Manuel Pinto de Fonseca

Manuel Pinto da Fonseca
Portrait by Pierre Bernard (1704-1777)
Grand Master of the Order of Saint John
In office 18 January 1741 – 24 January 1773
Monarch	King Charles V (until 1753)
Preceded by	Ramon Despuig
Succeeded by	Francisco Ximenes de Texada
Personal details
Born	1681 Lamego, Kingdom of Portugal
Died	23 January 1773 (1773-01-24) (aged 91) Malta
Resting place	St. John's Co-Cathedral
Nationality	Portuguese
Relations	Rosenda Paulichi
Children	José António Pinto da Fonseca e Vilhena
Military service
Allegiance	Kingdom of Portugal Order of Saint John

Manuel Pinto da Fonseca (1681 – 24 January 1773) was the 68th Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta from 1741 until his death. He was a Portuguese nobleman, the son of Miguel Álvaro Pinto da Fonseca, Alcaide-Mór de Ranhados, and his wife, Ana Pinto Teixeira.

Before his election as Prince and Grand Master on 18 January 1741, Pinto da Fonseca was a knight of the Langue of Portugal. He gave his name to the then town of Qormi and accorded it the status of a city as "Città Pinto".

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. He lived an envious life to noble families in Malta, which was greatly resented by some that even awaited his long reign to end by his death.

He gained a bad reputation for creating large debts for the treasury of the Order, leading to bankruptcy.

He has built the first printing press in Malta at the magistral palace of the Grand Master, known as la stamperia del Palazzo. He had expelled the Jesuits from Malta, in 1768, in line with similar acts taken in his homeland Portugal and its Empire, in France, and the Spanish Empire.

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 was signed by Pinto on 22 November 1769, having been authorised to do so by the Papal brief,Sedula Romani Pontificis, received on 20 October 1769. By 22 November of that year, the Grandmaster signed a bando establishing the University.