number of personalised rent receipt books. Could it have been Fra Michele?                                                         

Another Pignatelli, Francesco, Prince of Strongoli, later in life a leading pro-French republican revolutionary, in 1778 became a knight of Malta when only three years old. As Bali of the Order, he distinguished himself by openly challenging the powers of the Inquisition and the papacy. 

Not surprisingly, Francesco found himself on the same wavelength as the influential Maltese lawyer Dr Gio Nicolò Muscat (1735-1803) who advocated the exclusion of the Church’s powers in temporal matters. Both figure prominently in the pilot case of the defrocking of the nun Suor Maria Preziosa Delicata and the laws tailor-made in 1786 to secure that outcome.

Palazzo Pignatelli, the family home in Naples of Fra Francesco Pignatelli, controversial knight of Malta.

But Bali Pignatelli also acquired a dodgy reputation for his inroads in the provinces of Eros. The Italian knight Fra Camillo Imperiali had tumbled in love with a Maltese girl and in 1788 had secretly petitioned the pope, behind the grand master’s back, for a dispensation from his solemn vow of chastity, to be able to marry her.

When the matter became public, it caused unrest in the Order. Pignatelli suggested a good way out of the embarrassment – lock the girl up in a nuns’ conservatory. Fair enough, always punish the more vulnerable. Fortunately for everyone, the loved-up girl had a change of heart and wrote off Imperiali as not worth the hassle.

Two years later, the knight Fra Luigi Mazzacane killed the French sea captain Joseph Segond in a ‘duel’ fought over the graces of a Maltese whore, Rosa Nicolas. The knight wielded a sword of tempered steel, while Segond only had a pathetic umbrella to defend himself with. After a trial and a retrial, the court condemned the errant lover to death.

Other Italian knights, supported by Pignatelli, protested raucously. What – the death penalty for a crime of passion? Grand Master de Rohan commuted the sentence to long detention in prison.

Francesco Pignatelli

Conspicuous dynasties who addressed younger offspring to Malta had their family palazzo in the island, like the Spinola, Bichi, Verdelin, Carafa, Rocca, Ricasoli, De La Salle, Miari, Lanfreducci, and several others. I am not aware the Pignatelli had a similar family home in the capital.

Many Italian knights acquired fame through careers in the Order’s navy. Of all the Pignatelli, I have only found one mentioned, Fra Nicola, captain of the knights’ flagship, the galera capitana, for the years 1775-6.

A magnificent bronze bust of Pope Pignatelli, modelled by Giuseppe Mazzuoli, adorned the facade of our Lady of Victories in Valletta since 1699. After restoration in 2005, it went to MUŻA, replaced by an exact replica.

Ottavio Pignatelli made his first appearance in the Maltese records in 1581, when he petitioned for admission into the Order. From his ‘proofs of nobility’ still housed at the National Library, we learn that his mother was a Carafa – neon-blue blood on both sides. We would learn a lot more had the ink on the manuscript pages oxidised less.

But he professed as a full knight of justice, taking the solemn vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, on January 12, 1583, in the company of four other Italian noblemen, Marc Antonio Pagano, Alfonso da Rhò, Camillo Casati, and Teodoro Scarampo (or Scarampi). Not one of the five seems to have later forged a significant career through the ranks of the Hospitallers.

Unfortunately for chroniclers, the mountains of paperwork backing criminal trials have disappeared from the archives of the council

The meeting of the Order’s Council in the Valletta Palace of the Grand Masters, scheduled for June 26, 1597, had an unusually brief agenda to deal with – only four items. Perhaps because that assembly was inconveniently wedged in between two major festivities of the Knights of Malta – June 24, the feast of St John the Baptist, and June 28, l-Imnarja, the great popular celebration of the Apostles St Peter and St Paul, the chancellor only put on the agenda business that couldn’t wait.

Two of these items dealt with the shocking news that Donna Lucrezia Pignatelli and her daughter Livia had been murdered by the knight Fra Ottavio Pignatelli, brother and uncle of the victims. The Council of the Order held on strenuously its ancient claim of exclusive criminal jurisdiction to try and determine any crime committed either by, or against, a member of the knighthood.

