... is probably Dashiell Hammett's best–known novel, and the only full–length novel to feature the hard–boiled detective Sam Spade – probably Hammett's best–known creation.
In the novel (and the film), the Maltese falcon was made of gold and jewels by the 16th–century Knights of Malta, as a gift to the King of Spain. But it was captured by pirates, and passed for centuries around various owners in Europe. At some time it was coated with black enamel to conceal its value.
In history, King Charles I of Spain (as King of Sicily) gave Malta, Gozo and the North African port of Tripoli to the Knights Hospitallers in 1530, in perpetual fiefdom, in exchange for an annual fee of a single Maltese falcon (an actual, live peregrine falcon). The Hospitallers had been driven out of Rhodes by the Ottoman Empire eight years previously, after a six–month siege.
Following Napoleon's invasion of Malta in 1798, the Hospitallers were dispersed throughout Europe. In 1834 they settled definitively in Rome, and began once more to concentrate on hospital work. This work was greatly intensified during the two world wars.
The order survives today as the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta – also known as the the Sovereign Military order of Malta, or simply the Knights of Malta. It is the world's oldest surviving military order. One of its better–known manifestations is the St. John Ambulance Brigade – whose roots in the Order are signified by the Maltese cross on its badge.
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