Manuel Pinto da Fonseca (also ''Emmanuel Pinto de Fonseca''; 24 May 1681 – 23 January 1773) was a
Portuguese nobleman, the 68th
Grand Master of the
Order of Saint John
The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headq ...
, from 1741 until his death.
He undertook many building projects, introducing the
Baroque style throughout
Malta
Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
.
The cost of these projects contributed to bankrupting the Order in the decades following his death.
His views were comparatively
liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
. In 1764, he agreed to the re-unification with the Protestant
Prussian branch of the Order, without, however, receiving the approval of
Pope Clement XIII
Pope Clement XIII ( la, Clemens XIII; it, Clemente XIII; 7 March 1693 – 2 February 1769), born Carlo della Torre di Rezzonico, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 6 July 1758 to his death in February 1769. ...
. The pope did agree, reluctantly, to the
expulsion of the Jesuits
The suppression of the Jesuits was the removal of all members of the Society of Jesus from most of the countries of Western Europe and their colonies beginning in 1759, and the abolishment of the order by the Holy See in 1773. The Jesuits were ...
from Malta in 1768.
Biography
![Emmanuelle Pinto](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/Emmanuelle_Pinto.jpg)
He was the son of Miguel Álvaro Pinto da Fonseca, ''
Alcaide-Mór'' de Ranhados, and his wife, Ana Pinto Teixeira.
The coat of arms of the Pinto portrays five red crescents, to symbolising that the Pinto de Fonseca family won five battles with the Ottomans.
Before his election as Grand Master on 18 January 1741, Pinto da Fonseca was a knight of the
Langue of Portugal.
He had an illegitimate son by one Rosenda Paulichi, daughter of Alberigo Paulichi and Patronilla Ramuzetta, named José António Pinto da Fonseca e Vilhena, who married his first cousin Maria Inácia Pinto da Fonseca de Sousa Teixeira e Vilhena, illegitimate daughter of Francisco Vaz Pinto (his father's brother) by one Clara Cerqueira.
He was elected as Grand Master in his 60th year, and he lived to be a nonagenarian, ruling the Order for 32 years.
As Grand Master, Pinto da Fonseca kept an elaborate
court
A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in acco ...
, imitating the courts of the great European princes of his era. The court was a center of intrigue, the Grand Master being surrounded by a multitude of "ambitious pretenders".
In 1749, one of his bodyguards, Giuseppe Cohen, refused to join a plot led by Pasha Mustafa to stage a
Muslim slave revolt; this refusal led to the exposure and suppression of the revolt, which afterward was celebrated each 29 June, the anniversary.
Pinto da Fonseca made substantial donations to the Conventual Church, and among the most notable mementoes are two large and heavy bells cast by the Master Founder of the Order of Saint John, Aloisio Bouchut, in 1747 and 1748; they still hang in the belfries of what is now the Co-Cathedral. These bells were made by melting two
basilisks that were left by the Ottomans after the Great Siege of 1565.
As Grand Master, Pinto da Fonseca completed construction of the
Auberge de Castille
The Auberge de Castille ( mt, Berġa ta' Kastilja) is an auberge in Valletta, Malta. The auberge is located at Castile Place, close to Saint James Cavalier, the Malta Stock Exchange, and the Upper Barrakka Gardens. It sits at the highest poin ...
(still one of the most important buildings in the
Maltese capital city,
Valletta
Valletta (, mt, il-Belt Valletta, ) is an administrative unit and capital of Malta. Located on the main island, between Marsamxett Harbour to the west and the Grand Harbour to the east, its population within administrative limits in 2014 wa ...
); his bust and arms adorn its façade.
Today this building houses the Office of the Prime Minister.
Pinto built
nineteen storehouses at the Marina, which still bear his name, and built several other buildings and structures.
In 1756, he has built the first printing press in Malta at the
magistral palace of the Grand Master, known as ''la stamperia del Palazzo''.
Pinto gave his name to the then town of
Qormi
Qormi ( mt, Ħal Qormi ; pronounced in the Qormi dialect), also known by its title Città Pinto, is a city in the Southern Region of Malta, southwest of Valletta in the centre of the island. It has a population of 16,324 (as of March 2018), mak ...
and accorded it the status of a city as "Città Pinto".
The city of Qormi adopted the Pinto arms, with the tinctures reversed, for its own coat of arms and flag.
Pinto gained a bad reputation for creating large debts for the
treasury of the Order, leading to bankruptcy.
In 1764, Pinto da Fonseca negotiated with King Frederick II ("Frederick the Great") of Prussia a reunification of the Protestant
Bailiwick of Brandenburg with the Catholic
Order of Saint John
The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headq ...
, but as Pope Clement XIII would not allow admission into a Roman Catholic organization of men viewed as heretics by the Church, the agreement came to naught.
In 1765/6, Pinto was befriended by Italian adventurer and occultist
Alessandro Cagliostro
Count Alessandro di Cagliostro (, ; 2 June 1743 – 26 August 1795) was the alias of the Italian occultist Giuseppe Balsamo (; in French usually referred to as Joseph Balsamo).
Cagliostro was an Italian adventurer and self-styled magician ...
. A Master Mason of
Freemasonry
Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...
, dom Pinto initiated to the 33rd degree don
Raimondo di Sangro
Raimondo di Sangro, Prince of Sansevero (30 January 1710 – 22 March 1771) was an Italian nobleman, inventor, soldier, writer, scientist, alchemist and freemason best remembered for his reconstruction of the Sansevero Chapel in Naples.
Early l ...
, prince of Sansevero, which later established the first Scottish Rite Masonic Lodge in
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
, Italy.
