Il Gran Maestro dell'Ordine di Malta e il suo servo.Un episodio di «schiavitù mediterranea» nel XVIII secolo

This study analyses a sequence of events and incidents occurred to the Great Prior Francesco Paternò of Raddusa and his slave Michelino in the last decades of the 18th century. These decades witness the turning of the role of the Holy Order of Malta and his knights into the one of artful and skillful revenue collectors, au fait with the fights to gain administrative control of the cities in Sicily. What emerges from this context is the role of the Great Prior who manages benefits and business for his personal advantage, for those bound to him and for his slave, who, by chance, ends up becoming the right-hand man of his master, thus obtaining liberation. In Malta, Sicily, Naples, Messina and Catania, traffic, trade, contrasts and careers unravel. Following the death of the Great Prior Francesco Paternò of Raddusa, his heirs try to make null and void a deed, with which the ex-slave has been granted liberation, by alleging his duplicity. They do not manage to achieve their goal, but Michele will be sent away from Sicily. That shows mentality is in the verge of changing, though with strong oppositions.