Professor Dr Jürgen Sarnowsky, University of Hamburg, Germany.

• Contents: Preface; Part I General Aspects of the History of Military Orders: Identity and self-perception of the military orders; The statutes of the military orders; Historical writing in military orders,12th-16th centuries; Der Johanniterorden und die Kreuzzüge; The late medieval military orders and the transformation of the idea of holy wars. Part II Administration, Internal Government: The oligarchy at work: the Chapters General of the Hospitallers in the XVth century (1421-1522); 'The rights of the treasury': the financial administration of the Hospitallers on 15th-century Rhodes (1421-1522); Kings and priors: the Hospitaller priory of England in the later 15th century; The convent and the West: visitations in the Order of the Hospital of St John in the 15th century. Part III 'Order States', Foreign Policies: Military orders and power - Teutonic Knights, Hospitallers, and their 'order state'; Ritterorden als Landesherren: Münzen und Siegel als Selbstzeugnisse; Pragmaticae Rhodiae. The territorial legislation of the Hospitallers on Rhodes; Die Kirche auf Rhodos in 15 Jahrhundert; The military Orders and their navies; Ein Streit der Marienburger Großschäfferei mit den Grafen von Northumberland am Anfang des 15 Jahrhunderts; The Teutonic Order confronts Mongols and Turks. Part IV Life Within the Orders: Hospitaller brethren on 15th-century Rhodes; The priests in the military orders - a comparative approach on their standing and role; Der Tod des Großmeisters der Johanniter; The legacies and the bequests of the masters in the military orders; Gender-Aspekte in der Geschichte der geistlichen Ritterorden; Index.

'Jürgen Sarnowsky, who has written a magnificent book on Hospitaller Rhodes, has been one of the leaders of this renaissance [in studies on the Military Orders] and it is good to be able to read twenty-one of his articles in this volume... This volume is a welcome addition to a very valuable series.' Jonathan Riley-Smith in Catholic Historical Review