Malta since 1734 was nominally a fief under the
House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies
The House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies is a cadet branch of the Spanish Bourbons that ruled Southern Italy and Sicily for more than a century in the 18th and 19th centuries. It descends from the Capetian dynasty in legitimate male line through Phili ...
, from 1759 under
Ferdinand III.
Bernardo Tanucci
Bernardo Tanucci (20 February 1698 – 29 April 1783) was an Italian statesman, who brought an enlightened absolutism style of government to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies for Charles III and his son Ferdinand IV.
Biography
Born of a poor fami ...
pressured Pinto to follow the Bourbon policy of
suppression of the Jesuits
The suppression of the Jesuits was the removal of all members of the Society of Jesus from most of the countries of Western Europe and their colonies beginning in 1759, and the abolishment of the order by the Holy See in 1773. The Jesuits we ...
, threatening a boycott of Malta if he refused. Pinto consulted with
Pope Clement XIII
Pope Clement XIII ( la, Clemens XIII; it, Clemente XIII; 7 March 1693 – 2 February 1769), born Carlo della Torre di Rezzonico, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 6 July 1758 to his death in February 1769. ...
, who reluctantly agreed to the expulsion of the Jesuits from Malta, insisting that it should be done "with due decency". Pinto signed the decree of expulsion on 22 April 1768.
Twenty Jesuits (thirteen fathers, five brothers and two students) were expelled, while three elderly Jesuits, two of them native Maltese, were allowed to remain.
After the expulsion of the Jesuit Order, Pinto appropriated all the revenue accruing from its property on the island with the aim of establishing a ''Pubblica Università di Studi Generali''. The decree constituting the University, now the
University of Malta
The University of Malta (, UM, formerly UOM) is a higher education institution in Malta. It offers undergraduate bachelor's degrees, postgraduate master's degrees and postgraduate doctorates. It is a member of the European University Association ...
was signed by Pinto on 22 November 1769, having been authorised to do so by the
Papal brief
A papal brief or breve is a formal document emanating from the Pope, in a somewhat simpler and more modern form than a papal bull.
History
The introduction of briefs, which occurred at the beginning of the pontificate of Pope Eugene IV (3 Marc ...
,
''Sedula Romani Pontificis'', received on 20 October 1769. By 22 November of that year, the Grandmaster signed a bando establishing the University.
Pinto died on 23 January 1773, aged 91.
His body was laid in a neoclassic monument with his mosaic portrait.
A statue of Pinto is found in
Floriana
Floriana ( mt, Il-Furjana or ''Il-Floriana''), also known by its title Borgo Vilhena, is a fortified town in the South Eastern Region area of Malta, just outside the capital city Valletta. It has a population of 2,205 as of March 2014. Floriana ...
.
[Bugeja, Joe (1 March 2015)]
Origins and history of Argotti Gardens
''Times of Malta
The ''Times of Malta'' is an English-language daily newspaper in Malta. Founded in 1935, by Lord and Lady Strickland and Lord Strickland's daughter Mabel, it is the oldest daily newspaper still in circulation in Malta. It has the widest circu ...
''. Retrieved 29 June 2016.
Gallery
Emmanuel Pinto - Antoine Favray.png, Portrait by Antoine de Favray
Chevalier Antoine de Favray (8 September 1706, Bagnolet – 9 February 1798, Malta) was a French painter noted for his portraits of personalities of the Ottoman Empire, as well as paintings of Grand Masters of the Sovereign Military Order of Malt ...
, now in the museum of St. John's Co-Cathedral
Malta 250915 Auberge de Castille 01.jpg, Part of the façade of Auberge de Castille
The Auberge de Castille ( mt, Berġa ta' Kastilja) is an auberge in Valletta, Malta. The auberge is located at Castile Place, close to Saint James Cavalier, the Malta Stock Exchange, and the Upper Barrakka Gardens. It sits at the highest poin ...
(1741–45), showing Pinto's bust and coat of arms
Pinto 30 Tari 131246.jpg, 30 tarì
A tarì (from Arabic طري ''ṭarī'', lit. "fresh" or "newly minted money") was the Christian designation of a type of gold coin of Islamic origin minted in Sicily, Malta and Southern Italy from about 913 to the 13th century.
History
In th ...
coin minted in 1757
Castellania facade malta.png, The Castellania (1757–60), built during Pinto's magistracy
Mistra Gate.jpeg, Mistra Gate (1760), containing Pinto's coat of arms
Malta - Mellieha - Triq il-Mistra - Mistra Coastal Battery 09 ies.jpg, Coat of arms of Pinto and the Order on Mistra Battery
Mistra Battery ( mt, Batterija tal-Mistra), formerly also known as Despirasse Battery ( mt, Batterija ta' Despirasse), is an artillery battery in Mistra Bay, Mellieħa, Malta. It was built by the Order of Saint John in the 18th century as one o ...
( 1761)
Pinto Arch.jpg, Pinto's Loggia in Qormi
Qormi ( mt, Ħal Qormi ; pronounced in the Qormi dialect), also known by its title Città Pinto, is a city in the Southern Region of Malta, southwest of Valletta in the centre of the island. It has a population of 16,324 (as of March 2018), mak ...
(1772)
Chapel of the Langue Castile, Leon and Portugal.jpg, Chapel of the Langue of Castile, Leon and Portugal in St. John's Co-Cathedral, with Pinto's funerary monument visible on the left
Further reading
*
References
External links
Portraits of Grandmaster Fra Manuel PintoCoins of Grandmaster Emmanuel Pinto
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fonseca, Manuel Pinto de
1681 births
1773 deaths
People from Lamego
Portuguese nobility
Grand Masters of the Knights Hospitaller
Knights of Malta
17th-century Portuguese people
18th-century Portuguese people
Burials at Saint John's Co-Cathedral