The council, made up of the grand master and senior dignitaries of the Order, enjoyed being a Jack of all trades – the supreme authorities for law-making and also for administrative governance.

And, calling itself the sguardio, the council morphed into a criminal court which tried knights charged with delinquencies, and laymen accused of committing crimes against Hospitallers.

Funerary monument of Fabrizio Pignatelli Junior.

The doctrine of ‘separation of powers’ which today places sanitary corridors between the executive, the legislature and the judiciary, had not yet become the flavour of the month.

Criminal proceedings usually started with a report to the council by the ‘Director of Prosecutions’ called the Procurator Fiscalis (or Procuratore Fiscale) detailing the facts of the alleged crime and identifying the suspect.

The council then launched the formal ‘compilation of evidence’ by appointing one or more commissioners to interrogate witnesses, with or without the use of torture, collect material evidence and, at the end, express their conclusions in writing. The council also deliberated whether and where the accused was to be detained during the ‘compilation’.

When the commissioners completed the ‘compilation’, they presented their report and conclusions to the council, which voted on it, generally by secret ballot, and, on a finding of guilt, established the penalty, or delegated the grand master to impose one, using his discretion.

Unfortunately for chroniclers, the mountains of paperwork backing criminal trials have disappeared from the archives of the council – the transcripts of the witness’ evidence, the correspondence, the plans, the experts’ opinions, and the commissioners’ concluding report. All gone, no one knows when or where. All that survives are the meagre minutes of the council’s meetings and deliberations. Generally, not more than a couple of sentences.

Two brief entries cover the Pignatelli femicides, both dated June 26, 1597: having heard the report of the Order’s Fiscal Procurator against Fra Ottavio Pignatelli, accused in Naples of killing the wretched (miseranda) Donna Lucrezia de Pignatelli, his sister, and Livia de Bologna (of/from Bologna, which may be a family name or a place name), his niece and daughter of the said late Lucretia, the grand master and the venerable council ordered the usual criminal commission to investigate and report on these crimes.

The second minute is briefer still: The grand master and council decreed criminal proceedings to be initiated against Fra Ottavio for the murder of his sister and niece.

Then, suddenly and mysteriously, the trail goes cold. As far as I could establish, this is the very last mention of Fra Ottavio in the Maltese records.

Bust of the Pignatelli Pope Innocent XII, 1699, for the Victories Church, Valletta, by Giuseppe Mazzuoli. Photo Daniel Cilia, Courtesy Heritage Malta

Were criminal proceedings against him discontinued? Were behind-the-scenes pressures brought to bear on the Order to airbrush these two high-profile murders out of living memory? Did the accused die in the interval? Even the Neapolitan criminal archives have not yielded a single reference to this multiple femicide by a leading aristocrat.

The Pignatelli and the Carafa often intermarried, and this sometimes makes identification of who’s who rather puzzling. Streaks of violent crime and of extreme holiness fought for top billing in the DNA of both families. One source narrates how the nobleman Francesco Pignatelli was beheaded on March 26, 1553, for the murder of a Carafa, Count of Policastro. But could this ‘news’ be the result of an egregious historical cock-up?

After a sensational trial that riveted the aristocracy of southern Italy, it was a different Carafa, Giovanni Battista Marquis of Castelvetere, who was beheaded on December 17, 1552.

The courts found him guilty of an enviable inventory of delinquencies, including several murders, extortions and innumerable rapes of women, carried out with loathsome sadism – one of his charming kinks, setting their pubic hair on fire.

His lust list included over 25 named victims, among whom Menica (Domenica) from Gozo, one of his several discarded mistresses. The person who pleaded most for Giovanni Battista’s life to be spared was – wait for it – his wife, a Borgia, whose lover had joined the ranks of those Carafa had matter-of-factly murdered. Dr Freud, can I count on some advice, pro bono?

One thing seems certain – it was most uncommon for the generally OCD minutes of the council not to record the progress and follow-ups of a criminal case. Without being paranoid, there must be some extraordinary reason for a silence as extraordinary as this.

Acknowledgements: My gratitude for input by Daniel Cilia, Maria Pia Critelli, Nathaniel Cutajar, Jeremy Debono, Gabriel Farrugia, Theresa Vella, and Maria Antonietta Visceglia.