The Letter of the Grand Master of the Hospitallers of Rhodes is an apocalyptic text that narrates the birth of a monstrous child in a city of the East (Babylon in most cases), who is identified with the Antichrist. The Letter is only one of the many short prophercies that, between the Middle Ages and the early modern period, flooded Europe, arousing the most diverse reactions, mostly of fear but also of expectation and, sometimes, hope.

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However, its durability, from the beginning of the fourteenth to the end of the eighteenth century, and the textual, geographical and social variety of its reception are exceptional. This makes it a very approriate case for reflecting on what remains the same and what changes in history.